Sight and Life Magazine 1/2011

82 WHAT'S NEWEach Task Force is finalizing its specific terms of referenceas well as an action plan and many are doing this at the sametime as beginning to deliver on specific projects.Sight and Life is represented on Task Force B by Jane Badham.We will ensure that we give regular updates on the variousSUN activities, as its aim is to be transparent and include asmany stakeholders as possible.SUN is currently consolidating and building stakeholderalliances and aligning donor commitments with country-ledplans for improving nutrition. In a recent article by DavidPelletier et al, published in Health Policy and Planning(2011;1–13) and entitled “Nutrition agenda setting, policyformulation and implementation: lessons from the MainstreamingNutrition Initiative”, the authors highlight the realitythat we face. While undernutrition is the single largest contributorto the global burden of disease and can be addressedthrough a number of highly efficacious interventions, ingeneral it has not received commensurate attention in policyagendas at global and national levels. Implementing theseefficacious interventions at a national scale has also provendifficult. This is an important fact that has to be consideredand overcome as SUN rolls out at a country level.setting, policy formulation, capacity building for operations,and all other aspects of a long-term nutrition agenda atcountry level.> These conclusions are especially relevant for major globalinitiatives currently under development that seek to addressnutrition through country-led processes and convergencebetween multiple organizations.> The extensive investments in documenting the efficacy ofnutrition interventions are unlikely to produce sustainablereductions in undernutrition unless or until these weaknessesin the policy spectrum are better understood andaddressed.SUN and the 1,000 Days movement are the start of alarger movement that hopes to address these real globalnutrition issues by focusing attention, aligning and increasingresources, and building partnerships. The SUN must shineif nutrition is to take its rightful place and deliver to alleviatethe suffering caused by undernutrition among millions ofpeople around the world – especially pregnant women andchildren under two years of age.Key messages include:> Strengthening the full spectrum of policy activitiesis necessary if large-scale and sustained reductions inundernutrition are to be achieved.> Within this policy spectrum, high priority should be givento strengthening strategic capacities because these arefundamental to advancing commitment building, agendaComing soon will be a SUN websitewatch for the link from www.sightandlife.orgnd Life and Vitamin AngelsImproving Lives in India03erSight and Life and the non-profit organization Vitamin Angels, live in India, making addressing vitamin A deficiency inwhose mission is to mobilize and deploy private sector resourcesto advance availability, access and use of vitamin A micronutrient deficiencies. While the Government of IndiaIndia a critical component of the global challenge to eliminateby newborns, infants and children most in need, have recentlysigned a Memorandum of Understanding. The partnership a large proportion of infants, children and lactating womenfully supports initiatives for vitamin A supplementation andwill work together to build on their individual strengths to receive supplementation, there remains a significant portionfoster local ownership of the problem of vitamin A deficiency of the population that has yet to be reached.in India, and catalyze a locally sustainable supply and distributionsystem in India.technical expertise and Vitamin Angels’ successful implemen-“Through this partnership, Sight and Life’s advocacy andFifty-one percent of the 190 million children under five tation of universal vitamin A supplementation projects aimwho suffer from moderate and severe vitamin A deficiency to reach millions of those in India who have to date not