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 approximately 35 personnel, based in Geneva and in various regions globally. All parts of the Movement – member governments, the four SUN networks (Civil Society, United Nations, Business, Donors), the SUN Movement Coordinator and the SUN Movement Secretariat work together to align and focus efforts on priorities within countries.
The SUN Movement Secretariat is hosted by UNOPS.
Role of the Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning/Knowledge Management Advisor (MEAL/KM)
The MEAL/KM Advisor is part of the Country Action team of the SUN Movement Secretariat. The purpose of this team is to support SUN Movement countries in advocacy, positioning, planning, multi-sector/stakeholder collaboration, resource mobilisation, implementation and monitoring and evaluation of their National Nutrition Plans.
The MEAL/KM Advisor reports to the Head of Country Action. The purpose of the role is to drive the role of the SMS as an active broker of knowledge, facilitating the flow of relevant new evidence and experience generated from within the SUN countries, networks and outside the Movement that:
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makes the case for nutrition as a sustainable development imperative,
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highlights effective programmes and policies that could be adapted and emulated by other SUN members, and
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helps countries prioritise actions.
The SMS also has a key role to facilitate the sharing of relevant learning from one country to other, often via existing/new regional and South-South exchange opportunities and physical and virtual information-sharing platforms.
This is a critical influencing role, responsible for establishing and maintaining important relationships and partnerships, in order to foster data collection and knowledge exchange. The (MEAL/KM) Advisor plays an important role in supporting the SUN Movement to foster a strong utilisation focus and greater transparency as part of an evidence-based culture.
S/he also manages a geographically dispersed team to ensure policy and practice across the Movement is informed by country status (situations?) and needs, with a focus on translating the political commitment of SUN Movement actors into coherent action in-country, aligned with national priorities.