From nutrition commitments to nutrition results. A SUN CSN campaign MOBILISATION & ADVOCACY TOOLKIT

WHAT IS THE SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY CAMPAIGN FOR NUTRITION ABOUT?

Throughout the 2021 Year of Action on Nutrition, which culminated with the Nutrition for Growth (N4G) and UN Food Systems (UNFS) summits, nutrition stakeholders made wide-ranging commitments to end malnutrition and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Following a consultative process at the national level, most SUN countries adopted Food Systems Transformation Pathways where nutrition targets often feature highly. Commitments made at N4G were further recorded by the Global Nutrition Report (GNR) and incorporated into the Nutrition Accountability Framework (NAF).

Now that decision-makers have made commitments towards ending malnutrition, the focus must be on holding them accountable to ensure the commitments are delivered and translated into tangible nutrition results. This is more urgent than ever as important challenges are ahead. There is no room for complacency: the level of energy that we saw in 2021 must be matched in the years to come to ensure accountability and implementation of the commitments made.

To this effect, the Scaling Up Nutrition Civil Society Network (SUN CSN) Secretariat has launched a global effort around the anniversary of N4G, in December 2022, to support the CSN members in upholding accountability at the local and national levels throughout the coming months until the next UNFS (2023) and N4G (2024-2025) summits. This will complement the NAF, adding the invaluable perspectives and experiences of grassroots communities which are not always captured in quantitative data, and supporting civil society to use the NAF to hold decision-makers to account.

WHY THIS MOBILISATION & ADVOCACY TOOLKIT? WHO IS IT FOR?

AIM: This mobilisation & advocacy toolkit aims to equip CSN members and partners with the tools they need to hold commitment-makers to account, and galvanise multiple stakeholders behind one common vision: We are all accountable.

AUDIENCE: It is addressed to SUN CSN members and partners supporting the campaign.

CONTENT: It contains guidance on what social accountability is, how to track commitments, gather and analyse data, and how to document stories. It also includes suggestions of advocacy messages, scorecard and advocacy letter templates, and social media assets.

FORMAT: In order to ensure engagement throughout the duration of the campaign, this toolkit will be a living online document, launched on the 1st anniversary of N4G in Japan (7-8 December 2022) and updated regularly with new guidance and suggestions of mobilisation activities from then on.

1. HAVE YOUR ADVOCACY MESSAGES READY AT THE RIGHT TIME

1. In the face of global crises, disproportionately impacting low-income countries, it is more urgent than ever to address malnutrition

• Despite an unprecedented mobilisation during the Year of Action for Nutrition in 2021, we are still nowhere near meeting the World Health Assembly targets by 2025. Unfortunately, more challenges have arisen since the N4G Summit with current conflicts and disasters related to climate change having had far-reaching consequences for the global food supply, with a devastating impact on the developing world.
• The next N4G summit will be hosted by France in 2024-2025. Now is our last chance to boost the achievement of the World Health Assembly targets (by 2025) as a key milestone towards the achievement of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

2. Civil society’s role is essential in holding decision-makers to account

• The level of energy that we saw in 2021 must be matched and even surpassed to ensure accountability and implementation of commitments made. The task will only be finished when commitments translate into tangible resources, projects, and policies to reverse dangerous trends in the fight against malnutrition.
• Thanks to their grassroots expertise and outreach, SUN Civil Society Alliances have the legitimacy to hold commitment-makers to account as they witness first-hand the reality of malnutrition within communities.
• SUN Civil Society Alliances call for proven, up to date and accessible data to be shared transparently across all nutrition stakeholders. Civil Society can also access qualitative data that is essential to reflect communities’ perceptions of the delivery of commitments and ultimately accelerate progress in meeting them.

3. Commitments will not be met until we work together and across sectors

• In order to create effective, long lasting change for people and the planet in years to come, we must seize every opportunity to work together and across sectors, while adopting an inclusive approach, leaving no one behind.
• SUN Civil Society Alliances call for a collaborative approach: they stand ready to make best use of their combined expertise and extensive outreach on the ground to support governments in accelerating progress to meet and exceed country commitments.

2. COLLECT THE DATA

Here are suggested steps for gathering data on how countries are delivering on their nutrition commitments:

1. Review the burden of malnutrition in your country in the Global Nutrition Report’s Country Profiles by selecting your country in the top right-hand bar.
2. Review the national nutrition action plans.
3. Review the commitments made by various stakeholders - including civil society - in the NAF Commitment Tracker by selecting your country in the filter.
4. Using and adapting this letter template (available once the N4G Summit is announced), request a meeting with relevant ministries and local authorities to discuss the status of commitments and possible areas of collaboration with civil society, as well as to present the work of the SUN Civil Society Alliance, profiling its members as trusted partners.

3. POPULATE SCORECARD

Two years ago, we made commitments at the Tokyo N4G Summit.

We therefore invite you to join the SUN Civil Society Network in leading by example by reporting progress against our own commitments, and calling on other commitment-makers to follow suit.

In December 2021, we made commitments at the Tokyo N4G Summit.

HOW CAN YOU GET INVOLVED?

• Check out your own N4G Commitments here by typing the name of your organisation/agency in the ‘search and filter’ bar;

• Fill out the below scorecard assessing progress against your commitments, using the traffic light scoring system: RED for ‘not yet achieved’, YELLOW for ‘in progress’ and GREEN for ‘achieved’;

• Take a picture of yourself holding your scorecard;

• Post it on social media with #AllAccountable and tagging the @SUNCSN, your organisation/agency and your advocacy target.

Note: This scorecard does not replace the official Global Nutrition Report reporting tool that all commitment-makers will need to fill out by the next N4G Summit. When available next year, we will invite you and other commitment-makers to follow the reporting guidelines, and to take part in wider campaign activities so we can document and showcase good accountability practices led by civil society.

4. TELL YOUR STORY

Do you want to see your good practice on the SUN website? Please fill out this template to share your success story with others!

5. AMPLIFY ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Why not share your support for the campaign on your social media channels? We have created handy graphics and post copy to make it as easy as possible!