Tracking progress and driving results

The SUN Movement Pooled Fund has evolved from being a last-resort funding mechanism to now being used to bring a greater focus on nutrition, and to accelerate coordination and action on reducing malnutrition in all its forms.

Its grants have enabled recipients, on behalf of national stakeholder networks, to organize themselves so that they can constructively engage with their governments, as well as with key national and local stakeholders, as set out in the SUN Movement Strategy and Roadmap 2016–2020.

Tracking Outcomes

The Pooled Fund has been designed to be in line with the SUN Movement Strategy and Roadmap. All projects funded under each of the five calls articulate outcomes that directly relate to the achievement of the SUN Movement’s strategic objectives for 2016–2020, as follows:

Civil Society Alliance Calls (Window 1, Cycles 1 and 2, and Cycle 4)

Outcome 1: SMART Planning

Civil Society Alliances have made significant progress in achieving the targets set out in outcome 1.

Through intense advocacy, engagement, negotiation and high-quality technical assistance, as well as case studies, the Pooled Fund has enabled grantees to shape nutrition plans in several SUN countries. In the process, Civil Society Alliances are progressing towards being considered as key stakeholders in nutrition dialogue and planning, at both national and subnational levels.

Successful advocacy was made possible thanks to the identification and engagement of national nutrition champions. The champions come from different sectors of society, which ensures a multi-stakeholder and multi-sectoral approach to addressing nutrition needs.

Outcome 2: Financial Resourcing

While progress in achieving the targets in outcome 2 has been a little slower, there are still encouraging signs, which could be accelerated with more focus and support.

As at 2019, Civil Society Alliances had already developed important partnerships within their countries, but not all partnerships have resulted in funding. Nevertheless, six Civil Society Alliances were successful in securing a total of over USD 600,000 of funding, which was dedicated to nutrition activities in 2019.

Civil Society Alliances also contributed to budget analyses, at both national and subnational levels, as well as to processes to formulate policy and planning.

Outcome 3: Effective Implementation and Advocacy

Significant progress has been made towards outcome 3.

A common objective among Civil Society Alliances was to increase membership of their networks and provide a coordinated approach in order to strengthen civil society’s collective voice and reach on nutrition and increase coverage of important community-based nutrition activities.

To this end, Civil Society Alliances recruited additional member organizations to their networks, while SUN country alliances established external partnerships to raise awareness about nutrition-related issues.

Members of Civil Society Alliances also play an important role in strengthening the capacities of other members of their alliance. International non-governmental organizations (INGOs), many of which, due to organizational capacity issues, serve as recipients of Pooled Fund grants on behalf of the national network, provide support to empower these same partners by strengthening the organizational and individual capacities of alliance members, organizing internal governance, and by promoting national ownership and leadership of projects.

Members of national Civil Society Alliances are organizing themselves according to their levels of expertise. They are working in a coordinated way, based on their comparative technical advantage, geographical coverage and networks. This approach reduces duplication and widens the reach of alliances by allocating different responsibilities appropriately. 

National Civil Society Alliances have also supported new member organizations to align their plans with national or subnational plans and commitments as part of a bottom-up and broader alignment with national priorities. Aligning in this way has allowed for a more systematic approach and has enabled member organizations to connect and work more closely with government and other stakeholders on nutrition.

Civil Society Alliances organized behaviour-change campaigns in communities, and they managed workshops and capacity-building activities with specific target audiences in order to address long-term and key nutrition issues.

SUN Business Network Call (Window 1 Cycle 3)

Outcome 1: Enhanced Governance

By the end of the grant period, countries supported by the Pooled Fund will demonstrate enhanced governance and accountability for nutrition through functional SUN Business Networks.

The first outcome contributes to the achievement of strategic objective 1 of the SUN Movement (bringing relevant stakeholders together) and to strategic objective 3 (planning, delivering and being accountable together).

Outcome 2: Scaled Response

By the end of the grant period, countries supported by the Pooled Fund will have scaled up their business responses in an effective, equitable, sustainable, and resilient manner, thanks in part to increased SUN Business Network capacity.

The second outcome relates to SUN Movement Partnership Development & Innovation, especially strategic objective 3 (implementing nutrition-related actions) and strategic objective 4 (mobilizing resources for nutrition).

Outcome 3: Knowledge Sharing

By the end of the grant period, countries supported by the Pooled Fund will have improved knowledge management and information sharing to national multi-stakeholder platforms.  This SUN Business Network knowledge will inform nutrition policy development and implementation.

The final outcome is closely aligned to strategic objective 1 (bringing relevant stakeholders together) and strategic objective 2 (preparing the evidence base for coherent policy making).

Multi-Stakeholder Call (Window 2 Cycle 1)

Outcome 1.1: Multi-sectoral Partnerships

Partnerships with SMEs, factories and businesses to support nutrition objectives for pregnant and lactating women and children under fiver are strengthened through the MSP in line with guidelines including the Guide to Food and Nutrition in the first 1000 days.

Outputs include partnership-based initiatives that focus on nutrition in the first 1000 day of life.

Outcome 1.2: Innovative Implementation

Innovations are used to identify opportunities, adoption, or scaled up implementation efforts to address root causes of malnutrition, inform behaviour change, and coordinate nutrition responses.

Outputs include scalable and innovative initiatives that benefit IYCF, breastfeeding, and increased access to nutrition for adolescents, women, children under 5, and/or pregnant women.

Outcome 2.1: Enhanced Multi-stakeholder Platform and Governance

Multi-sectoral platforms demonstrate enhanced capacity of government systems and of platform members for scaled-up nutrition action at all levels to enable them to support nutrition actions, with special focus on the first 1000 days. 

Outputs include local mapping of nutrition-sensitive actors and capacity-building activities.

Outcome 2.2: Coordination at National, Sub-national, or Community Level

Existing nutrition coordination bodies are strengthened at national and sub-national levels, which has led to extended commitments (institutional, financial, political) and effective multi-sectoral coordination. 

Outputs include inclusive strategies, guidelines, and communication plans.

Outcome 3.1: Knowledge Sharing

Nutrition related policies, plans, and programs have used (or are influenced by) the knowledge and evidence built by the Pooled Fund Window 2 projects. 

These include activities such as Peer2Peer learning, twinning or knowledge exchange between regions or countries, dissemination of best practices, etc.