To combat malnutrition effectively, we must address gender inequalities.

Interview with Abena Thomas-Mambwe, Gender Advisor for the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Secretariat, seconded from World Vision International. Abena has over 15 years of experience in maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health and nutrition and infectious disease and programming. Her role, as Gender Advisor, is to support the Movement’s work on gender equality under the SUN Strategy 3.0, facilitating and coordinating gender and nutrition advocacy and engagement in support of country-led and country-owned nutrition priorities and results.

1. How are the fight against malnutrition and the fight for women’s rights necessarily linked?

The fight against malnutrition and the fight for women’s rights are deeply interconnected. Over one billion women and girls suffer from undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, and anemia, as highlighted by UNICEF’s report Undernourished and Overlooked. The recently launched SOFI report confirmed that women and girls consistently experience higher rates of food insecurity due to systemic gender inequalities.

These inequalities impact access to nutritious food, health care, education, and economic opportunities. Women and girls often eat last and least, and malnutrition during pregnancy increases risks of complications, perpetuating a cycle of poor health outcomes. Malnutrition also stunts children’s growth and cognitive development, further limiting future economic and educational prospects, reinforcing gender inequality across generations.

To combat malnutrition effectively, we must address gender disparities that hinder women and girls’ agency, decision-making, access to resources and opportunities across the life cycle. Without tackling these underlying inequalities, sustainable progress toward nutrition goals and broader development targets remains out of reach.

“Simply put, we will not succeed in scaling up nutrition if we do not address the drivers and impact of gender-based discrimination. Promoting diversity inclusion, and gender equality and women’s and girls’ empowerment must be at the centre of the SUN Movement’s work.” – Scaling Up Gender Equality And Women’s And Girls’ Empowerment To Fight Malnutrition: A Call to Action

2. How are the SUN countries and movement (including within international donors, private sector and civil society organizations networks) taking action to advance the gender agenda in the fight against malnutrition?

The SUN Movement unites 66 countries, four Indian states, and various partners, including businesses, civil society, and UN agencies, to foster political will, secure financing, and promote cross-sector collaboration. The SUN 3.0 Strategy recognizes the role gender equality and empowerment plays in ensuring a world free from malnutrition in all its forms and seeks to drive forward gender equality and enshrine youth leadership across the Movement. Here are our main objectives:

1- Promoting the integration of gender responsive and transformative action within nutrition policies, plans and budgets at national and subnational levels.  For example, in El Salvador, “Crecer Juntos” (Growing Together), a series of legislative initiatives for early childhood development, was launched in 2019. This included the “Amor Convertido en Alimento” (Love Converts into Food) law which guarantees the rights of women and children to breastfeed by ensuring adequate environments and conditions to promote, protect, and support breastfeeding.  Over 1000 breastfeeding counselors have been trained in El Salvador (through the EU4SUN cooperation project) and 400 lactation rooms opened across the country and in each of its overseas representations. With the support of the SUN Regional Coordination in Latin America, the model used in El Salvador is being discussed for replication in Costa Rica.

In Nigeria, through The Women and Girls’ Nutrition Project, the in-country Civil Society-Scaling Up Nutrition (CS-SUNN) in collaboration with FHI360, Alive & Thrive, 1,000 Days, and Intake and with the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has supported the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development to develop a National Guideline on Women and Girls’ Empowerment for Optimal Nutrition. The guideline is set to be launched before the end of 2024.

2- Fostering an environment of learning and peer-to-peer exchange to enable policy change and county action.  For example, the SUN Civil Society Network Secretariat, SUN CSA Viet Nam and FHI 360 organized a Global Webinar Series on Closing the Gender Nutrition Gap followed by an in-person training in Viet Nam for 14 countries. Out of which participants developed concrete action plans on how they were going to take their learnings forward.

3- Bringing together stakeholders for collective advocacy on nutrition investment and action around gender and nutrition.  Earlier this year we joined the Gender Transformative Framework for Nutrition Coalition to co-host a virtual side event at CSW68 – Unveiling the Power of Gender Transformative Nutrition, to promote investments in nutrition as an entry point for gender equality and exploring practical applications of the framework in gender-transformative community development programming.

Stronger Foundations also launched ‘Nourish Equality’ – a grantmaking guide that unpacks the evidence around the intersections of gender equality and nutrition making the case for greater investment. The SUN Secretariat is collaborating with Stronger Foundations, UNICEF and UN Women to host a session on “Coming Together to Nourish Equality” during the 79th session of UNGA to amplify the need for strong gender and nutrition action and commitments as we look ahead to the SUN Global Gathering and Nutrition for Growth summit.

3. What actions can stakeholders take to close the gender nutrition gap and improve the nutritional status of women? 

In 2019, the SUN Movement launched a Call to Action for all stakeholders. In the call it outlines key actions for each stakeholder group – member states, civil society, academia, donors, multilateral organizations. We all have a role to play and I would echo the 4 key actions that all stakeholders can take:

1. Understand how actions and programmes towards better nutrition impact women, men, girls and boys differently
2. Garner support  – at all levels – for the need to address good nutrition, child development, the empowerment of women and girls and gender equality, in tandem;
3. Include women,  adolescent girls and youth  in discussions about nutrition and development and consider their voices in decision-making;
4. Encourage leaders to commit through improved public investments and use of gender-responsive budgeting in programmes that address nutrition

The return on investment for gender and nutrition is clear. We need stakeholders to understand that investment in women’s and girls’ nutrition reaps benefits beyond the individual: to households, communities, societies and into future generations.

Every dollar spent on scaling-up nutrition interventions for pregnant women and children yields $16 in returns¹ . Eliminating anemia, while addressing undernutrition, obesity and overweight will not only save lives, but can also increase economic productivity by up to seventeen per cent². According to FAO’s report on the Status of Women in Agriculture, “closing gender gaps in farm productivity and pay in agrifood-system employment would also increase global gross domestic product by nearly 1 trillion USD and reduce global food insecurity by about 2 percentage points (roughly 45 million people)³.

This November, the Movement is coming together in Rwanda for the Global Gathering to reposition nutrition at the heart of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and to share experiences and best practices with a view to unifying countries and solidifying national commitments to the Nutrition for Growth agenda. Our aim is that gender and youth leadership is at the heart of the agenda.