This week, leaders from across the world emphasised the importance of working in partnership to tackle the crisis of malnutrition and that our success in achieving the Millennium Development Goals depended on it. As development partners, Canada, the United States, Ireland, France, the World Bank, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the United Kingdom took up this challenge and we hope that other partners will join. We have:

1. COMMITTED TO RESPOND TO COUNTRY REQUESTS FOR IMPROVED COLLABORATION THROUGH ALLIANCES OF DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS.

Uganda, Malawi, Bangladesh, Nepal and Ghana were the first countries to request this support.

The Government of Uganda is committed to increasing the budget for nutrition intervention as a percentage of health spending. We are working through the three stages of country participation that outline the Scaling Up Nutrition Road Map…We will call upon the government patrons, including donors, to support Uganda’s effort to scale up nutrition. I encourage other countries to do the same in Africa so that we can all scale up our investment in nutrition.
Sam Kuteesa, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Uganda

Through these alliances to support efforts to scale up nutrition, we uphold the principles we agreed to in Paris and Accra. Where we are actively supporting nutrition programs, we will:

• strengthen our coordination with one another; • improve our alignment with national priorities for malnutrition reduction using existing platforms where we can, thereby reducing transaction costs for national governments; • deliver and demonstrate more nutritional impact through programs that tackle the underlying causes of malnutrition; • consistently track results and funding commitments toward improved nutrition outcomes through all of our programs as part of our commitment to assist countries in improving accountability and aligned reporting on progress of country objectives. • Strengthen country capacities to monitor nutrition outcomes

We have to be ready in our partnerships to increase our support for countries struggling with undernutrition, and we have to align our programs and our funding with their plans instead of creating parallel programs…Most donors have agreed that this kind of closer partnership is the right way forward and have agreed to take joint action to scale up nutrition, and we will be there with them. And guided by the SUN roadmap, we can advance a culture of coordination that helps make these programs more effective, sustainable, and higher impact.
Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State

Building on our historical support to improve the nutritional well-being of the world's most vulnerable, Canada is pleased with the significant shared recognition that nutrition must be fully integrated into food security, health and educations programs. This is particularly important in improving the health of mothers, newborns and children. Supporting countries with strong commitments to improving the nutritional health of women and children will result in a healthier, more productive and stronger population.
Beverly Oda, Minister of International Cooperation, Canada

2. STIMULATED INTERNATIONAL AND NATIONAL LEADERSHIP FOR NUTRITION.

At this week’s event, the UN Secretary General said that he can be counted on as a global nutrition leader. We express our support for the Secretary General in his work to establish leaders groups for nutrition, and commit to work together to establish a leaders group at the international level by the end of this year.

SUN proposes a set of effective nutrition interventions from the start of each pregnancy until a child reaches the age of two. We call this the 1,000-day window of opportunity. These interventions are extremely cost-effective. They prioritize the interest of women and the importance of nutritious diets for mothers and babies. If overall development programs are sensitive to the importance of the 1,000-day window, we can make a big difference to undernutrition…Today, I encourage leaders to ensure that each decision they make helps reduce the risk of undernutrition…Please know that I am glad to be counted as a global nutrition leader.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon

There is a need for more active and visible political leadership to drive change. I welcome the Roadmap’s call for Nutrition Leaders Groups, and the British government will be pleased to participate.
Andrew Mitchell, UK Secretary of State for International Development

3. COMMITTED TO RESPOND WITH THE URGENCY REQUIRED TO TAKE ON THE NUTRITION CHALLENGE.

It is now time to take action. We are committed to reporting progress at next year’s UN General Assembly, through the next 1,000 days, and beyond. We will continue to meet together to coordinate support for the SUN Roadmap’s delivery. We will drive progress on support for high burden countries and nutrition leadership by convening again in Canada in autumn 2010 and in the UK in spring 2011. We will also support countries as they convene development partners to take action on the three phases of country partnerships outlined in SUN. We also support civil society’s initiative to convene global nutrition advocates and leaders next summer.

..malnourished children grow up to be less productive adults, resulting in an estimated loss of 2-3% of GDP in the developing countries with the highest burden of maternal nd early childhood undernutrition. So, we have a vicious cycle where poverty causes malnutrition and malnutrition perpetuates poverty. And, unless this cycle of poverty and malnutrition is broken, we will not achieve sustained economic growth and we will not achieve the MDGs by 2015. The World Bank is deeply committed to scaling up its investments in nutrition. As we do so, we are firmly positioned to take a multi-sectoral approach to improving nutrition –not just through direct or nutrition-specific investments such as vitamin A supplements, deworming, and breastfeeding promotion, but also by promoting nutrition-sensitive investments that improve nutrition through a variety of sectors -- food security and agriculture, social protection, and health, education, water-supply and sanitation as well as cross-cutting issues like poverty reduction, gender equality, governance, and state fragility.
Tamar Manuelyan Atinc, Vice President, Human Development Network, World Bank

And let today be the first of our own 1,000 days – 1,000 days of focused, concerted efforts to translate our common knowledge and vision into concrete action and then build momentum. So I challenge all of us, including my own government, to commit to make progress toward the goals outlined in the SUN roadmap by hitting specific benchmarks during the next 1,000 days, supporting those champions of nutrition who can help us get there.

And then let’s come back a year from now at UNGA to report on how we have aligned our programs with country strategies, and to come back two years from now with evidence that we are reaching more pregnant women and young children, and to come back at the end of our own 1,000 days having achieved a measurable impact on national undernutrition indicators.
Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State

We must build partnerships to support them – partnerships that bring together community organizations, the private sector, civil society, local authorities, and national governments. In the Irish language, we say, “Ní neart go cur le chéile,” which means, “Strength in unity.”
Micheál Martin, T.D., Minister for Foreign Affairs