DILI, 22 october 2021 (TATOLI) – Timor-Leste and six of Southeast Asian countries attended the launch of the SUN Movement 3.0 Strategy for its third phase (2021-2025) on scaling up nutrition, via virtual meeting on october 12.
The six countries included Vietnam, Laos, Indonesia, Philippines, Bangladesh, and Cambodia.
The Prime Minister, Taur Matan Ruak was invited to attend the event to present the nutrition situation in the country.
SUN 3.0 is committed to fundamental, non-negotiable aspects of effective nutrition action, including equity and the principle of leaving no one behind. For its third phase, the SUN Movement will drive forward gender equality and enshrine youth leadership across the Movement.
“Despite reductions in stunting, about 47.1 percent of children under five years of age are stunted, while 36 percent of Timor-Leste’s households were food insecure at some time during recent years,” said Ruak.
At the event, the six nations, including Timor-Leste raised the malnutrition issue as a common problem, which required the cooperation of all countries to share experiences and knowledge to find strategies to end the malnutrition.
SUN 3.0 emphasizes the impact on nutrition at the country level and country leadership in addressing all forms of malnutrition. This includes supporting nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive actions through strengthened food, health, and social protection systems, and with a focus on gender and economic equity.
The spokesperson of the SUN Movement Timor-Leste, Filipe da Costa presented Timor-Leste’s commitment to end malnutrition in the country.
Prime Minister, Taur Matan Ruak, had previously, launched the National Nutrition Award Program, in collaboration with the Members of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Food Security (KONSSANTIL), under the leadership of the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries to combat malnutrition.
The SUN Movement urges all stakeholders to adopt, own and deliver collectively developed strategic objectives as immediate priorities. All parts of the Movement – member governments, the four SUN networks, the SUN Movement Coordinator, the SUN Movement Secretariat, the SUN Movement Executive Committee, and the SUN Movement Lead Group – are expected to step up in equal measure and intensify their efforts to accelerate the delivery of nutrition outcomes at scale, and to work together to align and focus those efforts on priorities within countries, said in OCHA Services’ website.
Journalist: Arminda Fonseca
Editor: Julia Chatarina
Journalist: Filomeno Martins
Editor: Nelia Borges Rosario
