Scoping
Scoping is an important stage in the governance of civil society alliances as it represents the opportunity to set good foundations for the future. The scoping stage involves obtaining an overview of the nutrition situation and which organisations and institutions are working on the issue or planning to work on the issue within your country. Scoping will need to be multi-stakeholder, multi-sectoral and multi-level (or at least take these dimensions into consideration) when designing, implementing, reporting and using scoping findings. Researching organisations working on nutrition and nutrition-sensitive interventions and programmes is useful but it is important to look at other sectors and groups which may not have been included in this kind of initiative previously. For example, grassroots organisations working on education, social protection, agriculture, human rights, youth and any others you think might be relevant. Key processes to develop at this stage will be regular communications and meetings once initial contact is made and the establishment of a clear procedure for putting items onto the agenda of meetings. Broad agreement amongst members regarding the key nutrition challenges and solutions can be a useful starting point to begin cementing a shared purpose in the group. It will be useful to start considering membership criteria for any CSA that is set up and developing thoughts on the kind of organisational values that member organisations should demonstrate. Ensuring their commitment to basic human rights principles and support for the human right to food will be important. A pre-requisite for participating in the SUN movement is a commitment to ensuring that all mothers and children everywhere are empowered to exercise their right to good nutrition. Working within existing legal and policy frameworks is a prerequisite which includes respecting World Health Assembly resolutions prescribing the International Code on
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Case Study: National NGOs at the Centre of Civil Society Alliances
Some civil society alliances have adopted a national leadership model (Uganda UGAN and Mozambique – ANSA, for example), others have adopted co-leadership models (e.g. Sierra Leone FOCUS 1000 (national NGO) & HKI (international NGO)) with national leadership and technical and administrative support provided by an international NGO (e.g. Mali – OMAES national NGO leads with technical support from international NGO HKI) and leadership support from international NGOs (e.g. Nepal – Save the Children, Malawi – Concern Worldwide). Good governance means developing national ownership and leadership for nutrition. With national ownership sustainability is more likely to follow.
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Key considerations at this stage might include:
Consider undertaking a SWOT analysis of the SUN effort in your country from the perspective of civil society. What are civil society’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats within this effort?
Which organisations are leading work on nutrition in your country at a national and at a local scale? Is there an existing coordination mechanism or civil society platform for nutrition or a platform that includes nutrition as a sub-group, for example, agriculture, health or water,sanitation and hygiene. How might the SUN CSA build upon this or integrate into their work? Do all organisations function democratically? Do they share information if so when and how? What kinds of values does the organisation have? What kinds of challenges and opportunities are there related to this organisation?