GNC External engagement supports delivery of the GNC Strategic Response Plan by engaging with a variety of external stakeholders, namely the Cluster Lead Agency (UNICEF), donors, development actors, and others.

Cluster Lead Agency engagement

UNICEF is a Cluster Lead Agency (CLA) for the GNC at global level and leading or co-leading nutrition clusters at national and sub-national levels. UNICEF has invested a lot in its role as a CLA since activation of clusters in 2006. One of the significant achievements of the UNICEF role as a CLA was producing in 2015 a Cluster Coordination Guidance for country offices that outlines roles and responsibilities of UNICEF’s staff in supporting and leading cluster approach at national level.

GNC - CLA engagement objectives:

  • To undertake joint advocacy (with other UNICEF-led clusters and Area of Responsibility) to ensure that clusters are adequately resourced at global and country level.
  • To improve preparedness in national nutrition platforms in highly vulnerable and fragile countries.
  • To improve links with UNICEF programme division to ensure better provision of technical support and leadership at global and country level.

Additional information:

Donor partnership engagement

To ensure delivery of its strategic plan, GNC engages with donors at both global and country level with the following objectives:

  • To demonstrate value added of coordination for better outcomes (including joint/impartial needs assessments, enhanced engagement with development actors, capacity building of national actors).
  • To advocate with donors and hold them accountable to coordination/nutrition-related commitments in the Grand Bargain, particularly multi-year funding and reduced earmarking of funding.

Over the years, GNC was engaged with a number of donors who fund specific GNC activities. As of now, in addition to the UNICEF Global Thematic Funds, the following donors fund activities in the GNC work plan:

Additionally, recognising contributing of donors to shaping agenda of the humanitarian response, from 2019 GNC has included donor representatives to the Strategic Advisory Group.

Development actors’ engagement

GNC commits to engage with global nutrition initiatives to ensure better preparedness and transition in crisis-prone countries.

The main global challenges around the humanitarian-development nexus are all well-known and are continuously studied and written about by most global stakeholder across the humanitarian and development communities. To build on this, GNC and Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement worked together to develop two to three country studies to identify country specific nexus strengthening opportunities through the lens of those in need of immediate, medium- and long-term nutritional assistance and propose SMART solutions.

The country studies should bring to light what is needed by those directly affected by malnutrition, of those in charge of their protection and wellbeing, i.e. the State as ultimate duty bearer. The outcomes and recommendations should be brought to sub-national and national level MSPs (or equivalents) to encourage and build a coordinated multi sectoral and multi mechanism approach.

Country specific conclusions and recommendations should provide the SUN government focal point with the information needed to improve the coverage and content of their national nutrition plan, enrich MSP membership to implement the nexus, and thereby increase the collective efficiency of the nutrition specific and nutrition sensitive actions and results in the country.

The GNC and SUN Secretariat agreed that two to three SUN countries where the Nutrition Cluster has been activated will be selected for the study. The countries will be selected based on existing levels of coordination capacity at national and subnational level and overall positive disposition of the main stakeholders to accommodate each other’s needs to make the nexus work for the affected population.

It is noted that other studies are currently being planned for 2020 that could also cover some of the objectives; the SUN Movement Secretariat’s in depth country reviews for four to six countries and the ENN (MQSUN+ funded) “Investigating the implementation of multisectoral nutrition programmes at a subnational level” in three countries.

Additional information:

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