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On 8th June, world leaders including SUN countries came together to sign a global compact that will prevent at least 20 million children from being stunted and save at least 1.7 million lives by 2020. The Global Nutrition for Growth Compact was endorsed by 90 stakeholders, including development partners, businesses, scientific and civil society groups. This event was preceded by the launch of a new Series of papers by The Lancet containing the strongest evidence to date that urgent progress on nutrition can and must take place.

6th June marked the opening of a new chapter in nutrition. Two days before leaders from across the globe meet in London to share their commitments for radical action at the Nutrition for Growth high level event, The Lancet published a new Series of papers containing the strongest evidence to date that urgent progress on nutrition can and must take place.

Read the May 2013 Update featuring news on progress made in SUN countries.

During the week of 7 June the SUN Country Level Alliances take part in The Global Day of Action, and 11 June, the SUN Civil Society Network holds its Inaugural Meeting in Washington DC.

A new report, Food for Thought, published by Save the Children UK on 28 May 2013 finds that missing out on a nutritious diet can severely damage a child’s ability to read and write simple sentences and answer basic maths questions correctly. The report finds that, on average, these children are 20% less literate than their peers – regardless of the amount and quality of schooling the child receives.

The Transform Nutrition Research Programme Consortium in support of the efforts of the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement are inviting nominations to recognise any individual who has had significant success in transforming thinking or action on nutrition, at national or local (e.g. provincial or district) levels across Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.

On 16 May, the President of Tanzania and SUN Lead Group Member, H.E. Dr. Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete launched a nationwide nutrition sensitization campaign – the Presidential Call for Action on Nutrition. The campaign launch took place in Dar es Salaam with a large audience including government leaders at various levels.

With the support of Zimbabwe’s Food and Nutrition Council, a high level forum was held in Harare on 16 May to launch the country’s Food and Nutrition Security Policy. The event was attended by representatives from key sectors, diplomats, NGOs, Chiefs, farmers and private sector.

Two new nutrition reports explore the role of smallholder agriculture in improving nutrition and donor financing for nutrition.

Mobilizing domestic and global resources is critical to ensuring that the cross-sector coordination, planning and implementation at the core of the SUN Movement can be fully realized. An analysis of 16 SUN country plans has been undertaken to better understand national planning and investment priorities, and to help mobilise additional resources.

Zambia’s Civil Society Scaling-Up Nutrition Alliance (CSO-SUN Alliance) held a Nutrition Champions meeting with Members of Parliament on 1 May to increase political commitment to address malnutrition.

The next few months in the run- up to the MDG Special Event in September present a unique opportunity to position food and nutrition security as central to the post-2015 agenda and to convert current high-level commitment into bold global goals and targets. The purpose of this Joint Statement is to deliver a clear and unified message to high-level decision-makers about the importance of food and nutrition security in the post-2015 development framework.