ENN Strategy
2024–2028

ENN Strategy 2024-2028

Contents
About us

Who We Are	

3

Our Context	3

Our Purpose	5

Our Vision	

5

Our Strategic Objectives	5

Our Values	6

Our Focus	

6

ENN Works For	7

ENN Works With	7

How We Work – ENN’s Networked Approach	7What We Do – Our Contribution	8		

1. Building Evidence	8		

2. Convening and Brokering	9		

3. Knowledge Management	10

Key initiatives

Decolonisation	

12

Digitalisation	

13

Food systems	

13

Gender	

14

Engaging with young people	15

An effective and sustainable organisation
Efficiency	

16

Funding	17Greening ENN	17

Our People	18

An Equitable, Diverse and Inclusive Organisation	

18

Communications	

18

Being Accountable – Monitoring Evaluation Accountability and Learning (MEAL)	19

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ENN Strategy 2024-2028©Vanndeth Um / World Vision International / 2023 / Cambodia

About us
Who we are
Established in 1996 with the purpose of enabling a more effective response to address the causes andconsequences of undernutrition, the Emergency Nutrition Network (ENN) has a rich history of serving the
global community. Working with our diverse network of close collaborators, we enhance the relevanceand effectiveness of research, policy and practice by capturing knowledge, stimulating and exchanging
learning, highlighting gaps and building evidence, brokering consensus and collective action andproviding technical resources and guidance to practitioners and decision-makers involved in nutrition andrelated systems and services.
ENN is recognised globally as an independent thought leader, convener and trusted influencer in nutrition.
We are privileged to convene key technical working groups, networks and communities of practice that are‘go to’ fora for their specialisms.

Our Context
Global trends
The global burden of undernutrition in children remains high with devastating consequences for immediateand longer-term survival, the growth and development of children and lost long-term opportunities
for their communities and societies. Six years away from the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, therate of child stunting has steadily decreased, yet is off track to attain global stunting targets with 148
million children under five years of age estimated to be stunted in 2022. Child wasting stubbornly persists

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ENN Strategy 2024-2028

at high levels (45 million children under five years of age in 2022, of which 13.6 million were severely
wasted)1. Micronutrient deficiencies such as iron deficiency anaemia also continue to disproportionallyaffect women, girls, and children, creating wide reaching consequences for their health and that of future
generations. With the global prevalence of anaemia remaining stagnant in women of reproductive age
over recent decades2, the World Health Assembly’s (WHA) ambition of halving this prevalence by 2025,
from 2011 levels, is hugely off target. With overweight and obesity rising rapidly in low- and middle-income
countries (LMICs)3, overlapping forms of malnutrition and their impact on vulnerable populations are ofincreasing concern.
The contexts where the burden of malnutrition is high are affected by an increasingly complex array offactors that disrupt health and social and food systems at scale. The growing impacts of climate change
range from decreasing agricultural productivity and rising food insecurity to increased migration, conflictover natural resources, worsening climate events (floods, droughts) and changing disease profiles andincidence. As a result, humanitarian and development resources are increasingly stretched and all forms of
malnutrition are predicted to rise with already vulnerable populations being disproportionately affected.
Global economies are changing with economic power shifting from West to East and from North to South
and, by 2030, it is expected that 50% of nominal global GDP will be derived from Asia (excluding Japan) andsub-Saharan Africa (up from 20% in 2010). This shift in economic growth is impacting global food systems
and food security and plays a role in people’s access to healthy and affordable diets. Rapid urbanisation,
especially in Africa and Asia, is creating new food system pressures requiring nutrition programming toadapt to fresh challenges in urban spaces. Population growth and increased life expectancy have resulted
in an increased demand for services for older age groups. At the same time, the increasing numbers ofyouth in LMICs and a better understanding of the impacts of their nutrition on both their own futures andthat of subsequent generations mean there is a need, as well as an opportunity, for greater investment inadolescent nutrition.
Direction of the sector
The international development sector, once nurtured, funded and protected, now finds itself challenged
and under threat. The needs and the cost of implementation have grown in tandem while independent andinstitutional donors, faced with recurring demands and domestic challenges, are now meeting less than
50% of humanitarian budgets. Humanitarian and development programmes based on specific geographic
areas or populations and a cost linear route to increased impact determine that existing responses can nolonger be scaled up to meet all needs.
The growing gap and demands to de-colonise as well as notable lapses in accountability call for urgent
reform and, while there are iterative improvements, lasting change is often confronted by vested interest,
short-termism, inertia and fatigue. More than ever, there is an urgent need for collaborative but independent
institutions to act as a critical friend to all in carrying out the objective research and analysis, knowledgetransfer and influencing to shift practice in ways that achieve long term impact and a greater return on
investment for all actors. It is now more important than ever that greater focus is placed on altering thesystemic causes and effectiveness of responses.

1


WHO,
UNICEF, World Bank Group (2023). Levels and trends in child malnutrition: UNICEF/WHO/World Bank Group joint child malnutrition
estimates. Available at: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240073791

2


Stevens
GA, Paciorek CJ, Flores-Urrutia MC et al. National, regional, and global estimates of anaemia by severity in women and children for
2000–19: a pooled analysis of population-representative data. Lancet Glob Health. 2022; 10: e627-e639

3

PopkinBM, Corvalan C, Grummer-Strawn LM. Dynamics of the double burden of malnutrition and the changing nutrition reality. The Lancet
2020; 395(10217): 65-74

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ENN Strategy 2024-2028

Our Purpose
We help practitioners to better serve those most vulnerable to the causes and consequences of malnutrition.
ENN’s purpose hinges on the fact that the practice of preventing and treating the life-limiting consequencesof undernutrition in all its shapes and forms is constantly being improved by practitioners through ‘learningby doing’ and that the informal and formal mechanisms for capturing and learning from this more widely
are vital to drive positive change from local to global levels. Twenty-seven years since ENN was founded,
rates of undernutrition remain unacceptably high and, given the challenges confronting the sector, theneed for systemic analysis of what is working and what is not is greater than ever.

Our Vision
Every individual confronted by malnutrition has access to the knowledge, tools, services and resources
they require to meet their needs.
We believe that, as their own first responders in crisis or to threats, greater agency and access to relevant,contextualised services for individuals, and the families and communities that support them, is critical to
the sustainable, prevention and treatment of malnutrition.

Our Strategic Objectives
Working with and within the system to bring about positive change in specific areas of work, ENN’s
strategic objective is a sector where the work of all practitioners is shaped and served by the best possible
policy, research and practice at any given time and that this ultimately reduces the incidence and impact
of malnutrition.
All our work is guided by the priorities and realities of local practitioners working in challenging contexts
worldwide and our networks of collaborators. Working towards collective goals, ENN is committed tocontributing to the collective achievement of global nutrition targets:
Global Nutrition Targets
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Goal 2, to: ‘end hunger and ensure access by all
people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious
and sufficient food all year roundandto end all forms of malnutrition including achieving, by 2025, internationally agreed targets (seebelow) on stunting and wasting in children under five years of age and to address the nutritional
needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women and older persons.
• Achieve a 40% reduction in the number of children under-five who are stunted• Achieve a 50% reduction of anaemia in women of reproductive age• Achieve a 30% reduction in low birth weight• Ensure that there is no increase in childhood overweight• Increase the rate of exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months up to at least 50%• Reduce and maintain childhood wasting to less than 5%

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ENN Strategy 2024-2028

Our Values
ENN applies the same values to our work as we do to our network, our partnerships and to our team.
Independence and Impartiality
ENN is an independent organisation and is not bound by the views or positions of any one institution, nor
is it a nutrition implementing agency. Any opinions expressed are based on the available evidence and theexperiences of our rich and diverse networks. We pride ourselves on our objectivity and neutrality, alongwith our ability to bring fresh perspective.
Driven by Network, Committed to Evidence
ENN believes that policy and practice can, and should be, informed by evidence and experience. Our
networks of committed, informed and engaged individuals help to shape and inform our priorities, drive
us to deliver and help to hold us to account. ENN seeks to capture, sense-make and share the learning fromthis evidence and experience where it exists and to advocate for it to be developed where it is missing. All
our work is underpinned by our commitment to evidence, to technical quality and rigour, and to depth.
Passionate About People
We are passionate about our people and believe everyone we work with can make a unique and outstanding
contribution to what we do. We want to value and recognise everyone as an individual and to give themthe support, flexibility and environment to contribute and deliver. We want to nurture a culture, internallyand externally, that listens, empowers and innovates, and where we are all engaged with and driven byshared goals.

Our Focus
We focus on those most at risk of the life-limiting consequences of malnutrition, whether by geography(countries with the highest burden of malnutrition), crisis or age. By looking across the life cycle we areable to consider where risks are passed from one stage to another and from generation to generation andidentify opportunities to best disrupt the cycle of vulnerabilities passing from generation to generation.
Within this, we also concentrate on areas where there are the greatest challenges in practice and gaps inawareness, learning and evidence where we can add value by filling. This approach leads to the following
current priority and interconnected technical areas. The below are and will continue to be consistently
reviewed according to the above so that we can remain responsive to emerging needs in the sector:• Small and nutritionally at-risk infants (under 6 months) and their mothers (MAMI)• Infant and Young Child Feeding in Emergencies (IYCF-E)• Wasting and Stunting (WaSt)• Adolescents• Women’s Nutrition
To strengthen the relevance of all we do, ENN also works on emerging broader issues that disrupt systems
and exacerbate vulnerabilities and susceptibilities to malnutrition such as climate change, food systems,
conflict and pandemics.

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ENN Strategy 2024-2028©Sangath / India

ENN Works For
We work for those people who are working to improve outcomes of populations in countries that experiencea high burden of malnutrition and the immediate, longer term and intergenerational consequences of this.

ENN Works With
We work with individuals, institutions and networks at global, regional and country levels across specialities
and sectors. This includes policymakers, notably government and United Nations agencies, academics,
local and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs), civil society groups and funders (bilateraland independent). We are always willing to explore new collaborations including with the private
sector when this aligns with our purpose and our values. In general, we do not directly engage with thegeneral public, and, beyond primary research, we do not directly work with those affected by the risk orrealities of malnutrition. However, we partner and network with agencies who do work closely with thesestakeholder categories.
We nurture and leverage our relationships and invest in expanding collaboration with regional, nationaland subnational stakeholders and across specialities beyond nutrition, including health and food systems.

How We Work – ENN’s Networked Approach
ENN works almost exclusively within networks, unleashing the power of complimentary collaborations toachieve maximum and multiplying impact, in all we do. We build, coordinate, facilitate and participate in
networks of researchers, practitioners and policymakers at national, regional and global levels. Throughout

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ENN Strategy 2024-2028

this strategic period, our connections at local, national and sub-national levels make up an ever-greater
proportion of our collaborations so that all our contributions are shaped by and accountable to those wework for.
Our team is small and dispersed and they deliver relevant, appropriate, and necessary action by connectingwith and facilitating our rich, grounded networks of practitioners, policy makers and researchers. We listen
closely to practitioners, learning from their realities and amplifying their voice where it is not being heard.
We engage with policy makers to better understand their considerations and we connect practitioners
and policy makers and fora so that policy can better support practice. Our networks of researchers bringacademic rigour to pragmatic research, working with implementers and policy makers to identify andaddress priority research gaps that inform policy and shape practice.
All our engagements are grounded in fair and accredited knowledge exchange and equitable andaccountable collaboration. We analyse the diversity of the membership of our networks to guide us tobe accessible and representative across people, organisations, and geographies. We are proactively
broadening our research collaborations with individuals and institutions in countries affected by a highburden of undernutrition. By the end of the strategy period, ENN will be connected to and reinforcing
significant networks of governments, institutions, and civil society organisations at national and regional
levels, helping to respond to their technical needs to drive their policy, programming and research agendas.
In the first instance, our focus is on network expansion in Asia and Africa.

What We Do – Our Contribution
ENN enhances the relevance and effectiveness of research, policy and practice by capturing knowledge,
stimulating and exchanging learning, highlighting gaps and building evidence, brokering consensus andcollective action and providing technical resources and guidance to practitioners and decision-makers
involved in nutrition and related systems and services.
ENN’s work can be described within three strategic pillars:
1. Building Evidence
2. Convening and Brokering
3. Managing Knowledge
1. Building Evidence
Influencing policy, programming and practice relies on the identification and analysis of a spectrum of
formal and informal evidence and the building of a collective understanding of the implications of that
evidence, including its strengths and weaknesses, where it can underpin positive change and where criticalgaps lie.
ENN works with partners to find and review existing evidence, identify and prioritise gaps andestablish how best to fill these to inform policy, research agendas and practice. Where evidence exists,
we maximise its reach and impact through careful collation and tailored dissemination with and for
different audiences. We directly engage in evidence generation, through quality primary or secondary
research published in the peer review literature, where there are critical evidence gaps with important
implications for programme and policy, and where we are well placed to do so. We help to uncover andamplify implementation evidence, seeking, documenting and unpacking implicit knowledge and learningfrom practitioners.

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ENN Strategy 2024-2028©Narain / UNICEF / India / 2019

Our curated and published evidence, deliberately made available to all, contributes to informed decision
making by normative global bodies such as the World Health Organization (WHO), national governments,
donors, aid agencies and practitioners, informing their policies, actions and investments for the greatest
possible impact.
ENN’s commitment to evidence and research is grounded in technical quality, rigour and depth. It is also
grounded in inclusivity, bringing different types of evidence together from diverse sources, embracing
grey literature, evaluations, case studies and key informant interviews alongside peer reviewed material.
Since we began, ENN has championed quality, curated documentation of programming experiences invaried contexts, drawing on these to identify contextual/local successes and challenges that can inform thewider evidence base. In this strategic period, our commitment to contextualised/local evidence generation
and review is amplified through greater advocacy for and in pursuit of implementation research that builds
stronger evidence of what works or does not, for whom and how in different settings.
As part of the further development of our networked approach during this strategy period, we engage
more deliberately with academic institutions, research groups and national bodies in LMICs to amplify
what they do in global fora and seeking equitable partnerships where we are invited to contribute.
2. Convening and Brokering
ENN believes nurturing relationships with and between individuals and institutions is central to generatingcollective understanding, galvanising shared commitment and most efficiently working towards effective
nutrition policy, programming and practice.

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ENN Strategy 2024-2028

ENN’s experience in convening and brokering has been instrumental in delivering lasting impact by securing
prioritised shared agendas, aligning actions and leveraging the multiplying effect of the collaboration ofcomplimentary actors to make concrete shifts in policy and practice. Where technical differences exist,
we are trusted to broker solutions that help to overcome these and our unique position in the sector, as
an objective non-implementer, results in ENN being invited to host or facilitate critical groups of global
nutrition actors.
At the outset of this strategic period, we facilitate several technical and special interest groups, including:• Global Adolescent Nutrition Network (GANN)		
• Infant Feeding in Emergencies Core Group		• WaSt Technical Interest Group• MAMI Global Network
These groups were set up by ENN to address critical gaps in coordination, evidence and learning in specifictechnical areas. Within them, ENN creates and maintains a safe, neutral space to discuss and progress inthese areas with researchers, programmers and policy makers. Specifically, gaps and technical challenges
are discussed, consensus built, priorities agreed upon and collaboration between actors and organisations
is brokered where necessary to carry out specific activities to address gaps. ENN also co-facilitates additionalgroups as and when to broker collaboration between actors and organisations for the improved alignmentof priorities and actions. For example, together with UNICEF, ENN co-facilitates the Maternal Nutrition
Taskforce responding to an increase in interest in this previously neglected area of nutrition. An ENN staff
member is also co-chair of the UNICEF/WHO Technical Advisory Group on Wasting and Nutritional
Oedema Acute Malnutrition to support the uptake of the 2023 guidelines.
We are open to new convening roles in areas where we have the greatest value. Where appropriate, we will
step back from existing activities when we are no longer needed or where group remits transition beyond
our scope. We are committed to increasing national representation in the groups we manage, including inleadership/chairing roles.
3. Knowledge Management
Knowledge capture, curation and exchange to inform effective policy and practice is why ENN was
established. It remains at the heart of our work, pervading all that we do and informing how we do it.
Effective policy and practice respond to the needs of those affected by malnutrition. Geographic distance,
contextual and cultural differences, unequal power dynamics, agency agendas and language barriers are
just some of the factors that can impede local knowledge capture and exchange, and the accreditation
required to ensure those needs and implementation knowledge translate to better policy and practice.
We are well-positioned to break down barriers to knowledge transfer, to help all voices to be heard andall experience to be reflected in critical discussions, helping to rebalance who is contributing to nutrition
discourse at all levels. We enable peer to peer capture and exchange of knowledge through our established,
dedicated platforms (Field Exchange, our flagship technical publication, the en-net online technical forum
in English and French, and the Digital Media Platform) and within our formal and informal networks. By
collating and curating content around specific themes, ENN is able to highlight emerging trends andchallenges being experienced and bring these to a wider audience for action. Beyond the collation anddistribution of information, ENN’s knowledge management approach provides support to contributors,

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ENN Strategy 2024-2028

offering review and feedback to appraise and strengthen submissions from those delivering relevant
services and programmes worldwide. Our aim is to optimise the learning that can be brought to others
through the sharing of experiences on our platforms. These mechanisms help to identify and continue tofuel ENNs technical focus areas, constantly sparking knowledge exchange and mutual learning.
Specifically, ENN is the knowledge and learning partner for the Global Nutrition Cluster Technical Alliance,a mechanism providing technical assistance in the form of deployments, guidance and advice to thoseworking in humanitarian contexts. In this role, we identify, develop and disseminate specific learning andcapacity-strengthening products informed by the country-level technical priorities of Cluster partners.
We take care in this role to maximise on, consolidate and improve the accessibility of existing learningand guidance, rather than reinventing the wheel, and support the documentation of curated country
experiences for other practitioners to learn from.
ENN works to constantly expand the dissemination and uptake of our work, with a focus on digitaland social media, and reaching new audiences through the increased translation of outputs into
more languages.
Field Exchange
Field Exchange is ENN’s flagship online and print
technical publication which has been publishedcontinuously since 1996. It enables the fast-track dissemination of operational experiences andresearch summaries from emergencies and high-burden contexts, with peer-to-peer knowledge
exchange being its central aim. The publication is available in English with selected online content
translated into French. Field Exchange ispublished three times a year and
one podcast per publication is
also produced. Over this strategy
period, a key target is to increase
readability and engage with abroader readership, including
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FIELD EXCHANGE ISSUE.net/fex

72, April 2024 www.ennonline

11

en-neten-net is an online technical discussion forum hosted by ENN. It provides
practitioners in nutrition and related fields with prompt technical advice andexperience, sharing from a community of peers on operational challenges for whichanswers are not readily accessible. It is a free resource, open to all, and is supported
by a network of technical moderators.
The forum currently comprises 11 technical areas, an area for discussing research partnerships andone which documents discussion related to the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement. It also hosts notices
of upcoming trainings, job/consultancy opportunities and funding calls.

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ENN Strategy 2024-2028©NRiN Project, Save the Children / Nigeria / 2022

Key initiatives
ENN has identified a number of critical recent and longer-term trends that we want to deliberately
respond to in this strategic period so that our contribution remains relevant.

Decolonisation
The international aid system was established in the colonial era and maintains norms that, in many
instances, perpetuate power and resource imbalances between different people along geographic lines.
ENN considers that a more inclusive, participatory and locally led approach, seen through this lens, isessential to understand and redress long standing imbalances.
ENN requires its connections to be purposeful, local and fair so that our work responds to, and is shaped by,those we aim to serve. By providing a platform for people’s experiences, including their own first responses
and their preferred solutions during a crisis, and by bringing that knowledge, and their participation, into
all the fora where we participate, we endeavour to place that experience at the centre of our interventions
to influence global policy, architecture and institutional mechanisms.
We develop practical mechanisms to be more inclusive and accountable in all we do and we advocate forthe lead, participation and recognition of national institutions in all policy, research and practice spaces,
including those currently dominated by international actors. We establish and reinforce links with nationaland sub-national governments, local NGOs, civil society and academic institutions to prioritise and amplify
their role in our shared work and the wider collective effort. This strategy sees a deliberate shift to building
deeper relationships at a local level to capture shared learning and, where there is demand, helping to12

ENN Strategy 2024-2028

broker and evidence better policies and practice. We are adapting the language, terminology and images
we use to be inclusive, equitable and respectful and we are increasing the translation of our outputs into
more languages.
Unlike implementing organisations, ENN has a small institutional footprint of a couple of dozen technicalexperts. We constantly review our governance and procedures to maximise the diversity of globally dispersed
trustees and staff from the greatest spectrum of countries, contexts and institutional backgrounds. We
provide staff with training and the space to reflect on and respond to power imbalances within our sector
and to maximise the positive roles that they can play within this.

Digitalisation
ENN was founded to connect people and their experiences to enhance collective performance and theprimacy of human connections remains central to our purpose and delivery. In the urgent pursuit of greater
inclusion, accountability and new routes to greater impact, digitalisation represents a critical opportunity
to enhance the quality and the efficiency of our work.
The most marginalised practitioners are not yet digitally connected but a growing majority of those we
serve is now able to engage with a plethora of locally produced and/or global platforms that help citizens
and professionals to navigate and enhance their lives. ENN holds both considerations simultaneously,
reaching the unconnected through long established mechanisms such as physical copies of Field Exchange
while optimising and maximising the content for digital platforms.
Driven by evidence, ENN uses digital tools, including the careful exploration of Artificial Intelligence, tomake our evidence and information easily accessible and comprehensible to our increasingly diverse
audience. We also recognise that the information we currently publishs is consumed digitally and, above
all, through mobile applications and therefore we are adjusting our platforms accordingly.
ENN’s en-net online technical forum (in English and French) connects peers for immediate technical support
from peers on both high and low bandwidth systems that allow for access, at or nearer the workplace. Field
Exchange will maintain its printed format in the short term but focus on the digital dissemination throughuser-friendly mobile and web versions. We continue to invest in these two products while exploring
partnerships for new avenues of knowledge transfer via social media, podcasts, blogs etc. that will enable
the greatest changes in the work of nutrition practitioners, wherever they may be.
Acknowledging both the advantages of connecting digital tools with communications as well as the risks
and required compliance of operating with data in a digital space, ENN invests in its human resources andmanagement systems to maximise delivery while adequately managing and protecting the personal dataof the people who we serve and work with.

Food systems
Today’s food systems are failing those who most rely on them, undermining nutrition and greatly
contributing to climate change. Understanding and addressing the links between food systems, climatechange and malnutrition is vital to devise effective strategies to mitigate these interconnected challenges
and to deliver nutritious, safe, affordable and sustainable diets.

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ENN Strategy 2024-2028© Self Help Africa / Africa

Work on food systems represents a new area of strategic focus for ENN that began in 2024. Fromthe beginning of this strategy period, ENN is establishing networks to generate, curate and shareknowledge to positively influence policy and programming for sustainable food systems that promote
positive nutrition. Our immediate focus is on fragile and conflict-affected environments and how foodsystems can be better orientated for the prevention of malnutrition, including through a dietary approach.
Understanding that anticipatory actions within the food system are crucial for effectively preventing
malnutrition and addressing its underlying causes, we explore ways of preventing wasting through a foodsystems approach.
Given ENN’s focus on infancy, childhood and adolescence, our food systems work prioritises these life
stages. With predictions that more than two-thirds of the global population will live in cities by 2050,
ENN’s increased emphasis on urban contexts combines with our food systems work to prioritise access
to, and utilisation of, sustainable healthy diets within urban food environments. As women are significant
actors within the food system, ENN concentrates its contribution on the currently limited evidence base forstrengthening women’s voices and highlighting their role.
Early emphasis is placed on building and sharing country-specific learning of effective strategies toinfluence policymaking and practice in our strategic focus areas.

Gender
ENN recognises that gender equality and women’s empowerment lie at the heart of progress for foodand nutrition security. Our intent is informed and aligned with international commitments around genderequality and the move towards adopting gender transformative approaches that aim to meet the practicalnutrition and health needs of both women and men, in ways that encourage sustainable outcomes.

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ENN Strategy 2024-2028

Engaging with young people
For ENN’s work to expand, remain relevant and impactful, it is critical for us to purposively engage existingand emerging groups of actors. Young people are directly impacted by malnutrition and are a rich resource
for addressing it. In the early stages of their careers, young people are also often working closely with arange of vulnerable groups and communities affected by malnutrition within nutrition programmes.
Subsequently, young people’s voices, participation and agency are key to driving sustainable change within
nutrition and related sectors. Recognising the unique perspective and contribution they offer, as well as
the importance of reaching the next generation working and living with malnutrition, ENN is dedicated tothe meaningful engagement of students and early careers in our work and networks, providing them withthe space, voice, audience and influence to contribute to collectively achieving our goals.
As reflected in our 2023 engaging with young people strategy, we take purposeful actions to increase
students and early careers participation in our networks. including:
1. W orking with our networks to engage youth champions and universities, prioritising those in LMICs,
to generate new sign-ups to our mailing lists from students and early careers. ENN is also dedicatedto fostering younger staff within the organisation and ensuring their increased representation inorganisational processes and has appointed a youth representative on ENN’s Board of Trustees.
2. Increasing the accessibility of ENN’s knowledge products for students and early careers by analysing
how they access and share information and using ways of communication, specifically digital, that reachand resonate with this audience.
3. I ncreasing the relevance of ENN’s knowledge products and activities to students and early careers byengaging in continued dialogue with a younger audience and ensuring our work speaks to the needsof this group, including featuring more students and early careers authors in our flagship publication,
Field Exchange.
4. F acilitating adolescent voices in the work undertaken by GANN, including recruiting youth
representatives as part of the GANN Core Group.

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ENN Strategy 2024-2028©Bart Verweij / World Bank / 2012 / Laos

An effective and sustainable organisation
In a time of growing resource gaps, ENN’s business model is differentiated in its exclusive focus on influencing
systems and using a networked approach that enables greater impact for all, rather than pursuing impact
through organisational implementation. ENN optimises its return on investment by remaining small, agile
and networked in structure.

Efficiency
As a small charity, ENN constantly seeks efficiencies in its operational model and business practices tomaximise capacity while ensuring effective delivery and long-term organisational sustainability.
Our delivery and our business model are formally evaluated within every programme and annual planning
cycle to make sure each iteration of implementation is more efficient than the last. Learning from theprevious strategy period, we prioritise internal strategic investments in:• D eveloping our core team of qualified staff in whom we consistently invest to enable their professional
growth and productivity.
• T he structured identification and pre-qualification of consultants and collaborators who allow ENN to flex
and deliver against fluctuating needs in diverse technical specialisms.
• N urturing/expanding our network of collaborating agencies and service providers to complement ourown standing capacity.
• R efining our working model that balances the benefits of inter-personal connections in a central location
with a hybrid approach that enables global recruitment and the regulation of overhead costs.

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ENN Strategy 2024-2028• D
 igital tools for greater technical impact, with an emphasis on data curation and analysis, accessibility
and the dissemination of our products and those that provide improved institutional oversight andaccountability.
• P ro-active review of our operating model including its structures, business processes, management tools
and funding strategy; all with a strong focus on a cost model that is accountable, sustainable and fair toall parties.
At a technical level, ENN contributes to optimal efficiency and complementarity of the collective response
by working closely with its networks of collaborators to avoid the duplication of collective efforts and only
acting in specific areas that are not covered by and/or complementing other organisations where we know
we can add value.

Funding
ENN is funded entirely by restricted grants within a portfolio made up of government and NGOs as well as
the private foundations that play an important role in funding this sector.
Our funding is balanced between annual commitments to single focus issues with grants that allow for
critical institutional funding to more diverse initiatives that reflect ENN’s responsive and nimble ways ofworking. As our portfolio evolves in the immediate and longer term, we explore new ways to develop
programmatic frameworks within which our donors can contribute to specific bodies of work that include
more clearly defined outcomes. As a recognised contributor of relevant and valued content, ENN works
with its collaborators to refine the models of recurring contributions to Field Exchange publications andnetwork membership.
As an enabling organisation that pursues maximum impact through approaches that can be longer-termand less immediately attributable than the more linear delivery of implementing organisations, ENN relies ondonors that understand the importance of its theory of change and the extraordinary return on investment indelivering knowledge and positively influencing policy for all. Working closely with donors and demonstratingcollective impact, combined with excellence in the stewardship of funding, are critical to securing longterm income. ENN’s 2024 funding strategy forms a critical and complimentary strand to this strategy.

Greening ENN
ENN acknowledges climate change and environmental degradation as interconnected global catastrophes
as well as being among the biggest drivers of hunger and malnutrition. While developing technical projects
that respond to these threats and although we have an extremely limited operational presence, it is apriority to understand and reduce ENN’s own contribution to the climate crisis.
Against baselines and the targets established in 2024, ENN pursues actions and monitors progress in
reducing its environmental impact in:• Transport, notably air travel• Energy consumption of our internal operations• Use of plastic and other non-renewable material, notably but not exclusively, single use• E-waste and disposal practice• Banking and pension investments

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ENN Strategy 2024-2028

A second phase looks at our external work filtering the research and recommendations for improved policy
and practice to consider the unintended consequences to environmental degradation and climate change.
This is led by our food systems work and cuts across all we do, including our digital footprint and access to
low carbon options for visitors to ENN’s website

Our People
ENN’s ability to achieve its vision depends entirely on the performance, collaboration and well-being of asmall but highly effective team where everyone is empowered to bring and develop their own expertise,internal and external networks, resources, deliverables and risk management. We are passionate about
and committed to what we do with the clarity of a shared purpose that allows us to thrive personally while
contributing to maximum collective impact.
Operating within a culture of kindness and mutual respect, ENN provides a creative environment that
promotes curiosity and open discussion and where employees have the freedom to lead, be creative andto challenge the internal and external status quo.
In this strategic period, we are building ENN as an organisation whose purpose is reflected within thediversity of its team, is efficient and transparent in the implementation of policy and practice at every stageof an employee’s engagement, as a place where talent is recognised and systematically invested in and isultimately considered an essential destination to build or further a career in the nutrition sector.

An Equitable, Diverse and Inclusive Organisation
With our purpose focusing ultimately on serving vulnerable and marginalised people while working on a
global level, ENN requires a team of staff and trustees with institutional diversity in representation, thought
and process. Delivering on our diversity ambition, within the limitations of our minimal footprint, is integral
to ENN’s real and perceived success.
ENN embraces equality, diversity and inclusivity by setting ourselves targets in consultation with ourstaff, board and relevant external stakeholders and by learning from others to build internal policy andpractices that enable an inclusive and diverse workplace. ENN proactively fosters a culture that cares
for and respects each other as individuals, embracing our differences, diverse experiences, backgrounds
and perspectives.

Communications
The effective delivery of ENN’s purpose, a successful networked approach and our work within the threepillars is dependent on effective communication. Our evidence, analysis and curated learning has the
maximum benefit for the greatest diversity of dispersed practitioners if it is clearly, appropriately andpurposefully disseminated.
New investments of resource and time on communications, and digital media in particular, offer an
opportunity to considerably increase our reach and impact and the return on investment in all we do,including in maximising dissemination, collaboration and consensus across diverse and geographicallyseparated practitioners. Therefore, this strategic period sees a deliberate expansion of our use of digital

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ENN Strategy 2024-2028

communication tools and content to allow us, our collaborators and our products to engage and reachmore people in multiple ways that are more inclusive and accountable.
All ENN staff take on increasing responsibility to communicate ENN’s products, role and perspective on
critical issues. Our budgets include time and investment for communications that enhance outcomes, raise
ENN’s and network profiles and the visibility of our supporters. There is consistency of style, branding anddissemination across all our products.

Being Accountable – Monitoring Evaluation Accountability andLearning (MEAL)
ENN achieves significant impact, often through non-linear, difficult to attribute but consistent, systemicchanges over longer periods of time, all of which require us to look beyond quantitative indicators. Our
MEAL system identifies the change we seek and enables us to demonstrate progress and to articulate
the overall impact of the organisation as well as the long-term collective efforts that influence sustained
positive change in the nutrition sector.
In this strategic period we:• D efine the changes we want to achieve, our routes to impact and the concepts that will allow us tomeasure and report progress.
• D evelop the monitoring tools that allow us to assess progress, identify and address problems as they arise
and rapidly adapt to challenges and opportunities.
• Develop impact measurement tools that can capture systemic changes, their outcomes and the attributionof networked contributors, including ENN, to those changes.
• Establish two-way mechanisms to collect, analyse and distil relevant and accurate data to enable our
accountability towards our collaborators and particularly to those we serve.
• S ystematically generate and capture our internal learning to inform our own work and continuously
improve our practice.
• E valuate our work to periodically reflect on our overall direction of travel, re-assessing our assumptions
and strategic priorities as well as to provide ongoing reflection on the external landscape of global
nutrition.
• D evelop our communication mechanisms to share our learning and improve the collective understandingof the return on investments from our systems influencing
As we invest in our MEAL system, processes and tools, we foster creativity and innovation in the way wethink about sustainable impact, how we assess and demonstrate it. The impacts we deliver are always theresult of collective effort but ENN is bolder in demonstrating and celebrating our specific contribution inboth micro and macro level changes.

ENN would like to thank and acknowledge the Department of Foreign Affairs, Ireland for its
generous support of our strategy development process and the publication of this document.
The ideas, opinions and comments included in this strategy are entirely the responsibility of
ENN and do not necessarily represent or reflect the policies of the donor.
Thank you to copyeditor Alison Parkin and designer Marten Sealby.

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ENN Strategy 2024-2028
Cover image: ©UNICEF / Burundi / 2023

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Emergency Nutrition Network

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