As of 2020, 61 countries and four Indian states have joined the global movement for Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN). SUN countries have made major strides in bringing together stakeholders from multiple sectors to align national efforts to end malnutrition. One of the goals of the SUN Movement’s Strategy and Roadmap for 2016-2020 is having all member countries endorse nutrition plans at the highest level of government. As of 2019, 36 SUN countries had a common results framework in place with national nutrition plans (NNP) to guide the implementation and achievement of the agreed goals and objectives (SUN, 2019). As the SUN Movement’s current strategy period draws to a close, it is important to take stock of how countries are translating their nutrition agendas into planning documents and to assess the relative key strengths and gaps across plans to inform cross-country learning and future guidance.
In support of this, in collaboration with the SUN Movement Secretariat (SMS), the Maximising the Quality of Scaling Up Nutrition Plus (MQSUN+) project conducted a systematic review of a sample of SUN NNPs based on the Checklist on the criteria and characteristics of ‘good’ national nutrition plans. The review sought to identify common strengths, areas for further development and actionable recommendations for each country to inform next steps or improve future planning. These briefs provide country-specific overviews, strengths, and areas for growth for each of the 26 countries reviewed.