NEWS ROUNDUP: AUGUST – SEPTEMBER 2015

Burundi

The Burundi civil society alliance carried out a series of awareness-raising and mobilisation events in August in six rural communities in two pilot provinces, Muyinga and Karusi. The aim of the events was to support the establishment of community coalitions to boost nutrition activities at a local level. Rural areas are a nutrition priority in Burundi as 80% of the population live in country areas.

Awareness-raising and mobilisation activities led by RSC Burundi aiming to establish decentralised civil society structures to strengthen nutrition.

Ethiopia

The Ethiopia Civil Society Coalition for Scaling up Nutrition (ECSC-SUN) is growing fast and now has 46 member organisations. ECSC-SUN was set up in June 2013 by just 13 founding organisations.

The coalition recently became a recognised ‘key partner’ of the Ministry of Health, which gives it higher visibility, access to decision makers and invitations to key events. The Ministry called on ECSC-SUN for support in organising a televised discussion on nutrition issues during the World Breastfeeding Week. ECSC provided technical and financial support to make the program happen.

In other recent activities, ECSC-SUN has:

• Given capacity building training for CSOs to encourage investment in nutrition

• Provided training and resources for media organisations to boost coverage of key nutrition issues

• Transmitted radio spots on three stations on the importance of the first 1000 days.

• Recruited a well-known Ethiopian actress as its nutrition champion

El Salvador

Two civil society organisations, members of the El Salvador’s Civil Society Alliance for Food Sovereignty and Nutritional Security, (Nutres), have teamed up in the rural municipality of Tonacatepeque to build capacity and awareness of key nutrition issues among local decision-makers and organisations. Joint working between members is a key regional strategy for the Alliance.

The efforts in Tonacatepeque aim to:

• strengthen regional accountability and governance processes related to nutrition

• provide training and education on nutrition and food security for key local actors

• raise awareness of the importance of the first 1000 days

• prioritise improving the availability of food

The Association of Water Beneficiaries in rural Tonacatepeque (ABAZORTO), lead by association president Orlando Aguiluz, deployed a team of 10 ‘promotores’ to provide technical support in the area. The other Alliance member involved was CALMA, which promotes breastfeeding and which provided training related to promoting nutrition and breastfeeding.

One of the programme’s achievements is the close working relationship with a range of different governmental and non-governmental organisations, including 10 education centres, a health centre, the local development agency (ADESCO), grassroots organisations, churches and local sports groups. The work is taking place in an area spanning six counties and 30 villages in the Municipality of Tonacatepeque, and has the potential to benefit some 1,700 families

The grassroots education and training are directed towards men and women farmers, families and schools. The aim is to make them aware of the variety of healthy and nutritious crops that exist, and of the importance of environmentally-friendly farming methods, such as the use of organic fertilizers. Schools were also encouraged to develop their own gardens. For all groups, the message was to replace high calorie processed foods with healthy and nutritious food based on vegetables and crops that they can grow themselves.

Being part of the Alliance has allowed ABAZORTO, have a greater role and capacity to influence and dialogue within the territory and nationally.

"That relationship has impacted greatly different groups who have been trained," says Secretary of ABAZORTO.

Kenya

Kenya’s SUN CSA has produced best practice booklets for its members and also published a media monitoring report it commissioned. You can access these resources from the links below.

CSA Best Practice booklets here

Other recent activities have been covered on the SUN movement website:

here & here

Myanmar

Thirty-seven NGOs participated in a workshop organised by the Myanmar SUN Civil Society Alliance in August. The recently-established CSA brought together existing members as well as potential new recruits to the alliance – and six local NGOs signed membership agreements at the end of the workshop. The aim of the session was to strengthen the newly formed CSA through learning, participatory strategic planning, and experience sharing.

The workshop’s specific objectives were: to develop a 2016 strategic plan for the CSA that was aligned with members plans and identified capacity development needs; and to raise awareness of how CSOs can facilitate nutrition activities and monitor the Order of BMS Marketing in their communities. A membership mapping exercise is one planned follow up from the session.

Nigeria

A National Strategic Plan of Action for Nutrition (NSPAN) was made public by Nigeria’s Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Health at an event in September organised by Civil Society Scaling-up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN).

CS-SUN brought together senior government officials and key national nutrition stakeholders for a policy dialogue session on investment in Maternal Nutrition and Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF). The meeting was held in Abuja in early September, with a total of 135 people taking part – 57 from Government ministries, departments and development partners, 69 from Civil Society Organizations and 19 representatives of Nigerian media.

Participants included the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH), the Presidents of the Nutrition Society of Nigeria, the Association of Public Health Physicians of Nigeria and other Professional Organizations, representatives of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, as well as from UNICEF, USAID, DFID, MI, HKI, SPRING, GAIN and others.

Objectives of the session were to:

• Raise awareness among key stakeholders on the burden of malnutrition in Nigeria.

• Familiarise key stakeholders on the relevant government policies and plans that address malnutrition and related issues, and their roles and responsibilities in supporting them.

• Identify opportunities as well as potential barriers to the implementation of these policies and plans especially at sub-national levels and recommend practical steps towards resolving them.

• Reach a consensus on how to respond to the nutritional needs of women and children in Nigeria, agree on the way forward and next steps.

The nutrition situation in Nigeria is severe, particularly for the youngest, with half of child deaths in the country being due to malnutrition and two thirds of Nigerian children not being fed adequately.

The session called on the government to strengthen its commitment to improved nutrition. It was noted that while the agriculture sector now has a strategic plan with a nutrition component, the National Food and Nutrition Policy (NFNP), agreed in 2014, has been reviewed but still has not been finalised.

The session also called on the government to make nutrition education mandatory in schools. The representatives of the media were reminded of their key role in raising awareness of nutrition issues

All stakeholders welcomed the National Strategic Plan of Action for Nutrition and the priority placed on nutrition by the government – and the donors pledged to continue to support Nigeria’s efforts to scale-up nutrition. Participants agreed the NFNP 2014 should be urgently finalised and put into action.

Government and private partners were called on to grant ten working days paternity leave to support and promote exclusive breastfeeding and male involvement in IYCF practices. For their part, APHPN and other professional bodies agreed to sponsor legislation at the Federal and State levels to extended maternity leave to six months.

Other calls for government action included:

• Midwives’ training packages should be increased to include nutrition

• Nutrition education should be included in churches, mosques and other social institutions; and nutrition programming should be made more inclusive

• Nutrition sensitive programmes should be put promoted in Agriculture, Education and other sectors to compliment the efforts in the health sector

• Every government and private sector establishment should buy-in to nutrition advocacy.

• There should be behavior change communications programmes in place to drive change in the value system of Nigerians

CS-SUNN’s recent efforts to push to promote breastfeeding through paid maternity leave and statutory paternity leave have been covered in national media:

http://allafrica.com/stories/201509090418.html http://www.dailytrust.com.ng/news/health/civil-society-seeks-workplace-support-for-exclusive-breastfeeding/109793.html

Pakistan

Scaling Up Nutrition Civil Society Alliance Pakistan organised a three-day capacity building seminar and strategy development workshop for Alliance members in Islamabad in August. There were more than 30 participants with representatives from every province and all Executive Council members.

The first day was dedicated to sessions on nutrition and food security in Pakistan chaired by leading officials and experts. The second day began with a context analysis lead by Dr. Irshad Danish, Secretary SUN-CSA, Pakistan, before participants worked together to analyse the challenges, issues and potential solutions for each province/district.

Day three was dedicated to developing a communications strategy for SUN-CSA, Pakistan, and for a discussion on organisational development and coordination in the Alliance. The comms session was facilitated by a consultant and participants learnt about the scope for social media and other channels to support advocacy efforts.

The event was covered by leading Pakistani newspapers:

here & here

Sierre Leone

Sierra Leone is currently in advocating for the inclusion of the Right to Food in the National Constitution. A presentation of the CSA’s position paper was made in early September to the Constitutional Review Committee, with positive feedback. The CSA is now fine tuning the paper and the exact wording they want to include in the constitution. They aim to continue discussions with the committee and use the constitutional review to raise awareness of nutrition this through radio programmes nationwide.

In August, the CSA held a two day training for 215 Chair women and Chair men from the Sierra Leone Market Women's Association (five from each district and over 30 from the Western Area) on promotion of nutrition and immunisation messages through their traditional channels. They are to disseminate these messages to their various associations at district and chiefdoms levels. As follow-up, the CSA has linked key representatives to the district coordination bodies (CSP task forces), to encourage them to work together. Attending the training with the chair people were representatives of the government’s Directorate for Food and Nutrition (MoHS), UNICEF, and other key stakeholders.

In July, the CSP trained 56 media representatives / journalists for three days on ethical reporting on health issues. This task was carried out by the media wing of the CSP, Kombra Media Network who are now established as a registered independent body. The purpose of the training is to build the capacity of journalists with keen interest in reporting on health issues to write and report on nutrition and other health related issues using key guidelines.

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Zimbabwe

ZCSOSUNA effectively collaborating with the Academia

Food and nutrition security research is urgently needed if the SUN Civil Society Alliance in Zimbabwe (ZCSOSUNA) is to be able to develop evidence-based nutrition initiatives. This was one conclusion of a capacity building workshop hosted by the ZCSOSUNA and Midlands State University Department of Food Science and Nutrition in August.

Midlands State University is one of three academic members of ZCSOSUNA, which has 101 member organisations in total. The workshop was for Midlands regions civil society organisations as well as representatives of the Ministry of Health and Child Care. The workshop aimed to bring participants up-to-date with the latest nutrition status evidence and current on policies, strategies and plans that affect nutrition. There were also roundtable discussions involving members of the media, academia, community-based organisations and NGOs on their role in scaling up nutrition in Zimbabwe.

In a presentation on the Food and Nutrition Policy Framework of Zimbabwe, Midlands Provincial Nutritionist Mrs Rutendo Kandawasvika-Magwenzi highlighted the intervention points within the Ministry of Health’s nutrition programming. Mr Chris Mweembe the National Co-ordinator of ZCSOSUNA gave details of funding opportunities for civil society and outlined the ground-work carried out by the Alliance. He stressed the need for nutrition interventions to recognise and integrate indigenous knowledge systems.

On 18 September, ZCSOSUNA will hold a dissemination event for the recently released 2015 Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee Report. Vulnerability assessments to ascertain the food, nutrition and livelihoods status of rural households are carried out every year by a multi-stakeholder technical team composed of government, civil society, donors and UN representatives.

In October, ZCSOSUNA and the Ministry of Health and Child Care will jointly host an event for parliamentarians on the subject of Food Fortification. This event aims to raise awareness on what food fortification is about and how they can support the programme in scaling up nutrition.