A growing number of countries have joined the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement and its vision for a world free from malnutrition in all its forms, as outlined in the SUN Movement Strategy and Roadmap (2016–2020). As part of this vision, many countries in the SUN Movement have developed, adopted and costed a multisectoral nutrition plan (MSNP). For the MSNPs to be successful, countries must secure the required resources to implement activities at the proposed scale and coverage to achieve the set targets. These targets should be part of a country’s larger development agenda and its efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to gain the political recognition and support needed to secure the required resources. Resource mobilisation (RM) to scale up multisectoral action for nutrition is a broad process requiring the contribution of various sectors and a diversity of stakeholders, including external partners, considering cost-effectiveness and demonstrated evidence for impactful nutrition actions.

Roundtable (RT) events for nutrition are one endeavour within the broader ongoing RM process. As of February 2020, 14 countries in the SUN Movement had shared plans to hold a national resource mobilisation event for nutrition—referred to hereafter as resource mobilisation roundtables (RM RT). This roadmap is intended to help with the planning of RM RTs at the country level and is based on the experience of a few SUN countries along with anecdotal experience from several focal points and other country representatives. The steps may vary depending on the local country context, experience, timelines and processes. Additionally, the decision-making and organising structures described herein will also vary depending on how local and sectoral governments are organised and how any existing high-level nutrition governance bodies are arranged and led in the country. This roadmap is intended for SUN country focal points and members of country multi-stakeholder platforms (MSPs) who are planning and preparing an RM RT as one important activity in the process of mobilising resources for the implementation of their MSNPs. The sections below describe what needs to be in place before hosting an RM RT and outline key steps for hosting a successful event to support SUN countries in carrying forward these critical efforts.

Learn more about SUN country experience in carrying out a RM roundtable event from our country case study for Kenya.