SCN News No 36 - UNSCN

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Update on REACH – Ending Child Hunger and Undernutrition
Denise Costa Coitinho on behalf of the Inter-Agency Team hosted by WFP
Nutrition is a desperately neglected aspect of maternal, newborn, and child health. The medical journal The
Lancet in its new maternal and child undernutrition series (Maternal and Child Undernutrition Study Group
2008), finds that 90% of the world’s undernourished children live in just 36 countries, and intensified nutrition
action in these countries would greatly contribute to the achievement of the first Millennium Development
Goal (MDG1) and substantially increase the chances of achieving goals for reducing child and maternal mortality
and disease (MDGs 4, 5 and 6). UNICEF (2007) found that 51 developing countries are making
insufficient progress towards MDG1’s ‘hunger target’, as measured by the prevalence of underweight among
under-fives. Eighteen of these were making no progress at all or were going backwards.
To accelerate countries’ progress on MDG-1, Target 2 (halve the proportion of underweight under-fives), the
global community has realised that there is an urgent need for renewed efforts against child hunger, as a priority
in the identified 36 countries. Such a renewed effort requires government-led, solution-focused partnerships
among the UN, civil society and private sectors. What is also needed is a redirection of funds and attention
to support the delivery of proven nutrition interventions at scale. There is a need for seamless nutrition
support between children under five and those of school age. A coherent joint response from the UN and
partners in support of national governments is urgently required to move these efforts forward. To fulfil this
perceived need, WFP, UNICEF and partners, have been developing the Ending Child Hunger and Undernutrition
Initiative (ECHUI) since 2006.
ECHUI was first presented to the SCN during its 34 th session, in Rome. The SCN welcomed ECHUI, endorsed
its goals, and recommended that it be a broad-based partnership with close links to the SCN. A series
of concrete recommendations were made with various offers of technical or managerial support to further
strengthen ECHUI:
1. The SCN should provide an advisory role to ECHUI;
2. ECHUI should build on existing SCN structures (Working Groups and Task Forces);
3. The SCN and ECHUI Secretariats should be closely articulated; and,
4. ECHUI should report on progress at the SCN Annual Sessions.
The progress report to the 35th session of the SCN aimed at meeting the fourth recommendation.
In July 2007, ECHUI was approved by WFP and UNICEF Executive Boards. The two organizations were
requested to continue developing ECHUI including further refining of the workplan, developing the Partners
Group, and preparing the ground for the Secretariat. In the same month, ECHUI preliminary studies in
Mauritania and Niger were concluded and by the end of 2007 the WHO-led Landscape Analysis on
Countries' Readiness to Accelerate Action in Nutrition was initiated (WHO 2008). In November 2007, the
WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan joined the effort and seconded a staff member to Rome. The Inter-
Agency Team was then established in Rome, hosted by WFP. Following these good developments, the FAO
Director-General Dr Jacques Diouf joined the effort as the fourth core partner, in January 2008.
In February 2008, the Lancet series on maternal and child undernutrition was launched and ECHUI-promoted
interventions accordingly revised and organized into “big five” priority action areas, to achieve four agreed
outcomes:
1. increased awareness and understanding of the problem of hunger and undernutrition, and of known
solutions;
2. supported national policy and programme development;
3. increased capacity for action at all levels; and,
4. increased monitoring, efficiency and accountability of global efforts
More focus and a roll-out plan that brings together on-going initiatives was then proposed by the Inter-Agency
Team. The new brand ‘REACH: ending child hunger and undernutrition’ was also proposed. Progress to date
is presented now to the SCN for further advise.
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