The SUN Business Network (SBN) aims to increase the availability and affordability of safe, nutritious foods to consumers, especially low-income consumers through activities at global and national levels. At a national level, the SBN convenes businesses, assesses technical, financial and other business support service needs for members, and advocates the role of business in addressing nutrition at country level. Read More
The SUN Business Network (SBN) aims to increase the availability and affordability of safe, nutritious foods to consumers, especially low-income consumers through activities at global and national levels. At a national level, the SBN convenes businesses, assesses technical, financial and other business support service needs for members, and advocates the role of business in addressing nutrition at country level. At a global level, the SBN acts as a focal point for engaging multinational businesses in nutrition activities such as making workplace nutrition commitments.Read More
The SUN Business Network (SBN) aims to increase the availability and affordability of safe, nutritious foods to consumers, especially low-income consumers through activities at global and national levels. At a national level, the SBN convenes businesses, assesses technical, financial and other business support service needs for members, and advocates the role of business in addressing nutrition at country level.Read More
It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using 'Content here, content here', making it look like readable English. Read More
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The Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Pitch Competition, organised by the SUN Business Network, harnesses innovative solutions for improved nutrition by connecting Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in emerging markets with technical assistance and investment opportunities. The Global SUN Pitch Competition 2020 took place as a virtual event on 30th July 2020, showcasing the top 21 entrepreneurs shortlisted from National SUN Pitch Competitions in 2019. Read More
SMEs are critical in shaping the nutritional outcomes of local food systems; 64% of food consumed in Africa is handled by millions of SMEs along agri-food value chains as input suppliers, off-takers, processors, distributors, or otherwise. They constitute a pull factor, aggregating smallholder farmers into the value chain and upgrading the quality and efficiency of farming, leading to a more sustainable food system. Read More
The success of the SUN Pitch Competition is thanks to the generous support of our sponsors and partners, without whom the competition would not be possible. Our sponsors and partners offer a variety of in-kind and financial contributions to support the national and global pitch competitions, provide mentorship to finalists and increase the visibility of the competition Read More
The Global SUN Pitch Competition brought together 21 innovative SMEs from national pitch competitions in Africa and Asia to pitch their nutrition solution to a panel of high-level judges and an audience of investors for a chance to win cash and technical assistance prizes. Read More
National SUN Pitch Competitions are run by SUN Business Networks in partnership with a local accelerator. All shortlisted applicants selected through National SUN Pitch Competitions compete in an in-person bootcamp focused on nutrition awareness, strategy for scale and soft skills training, culminating in a national pitching event. National SUN Pitch Competitions were held in the following countries throughout 2019:
The Republic of the Union of Myanmar joined the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement on 24 April 2013, and in 2018, plans to engage the private sector by setting up a SUN Business Network (SBN) were proposed by WFP Myanmar. The mission of SBN Myanmar is to mobilise business across the food system to act, invest and innovate in support of the SUN Movement and as such to improve and strengthen the private sector’s contribution towards improving nutrition in Myanmar.
Myanmar faces a number of nutritional concerns, namely child stunting, wasting and micronutrient deficiencies. Of children under five years old, 19.1% are underweight, and 26.7% and 6.7% of this age group faces stunting and wasting, respectively. Meanwhile, 35.6% of children between 6 and 59 months are anaemic, as well as 51.1% primary school age children, 29.8% adolescent girls, 40% pregnant women, 35.4% lactating mothers and 30.3% women of reproductive age.
SBN Myanmar has four thematic areas of focus:
For each of the SBN focus areas, activities have been defined for the SBN to implement during the start-up phase (2020-2021). The activities have been verified in consultation meetings with business and non-business stakeholders in Myanmar. The activities show the key roles of an SBN: convening, matchmaking, advocacy, knowledge development, financing and awareness creation.
Like any crisis, the one we face now is a turning point. The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed profound systemic failures in the systems that support nutrition. Sustaining investments in essential life-saving nutrition interventions and food security programs will be key to protect hard-won nutrition gains. But we must also draw the lessons from the pandemic and build forward better, more resilient and efficient food, social protection and health systems in support of nutrition – as recommended by the UN Secretary General in the Policy Brief on the Impact of COVID-19 on Food Security and Nutrition (watch his video address here).
On December 14th 2020, the Governments of Canada and Bangladesh, in partnership with the Government of Japan, hosted a virtual launch of the Nutrition Year of Action . This has set in motion a year-long effort that will be punctuated by major global events in 2021, including the UN Food Systems Summit (alongside the UN General Assembly in September) and the Tokyo Nutrition for Growth Summit (in Tokyo, Japan, in December). This global momentum is much-needed. But we must remember there is no one-size-fits-all for countries. Systemic solutions must be country specific and country-owned if to get the results we all hope for.
Building on SUN’s multisectoral work in countries, this Year of Action presents a unique opportunity to align global players and financial incentives behind country-led actions to respond to the needs of the most vulnerable, while priming the systemic transformation needed to achieve the nutrition goals and catalyze progress towards the SDGs.
“Recommitting to nutrition as a central component of COVID response and recovery, and as a long-term development priority, is the only sure way to deliver on the World Health Assembly Nutrition Targets and the Sustainable Development Goals. The time to act is now! “
Recent/Upcoming National dialogues in SUN countries
Global awareness is rising on the need to transform our food systems if we are to achieve nutrition targets and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The UN Secretary-General António Guterres will convene a Food Systems Summit in September 2021 that aims at launching bold new actions to transform the way the world produces, consumes and thinks about food. It is a summit for everyone everywhere – a people’s summit. It is also a solutions summit that will require everyone to take action to transform the world’s food systems.
Along this journey, it is critical to recognize that there is no one-size-fits-all solution at the country level. Every country needs a tailor-made approach. This will require dialogues across multiple sectors to reach a confluence of perspectives and develop a collective, systemic, and sustainable path forward. Global stakeholders must facilitate this process and align behind country-owned solutions for results and impact. This focus on country-led systemic change is fully aligned with the SUN 3.0 strategy.
The Food Systems Summit Dialogues will offer one of the most dynamic ways to engage SUN stakeholders at the country level to engage in national-level dialogues, bringing food system stakeholders together and engaging them in considering how they can unite around transformative actions in support of the SDGs. The aim is to collectively define national pathways towards more resilient, nutrition-sensitive, and climate-smart food systems at the country level.
SUN Stakeholders are invited to engage in these Dialogues actively, building on the SUN multi-sectoral/multi-stakeholder work and bringing the SUN priorities to the table. As such, Dialogues can kick-start the SUN 3.0 strategy, revitalize ownership of the nutrition agenda at the highest political level and initiate commitments to transformative action in order to achieve sustainable impact for people’s nutrition, in the lead up to the Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit.
Resources
The Government of Japan will host the Tokyo Nutrition for Growth Summit 2021 (N4G 2021). The summit is an unprecedented opportunity to set the world on a pathway towards achieving the SDG targets – in particular, to end malnutrition in all its forms by 2030 and strengthen the link between diet, food systems and health. Its timing is key, with 5 years to achieve the 2025 World Health Assembly targets, and 10 years to reach the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. At N4G 2021, the Government of Japan aims to work with partners to galvanise commitments from governments, civil society, private sector, donor agencies and the UN to end malnutrition in all its forms.
The Global Nutrition Report and the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement will co-host the first in a series of regional roundtables to mobilize key actors at the regional and country level around the Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Year of Action and Tokyo N4G Summit 2021.
The Tokyo N4G Summit comes at a critical time, midway through the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition – with only four years left to achieve the global nutrition targets on maternal, infant, and young child nutrition and diet-related noncommunicable diseases, and nine years to reach the Sustainable Development Goals. Bringing together a diverse range of actors from across the Asia-Pacific region, this first roundtable will create space for group discussion of the N4G Year of Action, the Tokyo N4G Summit and the commitment-making process.
If you would like to attend, please register through this link: https://globalnutritionreport.org/events/building-momentum-n4g-year-action-how-make-smart-commitments-regional-roundtable-1/
The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to roll back our hard-won global progress on fighting malnutrition over the last decade with massive disruptions of health services and a negative impact on jobs, food security, and livelihoods. Recent financing estimates show that an additional 1.2 billion USD is needed annually to combat the effects of COVID-19 on stunting, wasting, and maternal anemia. This amount should complement the Global Nutrition Investment Framework financing estimates of 7 billion USD per year (between 2016 and 2025) for which the world was already not on track. The pandemic has exacerbated the capacity of national governments to mobilize additional resources for their national development plans implementation – including their multi-sectoral nutrition plans.
The ability of emerging and developing economies to sustain nutrition programming is highly questionable in the medium and long term. Because securing domestic and external financing is at the core of the 2021 Tokyo Nutrition for Growth Compact, it is urgent that comprehensive, innovative and faster financing mechanisms are put in place if we are to achieve the SDGs. The upcoming 2021 financing commitments will therefore involve innovative financing mechanisms and catalytic funds, an increased focus on nutrition sensitive financing while improving data and efficiency of spending for nutrition will be critical. National governments, donor agencies, and philanthropists and other financing institutions are encouraged to double their efforts despite the gloomy economic context.
Investments in Nutrition are among the best value-for-money. They are essential in achieving the SDGs and will contribute to a more resilient, prosperous, and peaceful world.
