About
As part of the SUN Movement’s stewardship arrangements, in March 2016, United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon announced the appointment of Gerda Verburg from The Netherlands, as Coordinator of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement and Assistant Secretary-General.
Ms. Verburg brings extensive and broad experience from politics and international cooperation. In 2008, following her appointment the year before as Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality of the Netherlands, she was elected as Chair of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD 17). From 2011, she served as Permanent Representative of the Netherlands to the UN United Nations Rome-based agencies: FAO, WFP and IFAD. In 2013, she was elected as Chair of the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS), and in 2014 she was appointed as Chair of the Agenda Council for Food and Nutrition of the World Economic Forum (WEF).
As part of her role, SUN Movement serves as a member of the SUN Movement Lead Group and an ex officio member of the SUN Movement Executive Committee.
In accordance with the SUN Movement Ethical Framework, click here to view the signed SUN Movement Coordinator Code of Conduct and here to see the SUN Movement Coordinator Terms of Reference.
Country visits
- During 2020, the SUN Movement Coordinator has visited: Sierra Leone, Mauritania
- During 2019, the SUN Movement Coordinator visited: Ethiopia, Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire, Costa Rica, Peru, Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Nepal, Honduras and El Salvador.
- During 2018, the SUN Movement Coordinator visited: Viet Nam, Zambia, The Gambia, Malawi, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Chad, Ethiopia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guinea and Niger.
Country visit – media coverage:
- Show of support to SUN Sierra Leone with UN Assistant Secretary General visit (AYV Newspaper)
- Coverage (6:00 – 08:53) of Gerda Verburg, SUN Movement Coordinator visit to Sierra Leone
- Coverage (14:29 to 18:46) of National Nutrition Fair in Sierra Leone
- TV interview (17:45) with Gerda Verburg, Coordinator, SUN Movement at National Nutrition Fair, Sierra Leone
Coordinator’s voice
Blogs and keynote speeches
- Opinion: Going for Gold – how to get results at Nutrition for Growth – Devex (2020)
- The SUN Movement confronts its future – Devex (2019)
- Celebrating the link between nutrition and water, sanitation and hygiene – Sanitation and Water for All (2019)
- SUN Movement: Striving for impact at scale – Early Childhood Matters (2019)
- Looking beyond hunger: thoughts on SOFI2019 – SDG2 Advocacy Hub (2019)
- Nutrition: The key to achieve Universal Health Coverage and unleash Human Capital – WorldBank (2019)
- Why now is the moment to invest in nutrition to transform our food systems – IFPRI (2019)
- Strength in numbers: Steering the ecosystem towards gender equality and empowerment to fight malnutrition – Women Deliver (2019)
- Nutrition & Education: More Than Food For Thought (2018) – English | Français | Español
- Celebrating our 2017 successes and Scaling Up (Nutrition) for the year ahead (2017) – English | Français | Español
- Why a Child’s First 1,000 Days Is The Smallest Big Thing For Human Rights (2017) – English | Français | Español
Latest news from the SUN Movement Coordinator here
Multimedia
SUN Global Gathering 2017
Opening Speech
Gerda Verburg at the EAT Forum Asia-Pacific
SDG Studio UN Geneva – SDG 2
Gerda Verburg
More videos from the SUN Movement Coordinator here
Social Media
Former SUN Movement Coordinators
Tom Arnold
In August 2014, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Tom Arnold as Coordinator ad interim of the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement. Tom provided strategic leadership to the SUN Movement, working closely with the existing SUN Networks and the SUN Movement Secretariat.
He has served on a number of governmental and non-governmental bodies at national, European and international level including the UN Millennium Project’s Hunger Task Force, the Irish Hunger Task Force, the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), the Irish Government’s Commission on Taxation, the Consortium Board of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research, the International Advisory Board of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the NGO European Food Security Group, the Montpellier Panel and the Mary Robinson Foundation for Climate Justice. He is Chairman of the Irish Times Trust and a member of the Board of the Irish Times, Ireland’s leading newspaper.
In his earlier career, he was Chief Economist and Assistant Secretary General with the Irish Department of Agriculture and Food, Chairman of the OECD Committee for Agriculture (1993-98), Chairman of the OECD Working Group on Agricultural Policies and Market, Senior Economist with ACOT, the Irish farm advisory service. He worked as an administrator for the European Commission (1973-83) in agriculture and development, serving in Brussels and in Africa.
He has a degree in agricultural economics from University College Dublin and has Masters degrees from Leuven University and from Trinity College, Dublin. He was the recipient of the 2014 Helen Keller International Humanitarian Award. Tom Arnold is former Director General of the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA).
David Nabarro
From 2010, David Nabarro was the Coordinator of the SUN Movement in complement to his role as the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Food Security and Nutrition. In September 2014, the United Nations Secretary-General appointed David as the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General on Ebola, providing strategic and policy direction for the international response.
Dr Nabarro has over 40 years of experience in international public health as a community-based practitioner, educator, public servant, director and diplomat. In the past 12 years, successive Secretaries-General of the United Nations have entrusted David to lead collective action on some of the most pressing and complex challenges – responding to avian and pandemic influenza, promoting food security, ending malnutrition, combating Ebola, promoting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and advancing efforts relating to climate change.
Dr Nabarro is currently the Global Health Chair at the Imperial College of London.

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