Analysis: UN forum in the doldrums
JOHANNESBURG, 5 November 2010 (IRIN): Dark clouds are hovering over a nutrition forum which for the past 30 years has brought UN agencies, NGOs and academics together to help shape policy and programmes on minimum standards in terms of nourishment for people across the world.
The UN Standing Committee on Nutrition (SCN), based at the World Health Organization (WHO) headquarters in Geneva, has run out of money because UN agencies have failed to pay their individual annual contributions of 100.000 US dollar (godt en halv million DKR), according to its chair Alexander Müller.
The SCN has not received funds for 2011, and all the three permanent staff were told last month they would be made redundant (afskediget).
The SCN, set up by the UN in 1977 to harmonize action around nutrition policy and programming, was instrumental in getting the world to pay attention to micronutrient deficiencies (mang-ler/underskud), especially iron, iodine and vitamin A.
It is the leading multi-agency forum for nutrition issues. The global nutrition “cluster” coordination group deals only with emergency-related nutrition issues.
In an attempt to draw attention to SCN’s problems, Ted Greiner, chair of the NGO and Civil Society constituency of the SCN, recently wrote to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
He pointed out that “while this would be a serious concern any time, it is especially embarrassing at this moment when calls for leadership are sounding so loudly [on nutrition] from your High Level Task Force on Global Food Security, the recent Lancet series on nutrition, and the 1.000 Days Challenge that you spoke at last month.”
In an article on the World Public Health Nutrition Association’s website, Boyd Swinburn, director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Obesity (overvægt) Prevention at Deakin University in Australia, asked: “Will the UN SCN die?”
“No,” Müller told IRIN. Müller, who is also assistant director-general of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said he had “put a lot of pressure” on agencies in the last two weeks to commit to their contributions. He was also in talks with private donors for advance 2011 contributions.
SCN’s financial problems have raised questions about its relevance and the need for reforms.
Not “activist” enough
Læs videre på http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=90989
