Food Security and Nutrition Improvement

Underlying the food and nutrition situation are multiple challenges in achieving sustainable food production that threaten the achievement of the SDGs. Malnutrition contributes to poor health, aggravates disease, and reduces productivity while compounding poverty and its after-effects. The conceptual framework for malnutrition identifies immediate and underlying causes of malnutrition that cut across numerous sectors – nutrition, food security, WASH and health. These are interrelated factors across sectors, which call for multi-disciplinary approaches. The UN Network for Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) strategy calls for the provision of technical assistance for strengthening and scaling up nutrition actions within a multisectoral and multi-stakeholder coordinated approach. ECASA Food Security and Improved Nutrition Cluster being a multi-disciplinary and multi-country team presents a good opportunity to promote and facilitate sustainable food security initiatives for accelerated growth and improved nutrition in the ECASA region.presents a good opportunity to promote and facilitate sustainable food security initiatives for accelerated growth and improved nutrition in the ECASA region.

Specifically, the Cluster focusses on addressing nutrition specific, sensitive and governance issues as highlighted in the 2nd Uganda Nutrition Action Plan (2018 – 2025). The cluster will provide support in line with the six pillars of investment areas for nutrition action highlighted in UNAP II, which include: Aligned health systems providing universal coverage of essential nutrition actions; Sustainable, resilient food systems for healthy diet; Social protection and nutrition education, behavior change communication; Trade and investment for improved nutrition; Safe and supportive environments for nutrition at all ages; and Strengthened governance and accountability for nutrition.