The UN Decade of Action on Nutrition 2016-2025

Action & Commitments

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UNICEF commits to the Nutrition Decade

UNICEF is committed to support the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition through the implementation of its Strategic Plan 2018-2021. The Strategic Plan reflects UNICEF’s new ambition for Maternal and Child Nutrition in support to the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030, and more specifically to: 

  1. Prevent stunting, wasting and all forms of undernutrition in early childhood.
  2. Prevent anemia and all forms of undernutrition in school-age children and adolescents
  3. Prevent anemia and all forms of undernutrition in pregnant women and lactating mothers.
  4. Prevent overweight and obesity in children, adolescents and women.
  5. Provide care for children with severe acute malnutrition in early childhood, in all contexts.

UNICEF programmes will be implemented in over 120 countries and will respond to different needs and contexts through five Programme Areas encompassing 20 context-specific results that will support the 6 Action Areas of the Nutrition Decade. Examples include:

Programme Area 1: Early Childhood Nutrition

  • Protecting, promoting and supporting breastfeeding in all contexts, for child survival, growth and development (Action Areas 1, 2, and 5).
  • Improving the quality of complementary foods and feeding, stimulation, and hygiene practices in the first years of life (Action Areas 1, 2, 3, and 5).
  • Promoting evidence-based policies and legislation that protect children and families from inappropriate labelling and marketing practices (Action Areas 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6).

Programme Area 2: Nutrition of School Age Children, Adolescents and Women

  • Promoting the design and scale-up of nutrition programmes for adolescent girls and boys through school- and community-based programmes (Action Areas 1, 2, and 5).
  • Promoting the design and scale-up of nutrition interventions for pregnant women and lactating mothers, including during ante-natal and post-natal care (Action Areas 1, 2, 5, 6).
  • Contributing to shape food systems so that they deliver healthy, affordable and sustainable diets for children and women, particularly the most vulnerable (Action Areas 1 and 6).

Programme Areas 3 and 4: Care for Children with Severe Acute Malnutrition and Nutrition in Emergencies

  • Promoting the scale up of policies and programmes to provide care for children with severe acute malnutrition as part of routine services for children (Action Areas 1, 2 and 5).
  • Ensuring the delivery of a package of essential nutrition services to children and women affected by humanitarian crises (Action Areas 2, 5 and 6).
  • Providing technical support to the Global Nutrition Cluster and its partners to improve the quality of the nutrition response in humanitarian crises (Action Areas 2 and 6).

Programme Area 5: Knowledge, Partnerships and Governance for Nutrition

  • Generating, using and sharing state-of-the-art knowledge on Maternal and Child Nutrition to inform policies, programmes and governance for nutrition (Action Area 6).
  • Supporting equity-focused monitoring, evaluation and research to inform policies, programmes and governance for maternal and child nutrition (Action Area 6).
  • Promoting nutrition sensitive social protection programmes to improve children and women’s access to healthy, affordable and sustainable diets (Action Areas 1, 3, and 6).

For further information, we welcome you to read the full commitment here.