The SUN Transition Team is tasked with bringing the SUN Road Map to fruition. It is chaired by the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Food Security and Nutrition who is working closely with the Chair of the UN’s Standing Committee on Nutrition and a number of senior officials from a wide rage of organizations. These include the FAO, UNICEF, WHO, WFP and the World Bank, the REACH initiative, the African and European Unions, other Regional Bodies, Civil Society, Farmers’ Organizations, the Research Community, Private Companies, Development Partners and Philanthropic Foundations.
This Transition team is focusing on arrangements through which national authorities can request, and then access, support for actions to Scale-Up Nutrition. The Team has begun to consider how best to ensure that the support is responsive to country needs and requests, is coordinated, is of high technical quality and is effective. The Team will examine means through which all development partners involved in country SUN action can access clear accounts of achievements and costs.
As with the development of the Road Map, the Transition Team will draw on expert groups, or Task Forces, to ensure sustained and focused support for SUN actions in-country. There are six inter-linked Task Forces under the overall stewardship of the Transition Team.
Membership: The UN Secretary General has committed the UN system to joint working on food and nutrition security. The UN Secretary General`s Special Representative for Food Security and Nutrition chairs a ‘Transition Team’ tasked with bringing the SUN Road Map to fruition. The Chair works closely with the UN’s Standing Committee on Nutrition and a number of senior officials from a wide range of organizations including the FAO, UNICEF, WHO, WFP and the World Bank, the REACH initiative, the African and European Unions, other Regional Bodies, Civil Society, Farmers’ Organizations, the Research Community, Private Companies, Development Partners and Philanthropic Foundations.
Role: The Transition Team focuses on arrangements through which national authorities can request, and then access, support for actions to Scale-Up Nutrition. The Team considers how best to ensure that the support is responsive to country needs and requests, is coordinated, is of high technical quality and is effective. A means through which all development partners involved in SUN action can access clear accounts of achievements and costs will also be proposed.
Objectives: Countries committed to scaling up should be able to access coordinated and responsive support from development partners, civil society and the private sector as and when needed. There are four outcomes being pursued by the Transition Team:
1) The first outcome is a rapid increase in support for “Early Riser” countries that seek immediate help with their efforts to Scale Up Nutrition through encouraging linkages between national authorities that want to get going now and development partners that are ready to help them. The support will (a) take stock of existing efforts and implementation gaps and (b) facilitate the development (or strengthening) of national multi stakeholder nutrition platforms.
2) The second outcome is to ensure the development of long-term systems for support to Scaling Up Nutrition in all countries affected by under-nutrition. These systems will enable national authorities to better connect and engage with key nutrition stakeholders from both civil society and the private sector in ways that are effective, credible and accountable.
3) The third outcome is to foster a SUN Movement with effective advocacy and leadership. A durable multi-audience advocacy campaign that encourages the emergence of effective and self-sustaining nutrition leadership at community, national, regional and global levels will be built. The accomplishments of the SUN movement throughout its first three years, and beyond, will be documented and communicated (in close coordination with “1,000 days”).
4) The fourth outcome is an agreement on transparent and accountable institutional arrangements for the SUN effort once the Transition Team has completed its work. This will require an analysis of needed features, organizational arrangements, and available options. It is intended that countries will be engaged as full partners and that key stakeholders wishing to contribute to country-led SUN actions are able to do so. This work is being taken forward in conjunction with efforts to reform the UN Standing Committee on Nutrition (SCN).
As suggested in the SUN Road Map, the Transition Team is benchmarking results based on progress at the country-level using a Progress Tracking System. This includes a country-by-country inventory of what is happening, of what is intended, and of the prospects for successful scale-up.
Timeframe: The Transition Team is an interim measure due to operate until the middle of 2011. It will examine its performance regularly and adjust its ways of working as necessary. It will meet in January 2011 to ensure that a clear framework for communicating SUN needs is in place and can convene all interested stakeholders. The team will also draw up guidelines to facilitate coordination among development partners interested in supporting SUN efforts in countries.