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For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children's survival, protection and development. The world's largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.
Purpose of the Assignment
By joining the global SUN movement in July of 2014, the leadership of Lesotho demonstrated its commitment to scaling up nutrition as part of its efforts to achieve national and global sustainable development goals. With one in three children in Lesotho being stunted, a sign of chronic malnutrition, there is need for concerted and coordinated Government led initiatives to harness the commitment and resources of multiple sectors to reduce the levels of malnutrition with a focus on the first one thousand days of a child's life. The Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) movement is well designed for such efforts and has been recognised as appropriate and well timed for Lesotho's specific needs.
In December 2015, the SUN focal point (FNCO) requested the UN SUN Movement Secretariat (SMS) for technical assistance to advance multi-sectoral nutrition efforts in Lesotho. A rapid assessment was then commissioned with support from the UK Government's Department for International Development (DfID) and the Maximising the Quality of Scaling Up Nutrition (MQSUN) consortium to increase understanding of governance, accountabilities and capacity related issues.
For the country to advance the SUN commitment and achieve SDGs, the following recommendations from the rapid assessment were made:
- Lesotho must first revisit and update the Memorandum of Understanding for the Food and Nutrition Coordinating Office (FNCO) so that the full mandate of FNCO is realized. This will include revival of the Food and Nutrition Council of Cabinet Ministers and re-establishment the FNCO sub-committees aligned to the SUN coordination and implementation platforms.
- There will be need to implement a systematic approach for capacity building in the country which includes both pre- and in-service training as well as implementing structures.
- Conduct a stakeholder mapping exercise for nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions and approaches.
