Donor perspectives and engagement with SUN

Donors promote diverse approaches to address nutrition. Often, donors combine ‘nutrition-specific’ and ‘nutrition-sensitive’ interventions in a multisectoral approach. Nutrition-specific interventions, such as promotion of good nutritional practices, increase of micronutrient (MN) intake in pregnant and lactating mothers and children, provision of MN through fortification, and increase in treatment of acute malnutrition, are often seen as cost-effective and as reducing the immediate and long-term effects of undernutrition through a limited set of high impact actions. The former are ideally complemented by nutrition-sensitive interventions mainstreaming initiatives into education, social protection, water and sanitation and hygiene.
Agricultural investments and campaigns promoting a variety of food at affordable prices are included as well. These interventions aim to address the less direct, underlying environmental and socioeconomic factors that contribute to malnutrition. It is good practice to integrate nutrition education components into programmes. Depending on the country and other context-specific circumstances, donors employ a varying mix of specific technical solutions that address qualitative and quantitative issues, such as fortification and food aid programmes, respectively, as well as more comprehensive systems approaches which also address sociocultural, environmental and production aspects.