Chapter Ten

The Power of Advocacy
128

Tom Arnold
Member of Lead Group of SUN
Former CEO Concern Worldwide

“The day hunger is eradicated from the earth, there will be thegreatest spiritual explosion the world has ever known. Humanity
cannot imagine the joy that will burst into the world on the day ofthat great revolution.” Federico Garcia Lorca, Spanish poet and dramatist (1889–1938)

129

Key messages

Advocacy is a key tool in the battle against
malnutrition.

Key messages

Advocacyrequiresa solidbase in order• Advocacy
is a key
toolevidential
in the battle
to succeed.
against malnutrition.
The
to present
a casein evidential
powerful and• ability
Advocacyrequiresa solidbasesimplelanguageis one of the prerequisites forin orderto succeed.
effective advocacy.
• The ability to present a case in powerful
Advocacy
is important,butis acting
and simple
languageone ofontheit is evenmoreprerequisites
so.
for effective advocacy.
Therewill be a is
great
work ofbut
advocacy
to be• Advocacy
important,acting on
it isdoneevenin thedecadestocome.
more so.
• There will be a great work of advocacy to
be donein the decades
to come.
Advocacy
is important,but acting
on it is even

Food and nutrition security have moved to the politicalcenter stage over recent years, both at national andinternational level. This chapter attempts to identify the key
political factors, the changing policy landscape and thepeople which and who have brought this about. The
particular focus of the chapter is the role and power of
advocacy in changing politics and policy. But while
advocacy has played an important role in this change, it is
the combination of shifting political priorities in response tochanges in the real world; evidence which demonstrates
costs and benefits of particular policies; insights into how
policy can be more effective; and the influence and use of
power by individuals which bring about real change.
I would like to try to identify some of the most significant
factors which have led to food and nutrition security
becoming a more important political issue in recent years.
This is not the definitive story: that would require a longer
and more comprehensive narrative. This is my subjective
and selective account of some of the main political andpolicy milestones which have got us to where we are.

more so.

The politics

There will be a great work of advocacy to bedone in the decades to come.

In 2008 food price riots occurred in over thirty countries.
This was the flashpoint which led to food security receiving
more serious political attention. The last time food security
was high on the political agenda was in the early 1970s
when a combination of crop failures, low stock levels andthe first Middle East oil crisis drove world food prices tounprecedented levels. But between 1974 and 2005, the FAO
index of real – inflation adjusted – food prices fell by 75%.
The simple explanation for this steady fall in real foodprices was that supply on world markets outpaced demandand prices fell. The increased supply was due to theincreased agricultural productivity from the Green
Revolution, mainly in Asia, and subsidized production fromthe developed world which was exported to world markets.
One consequence of steadily falling food prices was thatmany governments began to take food security for granted,
investment in agriculture declined and aid programs for
agriculture were reduced.
The last two decades of the 20th century saw big changes in
the global food economy, as economic growth rates in
China and India increased, bringing significant increases inthe demand for food and changes in food consumption
patterns. At the same time, agricultural productivity slowed,
both in developing and developed countries. These trends
led to tighter and more volatile food markets during theChapter Ten | The Power Of Advocacy | Tom Arnold

130

A farmer in Kenya
Source: CIAT

first decade of the 21st century, a situation accentuated bysevere weather events in some of the main agricultural
exporting countries.
World food prices increased dramatically in the 2005–2008
period, starting with a moderate upward trend until early
2007, and then accelerating to a peak in mid-2008. Pricesof cereals more than doubled during this time while theprice of rice doubled over a four month period in 2008. The
price of key inputs, particularly fertilizer, and fuel prices
increased fourfold in 2008.
This was the background which required political action
and policy change. In April 2008, the UN SecretaryGeneral, Ban Ki-moon, established a High Level Task Forceon Global Food Security, led by Dr David Nabarro, toprovide leadership and a coherent UN policy response to
the food price crisis. The Task Force produced theComprehensive Framework for Action (CFA), proposing a
set of short- and longer-term policy measures needed torespond to the food price crisis. The World Bank, the EU
and the 2008 G8 Summit all took action during 2008
through increased investment in agriculture.
In early 2009, the incoming Obama Administration increased
the political prioritization for agriculture and food security. It
introduced ‘Feed the Future’, a program aimed at increasing
food security in its partner countries, as a priority USAID
program. A further important influencer of policy within the
Obama Administration was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,

who took a significant interest in early childhood nutrition,
particularly in promoting better nutrition for pregnant womenand for children up to two years, the so-called crucial 1,000
day ‘window of opportunity’.
The G8 Summit meeting in L’Aquila, Italy, in 2009 adopted
a major package valued at US$20 billion aimed at increasing
global food security. US government leadership was seen to
be important in reaching agreement on this, but there wasalso strong support from the EU and other G8 members.
While there was subsequent criticism that these G8
commitments made in 2009 were not fully delivered upon,
the G8 meeting of 2012 in Camp David, USA, returned tothe issue when they committed to a New Alliance for Food
Security and Nutrition, a partnership involving the G8, anumber of African governments and the private sector.
In addition, between 2009 and 2012, a number of the main
aid donor nations increased their support for food andnutrition security. Within the EU, the more notable
examples of this were the UK, the Netherlands, Spain and
Ireland. Canada was another important supporter forchange. Over this same period, the evolution of the G20
group of nations brought a potentially important newpolitical grouping, with some significant food producing
and exporting countries – for example Brazil and South
Africa – into the debate on the global food economy.

Chapter Ten | The Power Of Advocacy | Tom Arnold

131

The changing policy landscape
While the above-mentioned events represent some of thehigh-level political changes, the policy landscape was alsochanging in tandem. Indeed some of these policy changes were
underway well in advance of the 2008 food price crisis.
The policy changes on which I will focus are the following:• Significant Policy Change in Africa;• Changes in Nutrition Policy;

Significant policy change in Africa.
The Green Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s had rescued
Asia from the specter of major food shortages and had,arguably, laid some of the foundations for the region’s
economic development. However, for a variety of reasons,the Green Revolution had little positive impact in
sub-Saharan Africa. For the last three decades of the 20th
century, African agriculture experienced low productivity
growth, inadequate investment and significant neglect frompolicy-makers and political leaders.
The political recognition that this situation needed tochange came in 2003 when an African Union Summit
meeting in Mozambique adopted the Maputo Declaration
which committed African governments to spend 10 percent
of national budgets on agricultural and rural development.
Subsequently African leaders adopted the Comprehensive

Struggling African farmer
Source: Photo taken in 2010 in Kenya by Klaus Kraemer

African Agricultural Development Program (CAADP). The
goal of CAADP is to contribute to the elimination of hunger
and poverty through agricultural development. The aim isthat the investment of 10 percent of national budgets for
agriculture, allied to improved coordination of efforts, atthe continental, regional and national levels, should lead toan annual growth rate of 6 percent in African agriculture
by 2015.
In 2006, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa(AGRA) was formed, aimed at increasing African
agricultural productivity and production. AGRA is financed
by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation andthe Rockefeller Foundation. The Board of AGRA is chaired
by Kofi Annan, the former UN Secretary-General.
The Copenhagen Consensus is an international project thatseeks to establish priorities for advancing global welfare using
methodologies based on the theory of welfare economics. The
project considers possible solutions to a wide range ofproblems, presented by experts in each field. These are
evaluated and ranked by a panel of leading economists.
The project has held conferences in 2004, 2008, 2009 and2012. The 2012 conference ranked bundled micronutrientinterventions the highest priority and the 2008 report
identified supplementing vitamins for undernourishedchildren as the world’s best investment.

Chapter Ten | The Power Of Advocacy | Tom Arnold

The Irish Hunger Task Force132

The Irish Hunger Task Force was established by the Irish
Government to identify how Ireland’s foreign policy and aid
budget could have the maximum impact on poverty andhunger. The Task Force started its work in September 2007
and produced its final report in September 2008.
The report examined the particular contribution that
Ireland can make in tackling the root causes of hunger,
especially in Africa. It concluded that hunger could best be
tackled by increasing the productivity of (mainly female)smallholder farmers in Africa; implementing programs focusedon maternal and infant undernutrition; and ensuring realpolitical commitment, at national and international levels, togive hunger the absolute priority it deserves.
The report recommended that Ireland, through its
government and civil society organizations, should seek toprovide leadership on hunger and nutrition issues atinternational level. The impulse was to try to make Ireland
to hunger what Norway was to conflict: Norway has a
50-year history of helping other countries to resolve
conflicts peacefully. With a deep folk memory of famine ona national scale, Irish people have a powerful motivation to
help other countries combat the scourge of malnutrition;
they also have credibility in the eyes of others.
The report was launched at the UN in September 2008 by
Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Brian Cowan and UN SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-moon. In launching it, Taoiseach Cowan
said that ‘Ireland’s history and experience of famine echoes
through the generations and influences our approach inhelping those with whom we share our humanity in thefight against poverty and hunger’. The report quoted thewords uttered by the UN Secretary-General at the HighLevel Conference on World Food Security held in Rome on
June 3, 2008: ‘Nothing is more degrading than hunger,
especially when man-made. It breeds anger, social
disintegration, ill health and economic decline’.

The role of advocacy
This chapter has provided a limited narrative about the scaleand direction of change in thinking on food and nutrition
security over the past decade. Major changes in the global
food economy have provided the political backdrop to this. In
tandem with these changes, there have been significant shifts inpolicy, based on evidence that undernutrition had large humanand economic costs, and that nutrition interventions provided
high economic and social returns.

Staple grains on sale in a market place in Bangladesh, 2008
Source: Mike Bloem Photography

Advocacy has been a key tool in bringing about thesechanges. It is much more than simply articulating a caseabout a specific topic, although the power of reason,
analysis and expression is an essential component of it.
Advocacy involves articulating a case with a view toachieving a specific change in a proposed direction. Morethan this, it requires an understanding of the people andorganizations that might be able to effect this change, and agrasp of how to communicate with them and engage themfor the desired change. Advocacy is therefore more thanChapter Ten | The Power Of Advocacy | Tom Arnold

133

having a message: it is about understanding how to get thatmessage across and, crucially, following through so that atransformation is indeed achieved. This requires time, acommitment to dialog, and identification of the right people
to address.
This chapter has identified a number of the key documents
which have been effectively used by advocates in helping toachieve change. The World Bank’s policy document in 2006
on repositioning nutrition was very significant, particularly
for the focus it gave to the critical importance of goodnutrition during pregnancy and the first two years. The
Lancet series on nutrition in 2008 gave the world a new
way of looking at the subject of dietary intake, particularly
among mothers and young children, and a new language inwhich to discuss it. It also brought home to politicians
and policy-makers the scale of the cost of undernutrition
and the high economic and social returns of effective
nutrition interventions.
The Irish Hunger Task Force report was highly influential
for a number of reasons. It was produced at a time, justafter the peak of the 2008 food price crisis, when the world
was focused on food security. Its recommendations wereclear – there should be a greater focus on African
smallholder productivity and supporting women farmers: agreater emphasis on nutrition; and that Ireland should playa leadership role in advocacy in the fight against global
hunger. The fact that the Irish government accepted thatrecommendation about its advocacy role was also of
considerable importance.
The SUN Movement may indeed be seen as the culmination ofmany of these separate developments. Although the Movement
is not without its critics, it has provided a framework to tackle
undernutrition in the countries now committed to it, which
involves a range of stakeholders, including governments,
donors, civil society and the private sector. In terms of
coordination, it has had the benefit of strong leadership from
Anthony Lake, the Chair of the Lead Group, and Dr David
Nabarro, Coordinator of SUN.
These various developments have also changed the generalperception of malnutrition over the past decade.
Malnutrition used to be equated in the general imagination
with starvation. In fact, starvation only accounts forapproximately ten percent of the incidence of malnutrition
worldwide. The problem of chronic malnutrition is bothbigger and more complicated than many had previously
thought – bigger in terms of its scale, and longer-lasting interms of its impact. The world needs to be aware of this,and advocacy has done much to bring about a change ofperception on this score.
It is essential to understand that advocacy, while needing astrong evidence base, requires much more than this to beeffective. Messages have to be kept simple, clear and to thepoint, they have to be repeated and repeated, and theimpetus for transformation has to be maintained: policies
are not changed overnight. Moreover, even when a policychange has been effected, it will not bear fruit without
rigorous monitoring. One has to demonstrate whether achanged policy is having the desired results. If it is, it should

Chapter Ten | The Power Of Advocacy | Tom Arnold“Civilization as it is known today could nothave evolved, nor can it survive, without anadequate food supply.”– Dr Norman Borlaug
Norman Borlaug
Source: http://whatsthebigga.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/greendaddy.html

be further supported. If it is not, it should be adapted or
abandoned. Proof of effectiveness is key.
By 2050, we are told the world’s population should reach 		
9 billion, placing greater pressures than ever on water, landand energy. The key international institutions dealing withfood and nutrition security – the UN Food and Agriculture
Organization, the UN World Food Program, theInternational Fund for Agricultural Development, theWorld Bank, the Committee for Food Security – have a
profound responsibility to work together to bring about
positive change. They are already collaborating moreclosely than they used to, but this collaboration needs to begreatly intensified, not only with each other but also withdonor governments, civil society organizations and leading
non-governmental organizations such as Concern
Worldwide, Helen Keller International, Bread for the Worldand Save the Children. There will be a great work of
advocacy to be done in the decades to come, using a robust
evidence base, simple messages and persistent effort tobring about the necessary changes to the way we live, lookafter the planet, and feed ourselves.

An exemplary advocate: Norman Borlaug
Widely remembered as the pioneer of the “Green
Revolution,” Nobel Peace Prize-winning American
agricultural scientist Norman Borlaug spent his career
seeking ways to improve crop production and fight hunger.
The Green Revolution, a series of technological advancesthat enabled developing nations to improve crop
production, often establishing agricultural self-sufficiency,
owes much to his revolutionary work.

Of Norwegian descent, Borlaug was born in 1914 on a
farm in Iowa, USA. He studied forestry and plant pathology
at the University of Minnesota, completing his PhD in plant
pathology and genetics there in 1942. After two years as a
microbiologist, he signed on to lead the Cooperative
Mexican Agricultural Program’s wheat improvement efforts
with the support of the Mexican government and theRockefeller Foundation.
It was during his work in Mexico that Borlaug developed
new varieties of wheat with special properties. Resistant todisease and high yielding, these were soon introduced inconjunction with cutting-edge agricultural technology not
only to Mexico, but also to Pakistan and India, where
demand for wheat was reaching alarming highs. In 1967,
India imported 18,000 tonnes of improved Mexican wheat
seed, with Pakistan following suit. As a result, between
1965 and 1970, the two countries nearly doubled theirwheat production, greatly improving food security.
Meanwhile, by 1963, Mexico had become a net exporterof wheat.
These remarkable success stories set off what came to be
known as the “Green Revolution” – the adoption of
improved crop varieties and the integration of newtechniques into previous agricultural practice in thedeveloping world. Borlaug himself went on to help apply
these methods of increasing food production to other Asianand African nations. The social and economic benefits ofthis movement were recognized worldwide when the Nobel
Peace Prize was awarded to Borlaug in 1970.
Sources:International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Mexico
http://www.cimmyt.org/en/about-us/who-we-are
Rothamstead Research
http://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/Content.php?Section=AboutUs&Page=Borlaug
The Borlaug Institutehttp://borlaug.tamu.edu/about/dr-norman-e-borlaug

134Chapter Ten | The Power Of Advocacy | Tom Arnold

135

An inspiration to advocacy: The Great
Irish Famine of the 19th century
Ireland’s Great Famine, or The Great Hunger, as it is morecommonly referred to today, ranks among the worst
tragedies in human history. Between 1845 and 1850,
approximately 1.5 million Irish citizens died of starvationor malnutrition-related diseases.
The cause of the famine was a deadly new fungus,
Phytophthora infestans – to which there was then no
known antidote – which first attacked and partiallydestroyed the potato crop in Ireland in late summer 1845.
The nation’s peasants relied on the potato as their primary
food source, and as a result, starved. This blight was tocontinue over the next several years with the partial failureof the potato crop in 1849, and again in 1850, prolonging
the crisis and the suffering into the early 1850s.
By 1855, more than two million people fled Ireland to avoid
the fate of those who had died. The population of Ireland,
which was close to 8.5 million in 1845, had fallen to 6.6
million by 1851. It would continue to fall – due to relentlessemigration – for many decades to come. This decimation of
Ireland’s population makes Ireland’s Great Hunger both theworst chapter in the country’s history, and arguably, thesingle worst catastrophe in 19th century Europe.
Source: http://www.thegreathunger.org/

Famine memorial statue in present-day Ireland

A 19th century depiction of the Irish famineChapter Ten | The Power Of Advocacy | Tom Arnold

Case study

136

An integrated approach to combatting malnutrition

Project objective

The RAIN Project in Mumbwa District,ZambiaTo develop a sustainable model that integrates andrealigns agricultural and nutrition/health interventions toeffectively prevent child and maternal undernutrition
among rural poor communities, which can be replicatedand brought to scale.

In Zambia, 45% of children below five years of age sufferfrom chronic malnutrition, or stunting. The Government ofZambia recognizes the importance of prioritizing nutrition,
but undernutrition has multi-sectoral causes which
traditional impact pathways are often unable to address. The
links between nutrition, health, agriculture, food security
and livelihoods are well recognized, however, and there isincreasing agreement on the importance of multi-sectoral
approaches to sustainably address undernutrition.
The RAIN project, based in Zambia’s Mumbwa District,
Central Province, aims to do just this. By integrating
agriculture with nutrition and health interventions at all
project levels, it aims to improve nutritional status within
the critical 1,000 days from conception until a childreaches its second birthday.
Approximately 3,480 households with pregnant women
and/or children below two years of age are eligible. With
four intervention wards within Mumbwa District, andtwo adjacent wards selected as comparison sites, theoverall intervention area is randomized into smaller areasthat will receive either agriculture and nutrition/healthinterventions, or agriculture interventions only.
Agricultural activities focus on homestead gardening andsmall-scale animal husbandry; nutrition and healthactivities focus on behavior change communication forimproved child and maternal nutrition, and linkages tothe existing health system.
Concern Worldwide Zambia and the International Food
Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) collaborated to design andimplement this project together with key line ministries, andlocal NGOs. Irish Aid and the Kerry Group are both project
funders. Concern leads the overall implementation, while
IFPRI leads the learning and evaluation component andtechnically supports the integration component. With local
support ensuring ownership and sustainability, this is an
example of a feasible project model that can be scaled-up
and replicated in other areas of Zambia or within the region.

Specific objectives
1) To reduce the prevalence of chronic malnutrition among
young children and improve the nutritional status of
pregnant and lactating women in Mumbwa District
through targeted interventions during the first 1,000 days.
2) To realign and integrate activities and mechanisms within
the Ministries of Agriculture and Health, especially atDistrict level, to more effectively and efficiently achievesustainable nutritional outcomes.
3) To use and share evidence generated at the District toinfluence the local, national and international policy
agenda to prevent child stunting.

Target groupHouseholds with children under two years of age, lactating
and pregnant women; some activities will include men andthe wider community. The RAIN project will ensure theinclusion of extremely poor and vulnerable households.
Number of direct beneficiaries
3,480 households or approximately 20,500 people
Project duration2011 – 2015
Project area
Nalubanda, Shichanzu, Chona and Milandu Wards in
Mumbwa District, Central Province, Zambia
Implementing partners
Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, Ministry of
Health, Mumbwa Child Development Agency, Women for
Change, International Food Policy Research Institute(IFPRI), and Concern Worldwide Zambia

Project title

Project funding

Realigning Agriculture to Improve Nutrition (RAIN)

The overall budget is approximately 3 million euros,
which partially is funded by Irish Aid, Kerry Group/Ireland.
Source: RAIN Project Brief no. 1, November 2011

Chapter Ten | The Power Of Advocacy | Tom Arnold

World Population: 1950-2050
10

9

9

8

8

7

7

Population (billions)

6

6

5

5

4

4

3
3

2

1

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, International Data Base, December 2009 Update

2050

2040

2030

2020

2010

2000

1990

1980

1970

1960

0

1950

137

Year

The growing place of nutrition on the global agenda
1992 – The UN Food and Agricultural Organization’s‘World Declaration and Plan of Action for Nutrition’
The World Declaration and Plan of Action for Nutrition
arose from the FAO’s 1992 International Conference on
Nutrition in Rome. Representatives of 159 states declared
their determination to eliminate hunger and reduce allforms of malnutrition, stating: “Hunger and malnutrition
are unacceptable in a world that has both the knowledge
and the resources to end this human catastrophe.”At the conference, delegates came up with a ‘Plan of Action
for Nutrition’ designed to provide guidelines forgovernments, NGOs, the private sector, local communities
and families to help them achieve the outlined objectives.
The plan of action contained recommendations on policies,
programs and activities resulting from an intensive
consultative process.

Chapter Ten | The Power Of Advocacy | Tom Arnold

2000 – The United Nation’s Millennium
Development Goals
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of the United
Nations are eight international development goals to beachieved by the target date of 2015, agreed by all 193
United Nations member states, and the world’s leading
development institutions.

health and development agendas. It provided an evidencebased call to action, which showed that the first 1,000 daysof a child’s life are a ‘window of opportunity’, where
actionable nutritional interventions can make a significant
difference. Global advocates were able to cite this important
evidence to lobby policy-makers and opinion leaders toprioritize and invest in nutrition – this led to the foundationof the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement.

1. Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieving universal primary education
3. Promoting gender equality and empowering women
4. Reducing child mortality rates
5. Improving maternal health
6. Combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
7. Ensuring environmental sustainability and8. Developing a global partnership for development

According to the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition(GAIN), while nutrition is not specifically included within
the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, it has a direct
impact on at least 7 out of the 8.
2008 – The Copenhagen Consensus
The Copenhagen Consensus is a project that exists toestablish priorities for advancing global welfare, applying
welfare economics to proposed interventions. It has held
regular conferences since 2004.

2010 – Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement
The SUN Movement is a response to the evidence-based
call to action of the 2008 Lancet Series on Maternal andChild Undernutrition.
In 2010 a diverse coalition including the World Bank, UN
agencies and the Centre for Global Development releasedthe ‘Scaling Up Nutrition Framework for Action’, outlining
plans to integrate nutrition interventions and policies acrosssectors. The SUN Movement now includes 40 countries
that could in theory reach an estimated 60 million children.
The SUN Movement is a ‘country-led, global effort’,
focusing on nutrition in the first 1,000 days of a child’s life.
As its 2012-15 Movement Strategy states:“Good nutrition in the 1,000 days between pregnancy anda child’s second birthday is vital preparation for a healthy
adult life with maximum learning and earning potential
combined with greatly reduced risk of illnesses like diabetes
and heart disease.”

The 2008 Copenhagen Consensus report identified
supplementing vitamins for undernourished children as theworld’s best investment.
The 2012 conference ranked bundled micronutrientinterventions as the highest priority and committed
US$75 billion over four years to this strategy.

2008 – The Lancet Series on Maternal and Child
Undernutrition
The Lancet Series on Maternal and Child Undernutrition in2008 was a wake-up call for the international community.
It stated in its Executive Summary:“Nutrition is a desperately neglected aspect of maternal,
newborn, and child health. The reasons for this neglect areunderstandable but not justifiable.”
The series concluded that a shared approach was needed inorder to ensure that nutrition was incorporated into global

The Scaling Up Nutrition movement brings together governments, non-governmentalorganizations, academia, business and civil society in a multi-sectoral approach to the
problem of malnutrition

138

Chapter Ten | The Power Of Advocacy | Tom Arnold

139

The 2012 Copenhagen Consensus
The goal of Copenhagen Consensus 2012 was to set
priorities among a series of proposals for confronting ten
great global challenges. The ten challenge papers,
commissioned from acknowledged authorities in each areaof policy, included nearly 40 proposals for the panel’s
consideration. Based on the costs and benefits of thesolutions, the panel ranked the proposals in descendingorder of desirability.
The Copenhagen Consensus 2012 Expert Panel found thatfighting malnourishment should be the top priority forpolicy-makers and philanthropists. Nobel laureate
economist Vernon Smith said: “One of the most compellinginvestments is to get nutrients to the world’s undernourished.
The benefits from doing so – in terms of increased health,schooling, and productivity – are tremendous.”
New research by John Hoddinott et al. of the International
Food Policy Research Institute showed that for just $100
per child, interventions including micronutrient provision,
complementary foods, treatments for worms and diarrheal
diseases, and behavior change programs, could reducechronic undernutrition by 36 percent in developing
countries. Research by Peter Orazem of Iowa State
University pointed to the educational benefits of thisspending, because malnutrition slows learning.

2012 – The UN Secretary General’s High-Level Panel ofeminent persons on the post-2015 Development Agenda
In July 2012, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced
the 27 members of a High-Level Panel to advise on the
global development framework beyond 2015, the target
date for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The
Panel was co-chaired by President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono of Indonesia, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of
Liberia, and Prime Minister David Cameron of the United
Kingdom. It includes leaders from civil society, private
sector and government.
The Panel was part of the Secretary-General’s post-2015
initiative mandated by the 2010 MDG Summit. UN
Member States had called for open, inclusive consultations
involving civil society, the private sector, academia andresearch institutions from all regions, in addition to the UN
system, to advance the development framework beyond
2015. The work of the Panel reflected new development
challenges while also drawing on experience gained in
implementing the MDGs, both in terms of results achieved
and areas for improvement. The Panel’s work was closely
coordinated with that of the intergovernmental working
group tasked to design sustainable development goals, as
agreed at the Rio +20 conference.

Illustrative goals and targets post-2015
1

End Poverty

7

Secure Sustainable Energy

2

Empower Girls and Womenand Achieve Gender Equality

8

Create Jobs, Sustainable Livelihoods
and Equitable Growth3

Provide Quality Educationand Lifelong Learning

9

Manage Natural Resource
Assets Sustainably

4

Ensure Healthy Lives

10 Ensure Good Governanceand Effective Institutions

5

Ensure Food Security and Good Nutrition

11 Ensure Stable and Peaceful Societies

6

Achieve Universal Accessto Water Sanitation

12 Create a Global Enabling Environment& Catalyse Long-Term Finance

The report of the High-Level Panel of Eminent persons on the post-2015 Development agenda. http://www.post2015hlp.org/

Chapter Ten | The Power Of Advocacy | Tom Arnold

2013 – The Lancet 2013 Series onMaternal and Child Nutrition

140

In June 2013, The Lancet published an updated review ofthe status of maternal and child nutrition worldwide. Fiveyears after the initial series, its authors re-evaluated the
problems of maternal and child undernutrition and also
examined the growing problems of overweight and obesity
for women and children and their consequences in
low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). Manyof these countries are said to have the double burden of
malnutrition— continued stunting of growth anddeficiencies of essential nutrients along with the emerging
issue of obesity.
The authors also assessed national progress in nutrition
programs and international efforts toward previous
recommendations. They observed that: “The nutrition
landscape has shifted fundamentally since 2008. The 2008
Series showed that the stewardship of the nutrition system
was dysfunctional and deeply fragmented in terms of
messaging, priorities, and funding. Much progress has been
made since then, largely driven by the new evidence
introduced in the 2008 Series, which identified the first
1,000 days of life as the window for outcomes, pinpointed
a package of highly effective interventions for reduction ofundernutrition, and proposed a group of high-burdencountries as priorities for increased investment.”

The 2013 Lancet Series on Maternal and Child Undernutrition builds
on the ground-breaking work of the series published five years
previously
Source: http://www.thelancet.com/series/maternal-and-child-nutrition, June 20132013 – Global Nutrition for Growth Compact
In June 2013, UK Prime Minister David Cameron, Brazilian
Vice President Michel Temer and the Children’s Investment
Fund Foundation president Jamie Cooper-Hohn led a highlevel summit in London of developing and developed nations,businesses, scientific and civil society groups, committing themto supporting a historic reduction in “undernutrition”.

Donors secured new commitments of up to £2.7 billion(US$4.15 billion) to tackle undernutrition up to 2020,£1.5 billion ($2.9 billion) of which is core funding with theremainder secured through matched funding. The UKcommitted an additional £375 million of core funding and£280 million of matched funding from 2013 to 2020.

The participants – who signed a Global Nutrition for
Growth Compact – committed their countries andorganizations by 2020 to:

Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/world-leaders-sign-globalagreement-to-help-beat-hunger-and-malnutrition• improving the nutrition of 500 million pregnant women andyoung children• reducing the number of children under five who are stunted
by an additional 20 million• saving the lives of at least 1.7 million children by preventing
stunting, increasing breastfeeding and better treatment ofsevere and acute malnutrition

Chapter Ten | The Power Of Advocacy | Tom Arnold

141

My personal view
Tom Arnold

Member of Lead Group of SUN
Former CEO Concern Worldwide

Food and nutrition security has
significantly moved up the national
and international political agenda inrecent years. High food prices in
2007-08 and the political unrest
which followed were importantfactors in this changed prioritization.
But strong evidence that inadequate
nutrition, particularly for pregnant women and children
up to the age of two years, produces physical and mental
stunting of children, with long negative long-term human,economic and social costs, has also been influential inchanging policy. Drawing on both the changing
geopolitics of food and the powerful evidence, effective
advocacy has contributed to political and policy change.
This changed environment provides a major opportunity
over the coming 5–10 years to make significant inroads
in reducing hunger in the world. The latest figures suggest
there are 872 million hungry people and 165 million
stunted children. An important political and policy
mechanism for achieving progress is the Scaling Up
Nutrition (SUN) Movement, which brings together
governments, civil society, and the private sector to workin a coordinated way to reduce early childhood
undernutrition. As at July 2013, 41 countries havecommitted to scaling up their nutrition efforts, including
developing country plans. These plans should reflect
political leadership from a high level, as well as
engagement with civil society and business, and theyshould specify the level of financial and human resources
necessary. We need to learn what works best across these41 countries, and to share that learning. Real progress
can be made over the next decade if we deliver on what
we know is possible.

Further reading
Hunger task force: Report to the Government of
Ireland.
Food and Agriculture Organization. The State ofFood Insecurity in the World. Rome: FAO 2012.
The SUN Movement website: www.
scalingupnutrition.org
UNICEF. Improving Child Nutrition: The achievable
imperative for global progress. New York, NY, USA:
UNICEF, 2013.
Concern Worldwide website: www.concern.net.
Fan S. 2011 Global Food Policy Report, International
Food Policy Research Institute 2012.