Malnutrition affects billions of people throughout the world, killing around three million children annually, according to UNICEF. The Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) movement was set up to respond to this crisis, with a mission to eliminate malnutrition by 2030.
IPU Secretary General Martin Chungong is one of the 29 global leaders appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to shape SUN's efforts to eradicate malnutrition. On 17 November, Mr. Chungong met with Ms. Gerda Verbung, Coordinator of SUN, to discuss how to translate the collaboration between the two institutions into action.
Mr. Chungong renewed his commitment to mobilize the global parliamentary community around the issues of malnutrition by raising awareness about nutrition and how it can contribute to national economic and social development.
IPU will use the global platform of its Assemblies to organize sessions on nutrition and look at ways in which it can be mainstreamed into national plans and policies. On the national level, IPU will build the capacity of parliamentarians to oversee both the implementation of government’s plans, strategies and programmes, and the effective use and significant increase of financial resources for nutrition. It will also help parliamentarians to improve legislation on nutrition, and to organize and participate in community campaigns to raise public awareness of the issue.
Mr. Chungong said that democracy and effective parliamentary action can bring about positive change in people’s lives, including by helping to eradicate malnutrition.
