Blog Post

Global Nutrition Report Launched in New York City

  • By Kathy Zhang
  • •
  • 09 Dec, 2014
  • •
By Leslie Engel
The first-ever Global Nutrition Report made its North American debut at a launch event co-hosted by Columbia University and UNICEF in New York City on December 8, 2014, at the UNICEF Headquarters.
Werner Schultink, Chief of Nutrition at UNICEF gave opening remarks to the sizable crowd, noting the importance of the Global Nutrition Report as tool for creating sustained interest in nutrition progress.
“We need to build a momentum for nutrition for tomorrow’s children,” Schultink said.
He then turned the floor over to Lawrence Haddad, Senior Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Institute and lead author of the report. As the day’s Master of Ceremonies, Haddad moderated a lively discussion featuring New York-based nutrition and development experts. Panelists shared their ideas on how to move the global nutrition field forward, based on the report’s findings.
Download the first ever Global Nutrition Report
Kathy Spahn, President & CEO of Helen Keller International, addressed the central role that civil society organizations play in reducing malnutrition. She emphasized the importance of partnerships on the ground in local communities where interventions are taking place, as well as within the nutrition community and beyond.
“We need to make sure everyone’s singing that wonderful nutrition song on the same key, with the same words, ” she said.
In the future she would like to see an increased focus on nutrition-sensitive approaches like gender, WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) and capacity building.
Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute and SDSN, joined by video to highlight the importance of integrating nutrition into the post-2015 development agenda, which features major summits on finance, climate change and the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals. On the SDGs, he noted that nutrition is pervasive throughout a range of goals, and not just SDG #2 where it is explicitly mentioned. Sachs called on the nutrition community to provide a clear roadmap for the pivotal year ahead, and to set goals for future years so progress can be tracked.

Glenn Denning, SDSN NY Office Director

Glenn Denning, Director of SDSN’s New York office, noted that the nutrition community should use the momentum of the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement to “break from incrementalism.” He boldly suggested the adaptation of a pooled nutrition fund similar to the Global Fund, adding that “fears of unwieldy vertical funding are unfounded.” He proposed a “Scaling Up Nutrition Fund” be brought to the table at the UN summit to adopt the Sustainable Development Goals in September 2015.
In contrast, Leith Greenslade, Vice Chair at MDG Health Alliance, declared the days of vertical funding over, and instead suggested that nutrition be integrated into the Global Financing Facility currently under development. In addition, she advocated for more ambitious targets, integration of nutrition into other health interventions, active engagement with the private sector and a greater focus on women, particularly adolescent girls.
Turning to implementation, Silke Pietzche, Technical Director at Action Against Hunger, discussed the barriers to achieving better coverage of nutrition interventions. In the field, distance, cost, security and lack of knowledge are considerable obstacles to scaling up interventions. She offered three solutions: community outreach, bringing services to the people and incentivizing participation.
On capacity, Richard Decklebaum, Director of the Institute of Human Nutrition at Columbia University, stressed the importance of growing the nutrition community and training “nutritionists for the 21st century” who can work across disciplines and sectors.
Closing out panel remarks, Mandana Arabi, Executive Director of the Sackler Institute for Nutrition Studies at the New York Academy of Sciences underscored the need for more country-focused research that is also accessible to those working on the ground.
“Information and meaningful knowledge can be a movement for action. We need research that can support the work of nutrition champions,” she said.
An animated question and answer session rounded out the event, featuring debates on pooled funding, the integration of nutrition into the SDGs and the best way to articulate the World Health Assembly Global Nutrition Targets. The day’s discussions provided much food for thought for the global nutrition and development communities as well as the next Global Nutrition Report, slated for 2015.
Leslie Engel is a writer living in Brooklyn, NY.

SDSN Newsletter - July 2021

By SDSN Secretariat • 03 Aug, 2021 •
This month, SDSN celebrated its growing network, talked about the incredible amount of media coverage on the 2021 SDR, and reflected on this year's High Level Political Forum

WRI Report Spotlight: “Unlocking a Renewable Energy Future: How Government Action Can Drive Private Investment”

By Fiona Laird • 02 Aug, 2021 •
World Resources Institute recently released Unlocking a Renewable Energy Future: How Government Action Can Drive Private Investment, a report outlining key challenges to increasing clean energy investment and deployment. This report digs into the financial and regulatory mechanisms available to support policy frameworks like that outlined in SDSN USA’s Zero Carbon Action Plan (ZCAP), released in October 2020.

European Commission launches proposals to reach 55% emissions reduction by 2030

By Sam Van Hoof • 30 Jul, 2021 •
The ‘Fit for 55' package includes a ban on combustion engines from 2035, a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, and a Social Climate Fund among other provisions.

SDSN Canada 2021 Members Meeting Recap

By Giovanni Bruna • 29 Jul, 2021 •

SDSN Canada reconvened the network membership on June 16th, 2021 for the annual Members Meeting.

This year's meeting featured conversations on the current state of the SDGs in Canada, emerging opportunities for post-secondary institutions, networking breakout sessions, and a featured joint presentation by the Brookings Institution and Rockefeller Foundation on mobilizing campuses and communities for the SDGs using the 17 Rooms initiative. A lightning round of member initiatives was also included to highlight a portion of the SDG work happening across the network.

Recap the discussion by reading the meeting notes   or listening to the audio recordings for each session.

Meeting Highlights:

  • The SDSN Global annual Sustainable Development Report 2021  was released June 2021, tracking progress on the SDGs by country (Canada ranked 21st in the world). The report outlines the short-term impacts of COVID-19 on the SDGs and describes how the SDGs can frame the recovery.
  • The Government of Canada has released Canada’s National Strategy for the SDGs, Moving Forward Together. The strategy outlines a set of 30 actions towards the SDGs, including localizing the SDGs, supporting partnerships with Indigenous initiatives, and advancing research into the gaps in Canada's efforts to achieve the 2030 Agenda.
  • The 17 Rooms initiative  is a tool for advancing SDG collaboration, community-centric conversations, and bottom-up action. There are three key principles of consideration:
    • Every SDG gets a seat at the table (a dedicated room).
    • Identify what the next step is, and not the perfect step. What are things you can do together over the next 12 to 18 months that you can implement action on the SDGs?
    • It is about conversations, not presentations. The goal is to learn from each other and create a community of practice.
    • Join the 17 Rooms-X Community of Practice to access the beta toolkit.
  • A ‘lightning round’ of presentations by members spotlighting SDG work from Colleges and Institutes Canada, the Interdisciplinary Research Center in the Operationalization of Sustainable Development (CIRODD), Vancouver Island University, the University of Saskatchewan, and the University of Waterloo.

The meeting was also a chance to invite the membership into initiatives designed to be more intentional about the network’s collective presence and impact. In this vein, the network thinks that the 17 Rooms process can be a critical resource for campus conversations on the SDGs. It also relaunched the Member Challenge , is starting the ‘SDG Teaching Community’ for faculty across the network, and is convening a small working group of interested members to talk about an enhanced governance structure for the network.

Public Consultation on SPA Report

By Lauren Barredo • 29 Jul, 2021 •
We encourage stakeholders to provide meaningful input to aid the development of a better and more complete report. We invite feedback from individuals and organizations, from all sectors.

Environmental and Agricultural Impacts of Dietary Shifts at Global and National Scales

By FABLE • 28 Jul, 2021 •
The FABLE Consortium is releasing two policy briefs over the coming months intended to advise national governments on sustainable land-use and diets. The first brief, entitled “Environmental and agricultural impacts of dietary shifts at global and national scales'' is now available.

Media Coverage of the Sustainable Development Report 2021

By SDG Index • 23 Jul, 2021 •
The Sustainable Development Report 2021 has been covered by the BBC, the Guardian, Washington Post, and more than 100 other media outlets.

The Multidimensional Vulnerability Index and Small Island Developing States (SIDS)

By Isabella Massa • 21 Jul, 2021 •
SDSN together with the United Nations Resident Coordinators in SIDS and the Permanent Mission of Antigua and Barbuda hosted on 12 July 2021 a High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) side event to discuss the issue of measuring multidimensional vulnerability, and its relevance for international financing mechanisms.

SDGs Today Launches My School Today!

By SDGs Today • 20 Jul, 2021 •
SDGs Today recently launched their My School Today! call to action, meant to support students and local communities to geo-reference their schools and education facilities as part of an effort to promote timely information on school locations in Africa

SDSN at the 2021 High-Level Political Forum (HLPF)

By SDSN Secretariat • 20 Jul, 2021 •
SDSN and our networks are hosting a number of events alongside the UN's High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF). We are thrilled to invite you to join us at the following events, which SDSN is hosting or are organized by our partners.
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