Maximising the Quality of Scaling Up Nutrition Plus (MQSUN⁺)’s technical assistance is divided into two components.  

First, the project provides technical assistance to Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) governments and the SUN Movement Secretariat to strengthen the enabling environment of the 60 SUN countries to continuously improve their policy and budget cycle management and to deliver policies and programmes that reduce malnutrition. In countries such as Guinea, Nepal and Tajikistan, MQSUN⁺ has provided technical expertise to assess the current climate for nutrition and supported country-led efforts to develop a common results framework—a single and agreed-upon set of expected nutrition results generated through multisector engagement. The project then provides guidance to operationalise these goals by developing a multisectoral national nutrition action plan that includes detailed activities, cost estimation and targets to monitor progress and impact. Since 2009, MQSUN and MQSUN⁺ have supported more than 30 SUN countries to move closer to what works to improve nutrition.

Second, the project provides technical assistance to the United Kingdom (UK)’s Department for International Development (DFID) to maximise the quality and effectiveness of nutrition-related programmes to support achievement of global targets to reduce malnutrition. MQSUN and MQSUN+ have supported more than 14 DFID countries and DFID UK to design, pilot and review nutrition programmes, conduct landscape analyses on cutting-edge nutrition research and identify new strategies to improve nutrition impact. In these efforts, the project ensures that DFID nutrition interventions are evidence based, high quality and cost effective. MQSUN⁺ collates innovative research on key nutrition topics—such as obesity, urban nutrition and private sector engagement—and develops guidance materials for DFID on nutrition-sensitive topics—such as gender and nutrition integration into health—to ensure multisectoral nutrition programming. The project also provides technical expertise on the inception, start-up and periodic assessments of nutrition programmes in countries like Tanzania and Uganda. All these efforts ensure that DFID-supported interventions accelerate scaling up effective nutrition policies and programmes.

Read more about the specific types of MQSUN⁺ technical assistance: