SCN News No 34 - UNSCN

www.unsystem.org/scn FEATURES 21
difficult approach you can take in any field.
The ‘targeted services’ approach includes programmes such as the Ending Child Hunger and Undernutrition
Initiative (ECHUI) and the UNICEF immunization programmes in the 1980s. Delivering targeted services is
clearly advantageous in terms of producing measurable results, but for sustainability special attention must
be given to ensure local ownership. While Norway is supportive of the goals of ECHUI and recognizes the
need for a package of targeted services which aims to reach 100 million families, there is also a need to
continue efforts to raise incomes and education levels.
The two approaches need to be regarded as complementary to each other. This is reflected in the title of the
recent report by the UN High-level Panel on UN System-wide Coherence "Delivering as One", where
'delivering' reflects the targeted services and 'One' (UN) reflects the cohesive UN system (UN 2006).
Development effectiveness of cooperation
The methods of collaboration in the international nutrition system are centered around global goals and
targets such as the MDGs with an emphasis on national ownership through Poverty Reduction Strategies.
The MDGs however, are not action plans and do not indicate which programmes and partners to prioritize.
For the past two decades at least, development cooperation has moved upstream from projects to policies,
budgets and programmes. This has enhanced ownership, effectiveness, harmonization and sustainability. At
the same time it means that we have pulled ourselves away from the intricacies of nutrition at community and
household level, which may differ greatly from one situation to another as was demonstrated by the examples
of Ethiopia and Bangladesh.
Country ownership is critical to food and nutrition programmes. National policy frameworks and coordination
mechanisms however, are not always connected to the reality at household level. As nutrition and
development practitioners we are responsible to ensure that such connections are made and that our work
indeed does make a difference for the people and families.
With the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (2005), many bilateral partners are constrained by
concentration on three sectors in each country. Nutrition unfortunately, is almost never one of the priorities
because it is a crosscutting issue and because it is not high enough on the political agenda. Nutrition together
with agriculture, food production and food distribution have lost out in the attention and resources of bilateral
and multilateral development cooperation.
Bilaterals' role in closing the gap between nutrition reality and implementation models
Bilateral partners can contribute to repositioning nutrition into the development agenda and the various
implementation models at global as well as national level. For Norway in particular, nutrition strategies can be
integrated into development efforts for MDG4 on child survival, which is identified as a key priority area by the
Norwegian Prime Minister.
Global engagement involves sharing experiences while working on issues of malnutrition, gender inequality
and health and nutrition education. This requires involving both development and nutrition expertise. The
Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation for example, works closely with health and nutrition experts
in line ministries and other institutions. Furthermore, we need to involve ourselves in global normative and
regulatory efforts where we can contribute to setting the scope for global regulation. Recent examples include
efforts to establish regulation on marketing of unhealthy food and on intellectual property. Importantly,
bilateral partners need to promote best practices of effective collaboration. This does not mean working
together all the way to the field, but rather agreeing on goals and strategies while creating space for division
of labor and diversified implementation. Increasingly, there is a need to engage with the ‘new donors’ in the
private sector. While we can learn much from their vertical, results-oriented approach, we also have an
important role to play in supplementing private initiatives by strengthening systems that support these kinds
of results, including engaging with local private sector and rural farmers.
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