JOINING FORCES TO SCALE-UP THE FIGHT AGAINST MALNUTRITION; Timor-Leste joins the SUN movement with the support of the EU-FAO FIRST Programme
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Timor-Leste is making significant progress in reducing child malnutrition but it still has a long way to go: the country still suffers from some of the highest rates of malnutrition in the world, which persist above WHO acceptable cut-offs across all socioeconomic groups and geographic spans, in boys and girls, and in urban and rural areas. The scale of the challenge calls for stronger and coordinated efforts in all sectors – not just agriculture.
Understanding that nutrition is impacted by many different factors across sectors was one of the main ideas behind the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) movement. This United Nations-sponsored movement seeks to bring people together under the lead of governments, ensure coherent policies and legal frameworks, align actions and track finance and mobilize resources for improving nutrition at country level.
In 2018-19, the FIRST Programme (a strategic partnership between the Government of Timor-Leste, FAO and the European Union) carried out an assessment of the impact of policies aimed at ending malnutrition and achieving food security in Timor-Leste. Such analysis included a comparative analysis of the progress made by Timor-Leste in food security and nutrition governance against the achievements of five countries enrolled in the SUN movement. The findings were that Timor-Leste had already achieved several milestones, like establishing multisectoral platforms and formulating multisectoral policy frameworks. However, the country was still off-track in following certain SUN criteria such as “aligning action around common results” and “tracking finance and mobilizing resources”.
Under the leadership of the Prime Minister and support from FIRST, a dialogue under the framework of the national council for food security, sovereignty and nutrition (KONSSANTIL) resulted in a draft consolidated plan of action for nutrition and food security (CNAP-NFS) with the recommendation of the Council of Ministers (in September 2020) to join the SUN movement.
It is now expected that the establishment of the national SUN network – which will include the civil society, private actors, the United Nations, donors and development partners – creates a broad alliance against all forms of malnutrition and reinforces the implementation of evidence-based interventions across sectors.
The nomination of Dra. Olinda dos Reis Albino (Ministry of health - Head of the nutrition department) and Sr. Filipe da Costa (Prime Minister special advisor on nutrition and food security) will ensure high-level and multisectoral accountability, in line with the existing policy framework and SUN principles.
The ceremony that took place in Dili on the 13th October, in the presence (partly virtual) of H.E. Taur Matan Ruak, Prime-Minister of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, Gerda Verburg, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and Coordinator of the SUN Movement, the UN resident coordinator, several ambassadors and civil society and private sector representatives, was a fantastic milestone and a positive signal that all partners and stakeholders are ready to work together to accelerate progress to achieve a hunger and malnutrition-free Timor-Leste.