At the Scaling Up Nutrition Civil Society Network we are deeply concerned with the news from Afghanistan and the worrying reports of severe hunger crisis due to extreme drought. Even before the Taliban advancement, Afghanistan had one of the world’s highest rates of stunting in children under-5 years old; 40.9% are stunted and 9.5% are […]
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World Breastfeeding Week: Kyrgyzstan are on a mission to protect breastfeeding
In 2019, the Ministry of Health in Kyrgyzstan created a working group to revise the Law «On the Protection of Breastfeeding», the working group included representatives of CSA SUN Kyrgyzstan, who contributed to the development of proposals for the draft of the Law. In the same year, UNICEF arranged a visit from David Clark, a […]
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World Breastfeeding Week: SUN CSA Cambodia investigators violators of the code
In Cambodia, the code for producers of breast milk substitutes was put in place in 2005. However, for the next decade there was little to no enforcement and when surveyed, only 27% of officials actually knew the details of the code. Despite widespread violations, there was no reporting and no enforcement recognition in place. To combat these […]
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5 things we learnt from the 2020 Civil Society Annual Survey
Our membership is huge! With civil society presence in nearly 50 countries, we always knew we were a large network. But after gathering the data from this year’s Annual Survey we have discovered that we have an incredible 4212 member organisations in the Scaling Up Nutrition Civil Society Network (SUN CSN)!1 This number has increased […]
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The SUN Civil Society Network launches its new 5-year strategy!
Why do we need a new CSN strategy? The Civil Society Network 3.0 strategy (2021-2025) constitutes an essential guide to rally all civil society members’ collective efforts behind a strong mission and vision. The CSN 3.0 strategy was designed for the Network by the Network, in alignment with the overall SUN Movement 3.0 strategy. As such, the […]
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SUN PfSl: International Women’s Day Program – 2021
International Women’s Day is celebrated on 8th of March every year. As an organization that works for the improvement of the nutritional status of the community, SUN PF also joins with various programs for Women’s Day every year. This is primarily because proper nutrition of women contributes to the nutritional wellbeing of the entire population […]
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Meet the women of the CSN: Dilka Rashmi Peiris
Project Director Scaling Up Nutrition People’s Forum, former SUN CSA focal person for Sri Lanka My work in nutrition I was really drawn to nutrition as it has a multi-sectoral approach. Women play a key role in implementing nutrition policies, both in the family and in society as a whole, and contributing to the health and […]
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Meet the women of the CSN: Duong Vu
Duong Vu, Vietnam Program Manager for Alive and Thrive (A&T) My work in nutrition I am Duong Vu. I work at Alive & Thrive Southeast Asia. As a core member of SUN CSN Vietnam, I supported the strategy development and policy advocacy. There are two recent policy wins that we all are very proud of. […]
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Meet the women of the CSN: Emilita Monville Oro
Acting Asia Regional Director and concurrent Country Director for Philippines International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR) My work in nutrition I got engaged with the SUN Movement through involvement of the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR), as one of the founding members of PHILCAN, Philippine Coalition of Advocates for Nutrition Security, Inc. Subsequently, PHILCAN […]
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Prioritising Youth Voices During the Year of Action for Nutrition for Growth
2021: A year overflowing with opportunities It’s 2021, and although very little may have changed so far in comparison to 2020 (come on, vaccines!), there has already been a huge shift: it is now officially the Year of Action for Nutrition. Last year, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in devastating losses to the decades of progress on […]
Leer2021: A year overflowing with opportunities
It’s 2021, and although very little may have changed so far in comparison to 2020 (come on, vaccines!), there has already been a huge shift: it is now officially the Year of Action for Nutrition.
Last year, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in devastating losses to the decades of progress on nutrition, but this year can be different. 2021 is overflowing with opportunities for the world to take meaningful action to reverse those losses. Together, we can build back better – with a focus on nutrition as a fundamental part of recovery.
Throughout the year’s key events, including the World Health Assembly, the Food Systems Summit, COP26 and UNGA, and culminating in the Nutrition for Growth Summit in December, governments and businesses will have the opportunity to demonstrate their commitment to a world free from malnutrition in all its forms by making new policy and financial commitments.
It is crucial that any new nutrition commitments take into account the perspectives and experiences of young people – and for this reason, it is vital that young people are positioned at front and centre of nutrition advocacy.
Why youth voices are important
The health and nutrition of adolescents are becoming global priorities. There are over 1.2 billion adolescents aged 10-19 in the world1 and nearly a quarter of the people in Sub-Saharan Africa are aged 10 to 192. Different stages of the life cycle dictate differing nutrient needs. Due to the spurt of growth that occurs in adolescence, several nutrients are at greater deficiency risk, including iron and calcium. To develop to their optimal potential, it is vital that adolescents choose nutritionally sound diets. This may spell the difference between health and risk of disease in later years.
Adolescents themselves have the best understanding of young people’s needs, how to address them, and how to get them involved. Because of this, youth voices can be an incredibly powerful force for bringing about the changes they want to see.
Listening to young people not only makes sense when considering nutrition interventions for children and young people – it is also an ethical issue. Children and young people have a right to participation and to be heard. They will inherit the problems that the world is currently facing (and in some cases, creating), so their solutions should be taken seriously. But as Mike Khunga, Youth Leader for Nutrition from Malawi, so elegantly put in a recent blog, “[young people] are the future, but we are also the present.” They are often hit hardest by global challenges such as pandemics and economic recessions, and their lived experiences need to be at the forefront of conversations about how to solve these challenges.
How the Youth Leaders for Nutrition have been raising their voices
Since 2018, the SUN CSN Youth Leaders for Nutrition have been raising their voices on behalf of young people all around the world to advocate for an end to malnutrition in their own communities and globally. The Youth Leaders have a wealth of experience speaking at high-level events and conferences such as the UN General Assembly, SUN Global Gathering, IFAD, and many more.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Youth Leaders have continued to exercise their influence by speaking at online events, writing blogs, and much more, working with organisations including UNICEF and Save the Children. The Youth Leaders even set up their own webinar for World Food Day 2020!
Working with the Youth Leaders for Nutrition
If you have an upcoming event or other advocacy opportunity and you would like to work with the Youth Leaders for Nutrition, please download and complete our Opportunity Form and send it to Hannah Taaffe, Advocacy and Youth Advisor at the SUN CSN Secretariat.
Youth Leader Opportunity Application Form
1 UNICEF, October 2019 (https://tinyurl.com/29fje3s9)
2 UNICEF, October 2019 (https://data.unicef.org/topic/adolescents/demographics/)
