Welcome to the UNSCN website

UNSCN is the food and nutrition policy harmonization forum of the United Nations.

The mandate of the UNSCN is to promote cooperation among UN agencies and partner organizations in support of community, national, regional, and international efforts to end malnutrition in all of its forms in this generation. It will do this by refining the direction, increasing the scale and strengthening the coherence and impact of actions against malnutrition world wide, and raise awareness of nutrition problems and mobilize commitment to solve them at global, regional and national levels. Read more

Don't Miss!

June 8, 2013: The Principals of 5 UN Agencies committed to the joint engagement and support in achieving the goals of the SUN Movement through a strong UNSCN and REACH

On June 8 the Principals of five UN Agencies with a mandate in nutrition (FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO) met in London during the Nutrition for Growth high-level event.

This was indeed a significant step forward for the UN Nutrition family, as the Principals officially handed over a jointly signed letter to the Director General of DFID, Nick Dyer during a brief ceremony at the DFID Headquarters. The letter formally states the endorsement by the Principals of the UN System Network for Scaling Up Nutrition and its Work Plan for 2013. The UN System Network for Scaling Up Nutrition is co-facilitated by the UN System Standing Committee on Nutrition (UNSCN) and the Renewed Efforts Against Child Hunger and Undernutrition ( REACH).

The letter indicates that there is good progress in strengthening the inter-agency coordination and furthering the support to SUN countries and that UN Agencies commit to continue to assist nutrition efforts at country level and simultaneously increase and enhance UN global collaboration and coordination. As the UNSCN is the platform within the UN system for knowledge and policy coordination on nutrition, established through the ECOSOC resolution 2107 in 1977, this letter of engagement by the Principals is a strong sign of support for the UNSCN. The letter also announces the formal launch of the UN System Network for Scaling Up Nutrition later in the year. This launch will take place in Nairobi (Kenya) on 29 August during the first face-to-face UN Network meeting (27-29 August).

On 8 June world leaders including SUN countries came together to sign a global compact that will prevent at least 20 million children from being stunted and save at least 1.7 million lives by 2020. The Global Nutrition for Growth Compact was endorsed by 90 stakeholders, including development partners, businesses, scientific and civil society groups. An ambitious set of individual commitments to beat hunger and improve nutrition were made including a $4.15 billion financial commitment.

Overall, an important day for Nutrition!

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The Lancet Nutrition Series issued on 6th June 2013 !

The Lancet Nutrition Series are launched on 6^th June 2013 !
Five years after the initial series, The Lancet re-evaluates the problems of maternal and child undernutrition and also examines the growing problems of overweight and obesity for women and children, and their consequences in low-income and middle-income countries.

The Series highlights the availability of proven interventions that could address the persistent burden of malnutrition, presenting the best evidence and latest developments in the field.

Articles, papers and comments can be downloaded here.

For more information, click below.

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Watch out, WHO Nutrition launches 2 important reports !

Essential Nutrition Actions: Improving maternal, newborn, infant and young child nutrition

WHO has issued a consolidated package of guidance on nutrition targeting the first 1,000 days of life. This publication contains essential nutrition actions (ENA) that policy-makers could implement to reduce infant and child mortality, improve physical and mental growth and development, and improve productivity. The package is divided in 2 parts:

Part I presents the interventions currently recommended by WHO, their rationale and evidence and describes the actions required to implement them. The document uses a life course approach, from pre-conception throughout the first 2 years of life.

Part II analyses the implementation of ENAs in operational large-scale programmes, gives their effectiveness when delivered in an integrated fashion as well as their implications for designing future programmes and sustaining existing ones.

The report can be downloaded here.

Global nutrition policy review: What does it take to scale up nutrition action?
The Global nutrition policy review analysed policy environment and governance, policy implementation in specific nutrition areas, policy coherence (identification of stakeholders and coordination mechanism) and the implementation of monitoring and evaluation.

The Review is based on a questionnaire survey conducted during 2009-2010, in which 119 WHO Member States and 4 territories participated. Results are presented by regions and complemented by the results of the in-depth country assessments of the Landscape Analysis on Countries' Readiness to Accelerate Action in Nutrition initiated by WHO in 2008. Though the Review identified a number of gaps in the design, content and implementation of these policies and programmes, it appears that much progress has been made since ICN 1992 in the design and implementation of national nutrition policies and plans of action.

The report can be downloaded here

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The Report of the High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda

The UN High-level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda (HLP) has issued its final report, presenting it to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at a ceremony at UN Headquarters in New York, US, on 30 May 2013. The report is aimed at informing, among other processes, the Secretary-General's forthcoming report to the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on the post-2015 development agenda.

The report can be downloaded here.

To read more, please click below.

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Training: 12th International Postgraduate Course on the Production and Use of Food Composition Data in Nutrition - 13-25 October 2013 - the Netherlands

12^th International Postgraduate Course on the Production and Use of Food Composition Data in Nutrition will be organized from 13-25 October 2013, in Wageningen, the Netherlands.

For more information, please click on the link below

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Vacancy: Helen Keller International - Experienced Program Coordinator

Helen Keller International is seeking an experienced Program Coordinator to lead its Enhanced Homestead Food Production program.

HKI's Enhanced Homestead Food Production (EHFP) program has helped communities to establish technically-improved local food production systems by creating gardens yielding micronutrient-rich fruits and vegetables year-round, complemented with poultry and small livestock production and nutrition behavior change communication. HKI has received funding to expand this program to four countries in Africa and is seeking an experienced Program Coordinator to lead this program whose goal is to strengthen the capacity of the agricultural extension services and establish and build community capacity for demonstration farms in state-of-the-art homestead food production, small animal husbandry activities and behavior change communication (BCC) for essential nutrition actions (ENA). This program aims to create the conditions for scale-up and replication while documenting and disseminating important lessons learned. The position is based in Dakar, Senegal with international travel.

Please find the full job position attached.

Qualified candidates should submit a cover letter and resume to hkihr@hki.org noting the position title in the subject line.

Applications will be accepted until the position is filled.

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Save the Children - 14th State of the World’s Mothers Report

Save the Children launched the 14th annual State of the World's Mothers Report. Every year, this flagship report shines a light on the most challenging issues facing mothers and children and includes the Mother's Index which shows where mothers and children fare best and where they face the greatest risk of mortality.

This year's report focuses on the critical first day of life. More than 1 million babies die on the day they are born- making the birth day the most dangerous day for babies in nearly every country, rich and poor alike.

The report highlights approaches that are working to bring essential health care to the hard-to-reach places where most deaths occur. And it shows how millions more lives can be saved each year if we invest in proven solutions and help mothers do what's best for their children.

Finally, the report concludes with calling political leaders to take national and international action to step up efforts to tackle newborn, child and maternal mortality through:

Strengthening health systems so mothers have greater access to skilled birth attendants;
Fighting the underlying causes of newborn mortality, especially gender inequality and malnutrition;
Investing in low-cost solutions that can dramatically reduce newborn mortality;
Increasing commitments and funding to save the lives of mothers and newborns;

Please find the full report here.

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Conference: Nexus 2014: Water, Food, Climate and Energy Conference, March 2014

The Water Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will host the Nexus 2014: Water, Food, Climate and Energy Conference on March 3-7, 2014.

The Conference will bring together researchers and practitioners working in government, civil society and business, focusing on the nexus approach. Building on the Water, Food and Energy Nexus Conference held in Bonn, Germany in 2011, this Conference aims to address the connected, but distinct, relationships between water, food, climate, energy, security, sustainability and development.

The themes for the 2014 Conference will be:
• Economics and Finance of the Nexus
• Politics, Policy and Regulation
• Ecosystem Approaches and Resilience
• Resource Scarcity and Security
• Remote Sensing and GIS Approaches

Abstracts for poster and verbal presentationsare now accepted via the Conference website. The submission deadline is 27 September 2013.

For further information, please contact Mr Felix Dodds, Executive Director Stakeholder Forum, at felix@felixdodds.net.

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White Vegetables: A Forgotten Source of Nutrients

The May edition of the Advances in Nutrition Journal has a Supplement on "White Vegetables: A Forgotten Source of Nutrients". It is interesting in that it looks at food components (phytochemicals) and nutrients, reminding us that there is more to life (and sight) than beta carotene....

To read the paper, please click on the link below.

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Vacancy: ACF vacancies - France & Chad

Attached below are two vacancies from Action Contre la Faim in France and Chad.

Deadline for applications is now 30 June 2013.

Action contre la Faim cherche (1) un Voltigeur Coordinateur en Nutrition et Santé d'urgence pour coordonner les programmes nutritionnels sur les missions d'ACF (France), et (2) un Chef de Département Nutrition et Santé pour définir les stratégies, apporter une expertise technique et représenter Action Contre la Faim dans le domaine de la santé et de la nutrition au Tchad. Pour plus d'informations, cliquez en bas de page.

Nouvelle date d'expiration: le 30 juin 2013

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