Background Information – SUN Movement Secretariat
Since 2010, the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement has inspired a new way of working collaboratively to end malnutrition, in all its forms. With the governments of SUN Countries in the lead, it unites people—from civil society, the United Nations, donors, businesses and researchers—in a collective effort to improve nutrition. The SUN Strategy 2021–2025 (SUN 3.0) prioritises country leadership and focuses on supporting systemic change at the country level. It seeks to capture the ambition of SUN countries and guide the work of all actors at all levels aligning concerted action behind and responding to commonly agreed national priorities set out by governments in SUN countries.
SUN 3.0 is committed to fundamental, non-negotiable aspects of effective nutrition action, including equity and the principle of leaving no one behind. For its third phase, the SUN Movement will drive forward gender equality and enshrine youth leadership across the Movement. SUN 3.0 will strengthen partnerships to achieve greater impact on nutrition through food systems, health systems, social protection systems, actions by the private sector and humanitarian and development actors, and through education, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and climate change adaptation.
The SUN Movement Secretariat plays a central role in enabling the multiple members and structures of the Movement to work together to advance progress on country-level priorities and the global positioning of nutrition.
The SUN Movement Secretariat comprises personnel, based in Geneva and in various regions globally. All parts of the Movement – member governments, the SUN Global Support System - the GSS, consisting of four SUN networks (Civil Society, United Nations, Business, Donors) and the SUN Movement Secretariat, together with the SUN Movement Coordinator, work together to align and focus efforts on priorities within countries.
The SUN Movement Secretariat is hosted by UNOPS.
Role of the Country Action Specialist
The Country Action Specialist, (Convergence Hub) reports to the Regional Representative. The SUN Country Action team is critical in supporting the SUN Movement to achieve the objectives set out in SUN 3.0, and provides the capacity to ensure SUN Countries are at the centre of everything the Movement does, empowering SUN Country Focal Points and/or Country Coordinators to act. The team is currently organised into five Hubs, and the Country Action Specialist supports the Convergence Hub countries, focusing particularly on the French speaking countries.
The Country Action Specialist, Convergence Hub is based in Nairobi and is part of a small team established to support the development of National Nutrition Plans, facilitate information sharing and knowledge exchange, and identify advocacy opportunities across the countries within the defined portfolio. The Specialist will work closely with national counterparts and other stakeholders, including representatives of the SUN Networks, to strengthen the institutional capacity for nutrition by identifying, creating and strengthening opportunities to accelerate progress in countries; identifying successful interventions and moving quickly to scale up results and ensuring effective peer learning and knowledge exchange across the Movement.
The role supports the Regional Representative to build and maintain effective understanding, communication and technical support across the broad national and international community of stakeholders to understand risks and challenges so that resources may be mobilised and technical assistance provided as necessary.