Blog
Page 1 of 2
Visualising malnutrition in the time of COVID-19
The current COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented in its reach—affecting countries across the globe in just a few short months. The necessary measures to curb the spread have caused disruptions to individuals, societies and economies worldwide and have the potential to influence food security and nutritional status. United Nations agencies are sounding the alarm on a […]
April 24, 2020
Experience in tracking N4G commitments
The Global Nutrition Report (GNR), hosted by Development Initiatives (DI) and funded by the UK’s Department for International Development and other donors, is an annual report card on the world’s nutrition—globally, regionally, and country by country—and on efforts to improve it. With a wealth of data and analysis, the report aims to improve accountability among […]
January 29, 2020
Technical assistance takeaways from the 2019 SUN Global Gathering
The 2019 SUN Global Gathering in Kathmandu, Nepal—which took place from 4 to 7 November—highlighted a growing interest in the role that technical assistance (TA) can play to support SUN countries in taking forward their national nutrition agendas. This year, for the first time, there was a specific session at the Global Gathering dedicated to […]
December 16, 2019
Experiencing the SUN Global Gathering: A perspective from the MQSUN+ Lead for SUN Technical Assistance
The flagship event for the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement—the SUN Global Gathering—is a multi-day convening of SUN Focal Points as well as other government representatives, international non-governmental organisations, donors and key stakeholders, like technical assistance providers, who support these countries in scaling up nutrition. The event provides an opportunity for the Movement to take […]
December 6, 2019
Fostering urban nutrition through a ‘smart city’ partnership: a perspective from the Executive Director of the Food Foundation
The Birmingham India Nutrition Initiative (BINDI) is a learning partnership between Birmingham, UK and Pune, India aimed at developing smart policies which support nutritional impact. With support from Tata Trusts, Wellcome Trust and DFID through MQSUN+, the Food Foundation has supported BINDI to consider nutrition-related governance in the two cities, promote citizen engagement and facilitate […]
October 4, 2019
Strengthening functional capacity in action: Enhancing the skills of country Focal Points to support multisectoral nutrition efforts
Since 2017, Maximising the Quality of Scaling Up Nutrition Plus (MQSUN+), in collaboration with the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement Secretariat (SMS), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and Nutrition International, has been supporting a joint programme to strengthen the functional capacity of SUN and Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Focal Points. Why […]
September 13, 2019
Analysing national budgets for nutrition: The role of technical assistance to build country capacity for nutrition financing
Conducting a budget analysis allows a country to take stock of their nutrition financing at the national level, which can help them more effectively plan for the utilisation of existing nutrition resources to reach the target populations. The SUN Movement encourages partners to also leverage this information for stronger advocacy cases to scale up nutrition […]
August 20, 2019
Looking at nutrition financing in practice: a perspective from MQSUN+’s costing consultant for Francophone African countries
Since 2012, Maximising the Quality of Scaling Up Nutrition (MQSUN) and now MQSUN+ has provided technical assistance (TA) to over a dozen Francophone Scaling up Nutrition (SUN) countries—focused primarily on supporting countries to conduct the SUN budget analysis exercise or to advance their multisectoral nutrition planning efforts. Under MQSUN+, the majority of technical assistance in […]
August 14, 2019
‘Taking the temperature’ of gender consideration in national nutrition planning to maximise efforts to improve nutrition for all
Nutritional status can be strongly impacted by gender. Socially-constructed gender roles, in conjunction with biological differences in sex and age, influence nutritional needs and status of individuals, households, communities and societies. As well, inequalities in decision making and autonomy—especially for women—can lead to unequal access to and control of education, resources, information, income and political […]
May 28, 2019
Moving beyond a theory of change—mapping assumptions toward nutrition impact (part 1)
When looking at the impact of global health investments, we often want to count the number of beneficiaries, percent reduction in disease prevalence or statistically significant associations between an intervention and a successful outcome. But if we take a closer look at what happens prior to a child receiving peanut paste or antibiotics, we find […]
March 31, 2019
Page 1 of 2