Other announcements

SCN News is the biannual newsletter of the United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition. It is currently printed and distributed to a readership of 7500 nutrition professionals, programme managers and policy makers - 75%  of whom reside in developing countries. Each issue features a selected topic, in addition to regular columns with updates of interest to nutrition development practitioners.
The next edition of the SCN News, number 39, will feature "the private sector as stakeholder in nutrition". This is a very interesting and relevant topic, which needs to be looked at with different lenses and from a variety of perspectives. What do we understand as the private sector? Conflict and conversion of interests: how to manage these? What are the good examples of public-private collaboration in the field of food and nutrition? How do we monitor public-private partnerships (PPP)? Who needs to monitor PPPs? How do we assess a "successful" public-private partnership (PPP)? What are the human rights and ethical considerations which need to be taken into account when working with the private sector? As a key stakeholder, does the private sector have a role to play in governing bodies of development organizations? What does the private sector expect when engaging with the public sector? What is a win-win situation when engaging in a PPP?
We want to constructively contribute to a global discussion on the role and responsibilities of the private sector with regard to food and nutrition by sharing experiences, opinions and in-depth analyses. We invite you to actively contribute to this reflection and to the SCN News 39.
For more information on how you can contribute to the SCN News 39, please click on the link below to download the information pdf file.

With continuing global focus on the best means to work our way out of the global economic slowdown please see Save the Children (UK)'s new policy briefing making the case for the Economic Benefits of Investing in Children's Nutrition.

The global community still has a long way to go to ensure the global effort aiming to tackle undernutrition achieves a scale of response that is commensurate with the problem. Amarty Sen stated that 'tackling undernutrition is the biggest battle in international development and the most urgent area of development in our time' in a high profile lecture at the London School of Economics earlier this year. We must continue to do what we can together to marshal appropriate arguments for different audiences.

The Policy Briefing Hungry for Change provides a concise version of the report outlining a plan of action to tackle hunger and undernutrition.

Food Justice: the Report of the Food and Fairness Inquiry has been published by the UK based Food Ethics Council. It is the result of a year-long investigation into social justice in food and farming, undertaken by a committee of respected and influential figures from across the food sector. They include Fairtrade Foundation CEO Harriet Lamb, Andrew Opie from the British Retail Consortium, Melanie Leech, Chief Executive of the Food and Drink Federation, Paul Whitehouse, Chair of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority, and Jeanette Longfield, who runs the campaign group Sustain. The Food Ethics Council set up the Inquiry because they were concerned that issues of social justice were underplayed in debates about food policy. The Inquiry committee's report vindicates this concern. It finds that injustice is widespread throughout the UK and the global food system; and it shows how a fairer food system is central to achieving wider sustainability and health goals.

To read more, click here

Action Against Hunger (ACF) is launching its White Paper, Taking Action: Nutrition for Survival, Growth & Development, which proposes a new and feasible strategy for ending child hunger. It
details 5 priority areas and presents 25 essential actions to address acute
malnutrition.

To have a look at the White Paper, please click below.

This is a reminder from the Alive & Thrive (A&T) Small Grants Program. The deadline for submission of Letters of Interest (LOIs) for the Small Grants Program is September 14, 2010.

The A&T Small Grants Program aims to fund operational research projects that will identify novel approaches and overcome key barriers to improving infant and young child feeding (IYCF) at scale in low and middle-income countries. Awards for small grants will generally be in the range of $50,000-100,000 USD.

Please visit the A&T website for more information:
http://www.aliveandthrive.org/grants/LOI-application-instructions

Months of appeals to the international community for help fell on deaf ears, leaving Niger
facing the all too familiar spectre of a major hunger crisis. Samuel Loewenberg reports.

For the full report, please click here.

The Infant & Young Child Nutrition Project maintains a collection of infant feeding and HIV resources including counseling tools, training materials, journal articles, and a variety of other publications.

Please visit: http://www.iycn.org/resources-infant-feeding.php

Niger is facing one of the gravest food and nutrition crises of its history - massive loss of crops and livestock have contributed to 17% of children under five suffering from acute malnutrition requiring immediate treatment.

Shawn Baker is the regional director for Africa of Helen Keller International. He has spent 25 years living and working in Africa, including nine years in Niger.  For his article on the malnutrition situation in Niger, please see below.