SUN CSN Annual Meeting at SUN Global Gathering 2015

The SUN CSN Annual Meeting was held at the SUN Global Gathering in Milan on Tuesday 20th October. Some 80 participants attended the meeting – with seven others joining live using WebEx. Of the 37 countries with established Civil Society Alliances (CSAs), 31 had CSA representatives at the Annual Meeting, the highest level of participation in SUN CSN’s short history. There was a high level of engagement and energetic discussions throughout the Annual Meeting.

Civil society’s role in SUN 2.0

The main aim of the meeting was to start discussions around civil society’s most effective contribution to SUN 2.0. SUN CSN’s proposed high level objectives had already been shared with CSAs and other SUN CSN stakeholders ahead of the Annual Meeting – and feedback given through a survey. The Annual Meeting was a chance to review and validate them through group discussions.

Next steps include:

December 2015 – result from first workshop of network facilitators and key stakeholders

Mid-January 2016 – secretariat and Strategy and Sustainability Task Force (SSTF) finalise SUN CSN Road Map (including calls with SUN networks and SUN CSN members)

Mid-January 2016 – series of regional Webex workshops & analysis for civil society

Early February 2016 – final validation through short survey for network members and CSAs

Mid-February 2016 - finalise civil society contribution to Road Map

Jan to Feb 2016 – develop fundraising strategy, process led by SSTF

Feb to Sept 2016 – implementing fundraising strategy

Regional group sessions

Over the three days of the SUN Global Gathering 2015, regional groups of CSA representatives met to discuss setting up formal regional sub networks. Overall, the consensus in these meetings was that formalised regional groups would bring huge added value. They would help develop cross learning and coordinated regional advocacy, while being aligned with SUN strategic priorities and adapted to regional context. Four groups are now in the process of being established: West Africa (with some francophone African colleagues from East / Southern Africa), East and Southern Africa, Latin America and Asia.

Key achievements

The key achievement of SUN CSN members were also reviewed during the annual meeting. In addition to the publication of civil society successes in scaling up nutrition (see publication English | Français | Español), the table discussions highlighted the main achievements of CSAs, which were on the following topics:

• Nutrition budget and related advocacy

• Engaging champions (including media and parliamentarians)

• Contribution to policy shaping and change;

• Engaging academia

• Nutrition prioritisation

• Building cohesive and multi-sectoral CSAs (now 37 countries have CSAs established)

• Building legitimacy with other stakeholders

• Engaging in ensuring the BMS code is respected

• Data collection ‘by the people for the people’.