2. Contents
• The SUN Civil Society Alliance story
– Overview of SUN Civil Society Network and CSAs
• The Value We Bring
1. Speaking with one voice
2. Raising nutrition’s profile
3. Enriching nutrition policy
4. Highlighting gender needs
5. Promoting accountability
6. Building local capacity
7. The long view
8. Value for money
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4. SUN Civil Society Network
• An enabling network for civil society within the Scaling Up Nutrition movement
• More than 2,500 local, national and international members
• Supports Civil Society Alliances (CSAs) in 39 countries
• Supports access to funding, shares learning, builds capacity
• Accelerates CSA establishment, strong governance structures, effective
advocacy approaches and high quality action through cross-learning
• Potential to reach and improve nutrition of 85 million stunted children under 5
across the 56 SUN countries with continued investment
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5. SUN Civil Society Alliances
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Photo: Jodi Bieber/Save the Children
• Unite community groups, national CSOs and international civil society
organisations
• Coordinate civil society advocacy and action on nutrition at
national, sub-national levels
• Channel expertise, evidence, reality of those
suffering from malnutrition into government
policies, plans
• Hold governments to account
for nutrition commitments
6. SUN countries with established Civil Society Alliances (CSAs)
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7. Our unique contribution
• Civil society essential for
sustainable nutrition efforts
• ‘Eyes and ears’ embedded in
communities, implementing
programmes
• Sharing on-the-ground
expertise, community
knowledge of what works
• Working with decentralised
structures and local champions
to ensure nutrition efforts reach
most vulnerable
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Photo: Jonathan Hyams/Save the Children
8. Impact: Peru
In Peru, chronic infant malnutrition has been halved
in less than a decade
Civil society advocacy a key driver of progress
Coalition focused political attention
on first 1,000 days, secured
commitments with the 5 x 5 x 5 campaign
Helped to sustain impact across
changes in government
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Photo: Mariluz Aparicio Vásquez / Save the Children
9. But funding in jeopardy
• Over half of CSAs have had funding from the SUN Multi-Partner Trust
Fund but this is coming to an end
• 26 CSAs need funding (11 partial,
15 full) for 2016
• CSAs are seeking in-country support
where possible
• Loss of funding = loss of investments,
momentum, impact built over
five years of SUN efforts
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10. The value we bring
Photo: Mark Kaye/Save the Children
11. Overview
“Civil society has an absolutely pivotal role to play in the next phase of
SUN – and in ending stunting and malnutrition. Their coordinated
advocacy is helping to shape governments’ policies, programmes and
plans.
“In order to build on investments to date and sustain its work, civil society
needs funding to ensure that joint efforts are long-lasting and to ensure
progress is accelerated, leaving no one behind as a Movement and
scaling up nutrition efforts across SUN countries and beyond.”
Tom Arnold, SUN Movement Coordinator
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12. 1. Speaking with one voice
• CSAs coordinate civil society groups across all
sectors with a stake in nutrition
• Present a unified voice, interact with governments
as one body with aligned goals
• Channel views of grass roots communities
affected by malnutrition directly to policy-makers
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13. Impact: Laos
Civil society not well coordinated
before Laos CSA began work in
2014
Now has strong, credible
partnership with Government, local
civil society have platform for
participation
CSA helped run first ever National
Nutrition Forum for all sectors, all
levels of government, civil society
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Photo: Save the Children
14. ‘They see the value’
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“The Government now sees that civil society has a major
role to play in tackling nutrition and they see the value in
having a coordinated body.
“We’re trying to get local groups ‘into the light’, opening up
space for their voices as the ones who are working in the
villages with the people affected by malnutrition.”
Banthida Komphasouk, SUN CSA Coordinator, Laos
15. 2. Raising nutrition’s profile
• Energise national conversations via the
media and nutrition champions including
MPs, faith leaders, celebrities
• CSAs push nutrition up political agendas
as a non-partisan national priority - keep it
there beyond political cycles
• Advocate for more resources for nutrition
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16. Impact: Zambia
Used public awareness, media campaigns to ignite
national debate on nutrition, increase demand
Convinced MPs to form All Party Parliamentary
Caucus on food and nutrition
Ran ‘Vote Nutrition’ campaign for 2015 elections
involving top musicians
Nutrition included in manifestos, political
commitments
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Photo credit: Mark52 / Shutterstock.com
17. ‘Nutrition is a buzzword’
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“Before, people didn’t talk about nutrition in the media;
now it is covered in the papers almost every day.
“Nutrition has become a buzzword – even politicians
have realised it’s an important thing to include.”
William Chilufya, Coordinator,
SUN Civil Society Alliance, Zambia
18. 3. Enriching nutrition policy
• Channel civil society expertise,
evidence into better nutrition policy-
making across all affected sectors
• Help to shape National Nutrition
Strategies, National Development
Plans, other sectorial policies
• Feed technical input into planning,
implementation of policies on the
ground
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19. Impact
Kenya successfully advocated with Ministry of Health for revision of
National Health Policy to include stronger nutrition component
Peru persuaded Government to work with mothers to take children for
medical checks as part of cash transfer programs for the poorest. Led
to 40% drop in child malnutrition in targeted areas.
Zambia secured change in national maize policy to promote
diversification away from maize monoculture via Government e-
vouchers
Nepal helped secure a directive that local level governments must
include a nutrition program in their work plans
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20. Impact: Uganda
Uganda Civil society alliance (UCCO-SUN) now directly consulted and
involved in nutrition policy formulation and planning
UCCO-SUN consulted for input in drafting the East African Food and
Nutrition Policy
UCCO-SUN contributed to development and role out of the Uganda
Nutrition Action Plan 2011-2016
UCCO-SUN consulted on developing a new draft national nutrition policy
2015-2020
UCCO-SUN considered key player in rolling out the national advocacy
and communication strategy adopted in 2015
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21. Multi-sectoral approach
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NUTRITION
SENSITIVE ACTIVITIES
Number of CSAs
with a focus on
NUTRITION
SPECIFIC ACTIVITIES
Treatment of acute malnutrition
Micronutrient supplementation
Water and Sanitation
Agriculture
Access to healthcare Women’s empowerment
Disaster resilience
Education and employment
Exclusive breastfeeding
up to 6 months of age
Food fortification
22. 4. Highlighting gender needs
• CSAs empower women as critical
drivers of improved household
nutrition
• Promote optimal breast feeding and
nutrition in the first 1,000 days
• Ensure women’s needs included in
nutrition policies
• Support women to become
income earners, decision makers,
agents of change
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Photo: Stuart Sia/Save the Children
23. Impact: Zimbabwe
Increased number of women
breast feeding to 6 months
Formed pregnant women and
lactating mothers’ support groups
Helped women take leadership
roles in community forums
providing training in nutrition-
sensitive agriculture
Promoted vegetable cultivation,
animal husbandry, dam
rehabilitation, improving women’s
incomes and household nutrition
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Photo: Sebastian Rich/Save the Children
24. 5. Promoting accountability
• Hold governments, other stakeholders to account on nutrition
commitments
• Track nutrition allocations and expenditure at national, sub-national
levels
• Monitor implementation / impact at local level, providing constructive
approach to addressing challenges, improving practice
• ‘Walk the talk’ and ensure civil society accountability to citizens
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25. Impact: Peru
Submit annual balance report on
Government actions on malnutrition,
highlight successes, challenges
Participate in ‘consensus-based
monitoring’ of Government programs at
national, sub-national levels,
Bring valued evidence from local areas
and investigate problems when a
national ‘alert’ is issued, e.g. solved
bottleneck in supply of micronutrients
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Photo: Alejandro Kirchuk/Save the Children
26. 6. Building local capacity
• CSAs promote knowledge
sharing and learning among
CSOs and INGOs
• Help members to be
informed about and align to
government policies
• Empower citizens to change
their behaviour and realise
their rights
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Photo: Hedinn Halldorsson/Save the Children
27. Laos: ‘A chance to learn’
“We focus on the capacity building as that’s what our members really
value. The CSA is the only platform for international and local
organisations to come together and share what’s worked and what
hasn’t. They’ve really valued the chance to learn from each other.
“Last year we held three workshops and a study tour for local
organisations. We also invite the government to come and inform
them about their plans so everyone is working to the same goals.”
Banthida Komphasouk, SUN CSA Coordinator, Laos
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Photo: Save the Children
28. Uganda: ‘We have taken the initiative’
“Our coalition has taken the initiative to build the capacity of its
member CSOs in nutrition advocacy. We have done this through
three trainings for our members in nutrition advocacy and
engagement of members in advocacy and communication related
events.”
Peterson Kato Kikomeko, SUN CSA, Uganda
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Photo: Save the Children
29. 7. The long view
• Civil society is key to sustainable nutrition efforts
• CSAs embed nutrition in policy processes for
the long term, beyond political cycles
• Change behaviour at the household level,
create demand for better nutrition,
support communities to improve prospects
• Increase focus on young people as
agents of change
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30. Impact: Guatemala
Household level empowerment of excluded groups to
realise rights to food and nutrition, education, health
22 youth groups conducted social auditing of 1,000
days strategy implementation
Targeted remote communities, some a 6-7 hour walk
away, to survey mothers, pregnant women, health care
professionals
Results analysed, ready to disseminate, share with new
government, to complement existing social audits
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Photo: Caroline Trutmann/Save the Children
31. 8. Value for money
Civil Society Alliances and the CSN have achieved real impact in a short
period for modest budgets
• Kenya’s CSA budget was US$278,628 for 2014/15
• With this funding, the CSA achieved:
– Stronger nutrition component in national health policy
– Clear budget lines for nutrition in four counties
– National resources mobilised for county level nutrition
– Cultivation of 3 high profile nutrition champions including First Lady
– Nutrition training for more than 200 advocates, 31 journalists
• Donor investments = catalyst for more investments. INGOs invested over
$1.9m between June 2013 - December 2015 in support of global network
efforts against donor investments of $1m.
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Two consecutive governments, from different political parties, made the reduction of chronic infant malnutrition (CIM) a national priority.
Peru has been recognized internationally as one of the few countries that has been successful in making major advances in reducing CIM.
The multi-actor alliance in Peru that supported this movement has been recognized for the instrumental role it played in this process.
The Alliance succeeded in getting the agreement of different actors working in nutrition in Peru with regards to intervention strategies and national policies to take project level experiences to a national level.
The Alliance advocated to obtained the political commitment at the highest level, in two successive national elections (2006 and 2011), for the government to make the reduction of CIM a national priority.
The Alliance provided technical assistance to the national government in developing the national strategies to combat CIM.
The Alliance supported sub national governments in the implementation of the national strategies.
The Alliance collaborated with the WB in the development of budgeting by results as a national policy.
The Alliance advocated for the National Statistics Institute in Peru to produce yearly health surveys on key indicators by sub national government.
The Alliance monitors the advances on key indicators and meets with government officials regularly to analyze problems and find solutions.
The Alliance publishes annual reports evaluating the performance of the government in its actions to reduce CIM.
The Alliance supported the government in making connections with international organizations (The Lancet and the SUN Movement).