ForewordI

Dr David Nabarro

Working Together for Improved Nutrition

Special Representative of the UN SecretaryGeneral for Food Security and Nutrition
SUN Movement Coordinator

Approximately a third of the world’s children face lifelong
economic and social disadvantage because of poor nutrition
during pregnancy and in the first two years of life. A
significant proportion of these children are disadvantaged
because of unbalanced diets that lead to obesity and its
associated health challenges. Malnutrition is a phenomenon
with many aspects, not all of them immediately apparent.
Analysis of efforts to tackle malnutrition conducted by The
Lancet originally in 2008 and again in 2013 indicates that arange of specific interventions exist that can help people
enjoy good nutritional status. Experience shows that they
are most effective if national development strategies aresensitive to the underlying determinants of people’s
nutritional status.

“A person who has food has manyproblems. A person who has nofood has only one problem.”
Chinese saying

Nutrition-sensitive solutions

The imperative to act

Since 2008 many governments, civil society organizations,research groups and intergovernmental agencies (including
those within the United Nations system) have sought ways
to scale up effective actions for better nutrition. The
collective experience to date suggests that such efforts are
successful if all the different groups that seek to enableimprovements in people’s nutrition work together insupport of sound national policies, the implementation ofeffective interventions, and sector programs that aresensitive to the determinants of malnutrition.

The Road to Good Nutrition is an expression of this new
way of thinking. It brings together the experience andinsights of globally recognized experts in the field ofnutrition to create an in-depth introduction to the subject
for the non-expert. This book is detailed, accurate and as
up to date as possible, given the speed at which nutrition
research on the one hand and nutrition policy on the otherare evolving. The world of nutrition is moving fast, and it
needs to, for the challenges we face are huge, and theimperative to act, overwhelming.

The evidence also indicates that as efforts are made to scale
up success, all the groups that seek to support theimplementation of national policies should work in synergy.
As they do so, they should, at all times, take account of theday-to-day challenges faced by communities at risk ofmalnutrition, aligning their efforts to promote social justiceand nutritional equity, and monitoring their collective
impact. Their overarching aim should be to enable all
women and children – and their families – to realize theirright to food and good nutrition.

My hope is that The Road to Good Nutrition will help us
all to accelerate our progress along the path to a world
where everyone receives the food and the nutrition to which
they have a self-evident right.

David Nabarro
Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for
Food Security and Nutrition
SUN Movement Coordinator

A bold new way of collective and harmonized thinking
The Scaling Up Nutrition or ‘SUN’ Movement waslaunched in September 2010 in response to the releaseearlier that year, by more than 100 national and internationalorganizations, of the Framework for Scaling Up Nutrition.
The Movement is designed to bring together diverse
stakeholders – central and local governments, civil society
organizations, research groups and intergovernmental
agencies and business enterprises – so that they can jointly
work on improvements in nutrition on a scale that reflects
the urgency and seriousness of the issue.
The SUN Movement embodies a bold new way of collective
and harmonized thinking, action and communication forimproved nutrition. It is specifically a movement, and not a
new program, institution or fund. Through the Movement,
national governments – both individually and jointly – areleading the worldwide effort to yield lasting nutritional
benefits for individuals and societies within their respective
countries. When joining the SUN Movement, they eachcommit to enabling people to access proven and innovative
solutions for better nutrition, and to work in ways that
increase the effectiveness of their investments so as to yieldsustainable and equitable results.

Rome, June 2013II