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OCHA's commitment to the Nutrition Decade

Author
UNOCHA
Year
2017
Topics
UN Decade of Action on Nutrition

As a convenor and global leader in humanitarian response and coordination, OCHA proudly commits to the Decade of Action on Nutrition. Working through its five core functions of coordination, humanitarian financing, policy, advocacy, and information management, OCHA is strategically situated to respond to the call of nutrition, specifically within the humanitarian context.

In line with previous nutritional commitments from former ERC Valerie Amos and OCHA’s core functions, OCHA commits to further its work regarding all six Action Areas of the Decade of Action on Nutrition Working Programme in the following ways:

  • OCHA will scale up its global advocacy and campaign efforts that strive to make critical situations of acute malnutrition and famine visible to UN leadership, Member States, and the public through the use of common system-wide messages, communication products, informal advocacy outreach activities, campaigns, and networks for joined up activity.
  • In situations of acute malnutrition and famine in conflict areas, OCHA will continue to will facilitate access and contribute to collective efforts to enhance protection for affected persons, including advocating for the protection of civilians.
  • OCHA will endeavour to secure resources and investments for improved nutrition in humanitarian contexts in a sufficient and timely manner by developing strategic partnerships with key actors and processes in international financing.
  • OCHA will reinforce advocacy efforts that promote preparedness partnerships and initiatives and identify opportunities for complementary action, and foster supportive environments that are conducive to resilient food systems.
  • OCHA will ensure that nutritional components are included in humanitarian response plans and humanitarian needs overviews, including both short- and long-term plans.
  • OCHA commits to playing its part in the humanitarian-development nexus, through the New Way of Working by including nutritional collective outcomes in planning documents.
  • All humanitarian coordinators will be fully informed on the importance of nutrition and will have the necessary support for their leadership role in implementing the nutrition agenda. OCHA will facilitate the preparation of interagency guidance.
  • As a member of the United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition (UNSCN, one of the precursors to UN-Nutrition), OCHA commits to ensuring that nutrition is sufficiently prioritized in humanitarian emergencies and that the work of humanitarian and development agendas on nutrition is more closely aligned.

For further information, kindly refer to the full commitment below.