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SUN Civil Society Network

Small Grants Programme 2023

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What is the SUN CSN Small Grants Programme?

The SUN CSN Small Grants Programme, launched in 2018, aims to provide small grants to support Civil Society Alliances (CSAs) in piloting innovative research or projects. This funding is designed to build the capacity of local organisations interested in advancing research and innovative initiatives that can be scaled and shared as models of best practice for other CSAs within the global SUN Civil Society Network. The programme is funded by Irish Aid and the Swiss Development Cooperation as part of their broader support to the SUN Civil Society Network Secretariat, hosted by Save the Children UK.

Exponential growth: In 2013 the Network was made up of under 500 organisations with alliances in just 13 countries, to 2016 which saw 1,100 organisations with alliances across 30 countries, through to 2023 with over 4,500 organisations across 52 alliances and a dozen in development.

Decentralised collaboration: The growth of CSAs attests to the increased interest in working collaboratively, sharing knowledge and harnessing each other’s competencies for greater impact at local and national level. In 2022, 69% of CSAs had decided to decentralise their governance structure to better reach out to communities and reflect their needs in collective action, with 11% in the process of establishing sub-national structures.

Global South-led: The SUN CSN takes pride in being country-led, placing people’s and communities’ needs first and foremost. Most of the Civil Society Alliances include national organisations (73%), community-based organisations (60%) and youth-led organisations (49%) with tremendous grassroots knowledge, expertise and outreach. They are at the frontline of malnutrition and therefore the best placed to understand communities’ needs, challenges and evidence-based solutions. All Network objectives and activities are geared towards leveraging this rich and varied experience, sharing data and scaling up promising practices to inform national and global decisions.

Regionalised model: The SUN CSN Secretariat champions and drives the localisation agenda within the SUN Movement and beyond. Since end 2023, the CSN Secretariat has successfully regionalised with the recruitment of four Senior Regional Advisers responsible for coordinating, supporting and amplifying the work of CSAs. Their tailored technical assistance is already resulting in increased member engagement, a pooling of evidence, documentation of good practices, peer-to-peer learning, joint advocacy engagement, more inclusive governance structures, and more joined up efforts through the development of regional engagement strategies. This in turn garners more support from external technical assistance providers who see the value of investing in local initiatives that have the potential to be scaled up at national and regional levels, as well as being carefully monitored and evaluated. Regional meetings between CSA coordinators are organised every year, providing CSAs with the opportunity to celebrate and learn from major regional initiatives, including the Asia good governance campaign, the East and Southern Africa budget analysis work, the West and Central Africa parliamentary engagement and advocacy for accountability, and Latin America & Caribbean’s strategic capacity strengthening plan.

Varied expertise: With Civil Society Alliances working on both nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions (see diagram below), the Network offers a wide range of expertise across the world. In 2022, CSAs indicated that the top-ranking thematic areas in their 2023 workplan were supporting breastfeeding and nutritious food in the first 1,000 days (80%), the right to food and nutrition (53%), agriculture – improving production and access to nutritious food and supporting small farmers (53%). A full breakdown can be found in the 2022 SUN CSN Annual Survey (p.7).

Financial sustainability: In 2017, only 32% of CSAs were funded. By 2020, this had grown to 72%. In the 2018-2022 period, the SUN Pooled Fund 2.0 largely benefited CSAs, yielding lasting impact and helping them to increasingly diversify their sources of funding. In addition, since 2017, the CSN has run a series of sub-grants (on country-to-country collaboration, learning, research and innovation, and MEAL & Sustainability) which have resulted in a range of new approaches and accelerated learning within CSAs and beyond. Country-level impact can be found in the SUN CSN 2018-2022 Small Grants Programme Report. However, due to the polycrises and the shrinking civic space in many SUN countries, coupled with closure of the SUN Pooled Fund, 84% of CSAs who responded to the 2022 annual survey reported having issues with funding, with only 21% having secured full or partial funding for the following 12 months, and only 4% for the following 3 years. The SUN SCN Secretariat is doubling efforts to strengthen the CSAs’ resource mobilisation and ability to diversify their sources of funding, in collaboration with other actors from within and beyond the SUN Movement. Examples of technical and financial support offered include the award-winning “Global Radicals: Fundraising Leadership Programme”; a comprehensive donor mapping; an updated list of funding opportunities; a fundraising toolkit; relationship brokering with SUN Donor Conveners; small sub-grants to four CSAs every year; in addition to bilateral fundraising technical assistance.

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Afghanistan

Digitally transforming nutrition outcomes: A multisectoral capacity building initiative

Achievements

The goal of this project was to develop a digitally driven multisectoral capacity building programme to improve nutrition-sensitive behaviours. A comprehensive curriculum was designed to meet the diverse educational levels of farmers and is delivered through digital platforms for scalable and wide-reaching impact.

They created 15 videos that focus on real-world applications directly relevant to farmers' daily experiences, emphasising the connection between agricultural practices and nutritional outcomes. This approach is to maximise productivity, yield, return on investment and the nutritional status of the community.

In addition, they developed 20 videos to influence public policies, raise awareness, and build a coalition around nutrition. They trained teachers and local religious leaders and produced materials to foster behavioural change practices.

Furthermore, the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation, and Livestock has established a separate committee to help the CSA address the underlying causes of malnutrition in Kabul. They have agreed, in principle, to provide the CSA with physical resources, manpower, land, and radio/TV broadcasting services at no cost to support their continued efforts.

Partnership with Government: ZCSOSUNA collaborated with the Zimbabwean Parliament and Ministry of Health to establish a parent-friendly area in the parliament building as a benchmark for supportive workplaces, aiming to promote adherence to WHO’s breastfeeding recommendations.
Training and Tools Development: Conducted training for government officials, journalists, and parliamentary staff on the International Code of Marketing for Breastmilk Substitutes, and developed an online tool for monitoring code violations, integrating it into the national health information system.

Secretariat Support

Financial and Coordinal Support: Supported by the SUN CSN Small grants Programme, which provided a £10,000 GBP grant and facilitated ZCSOSUNA’s involvement in global discussions on breastfeeding practices and policy implementation. => would not have been possible without the Small Grant Proc

Global Recognition and Advocacy: Participated in the first Global Congress on Implementation of the International Code in Geneva, sharing Zimbabwe’s strides in breastfeeding protection and the crucial roles of civil society in enforcing the Code. Kudakwashe Zombe (Zimbabwe) reflected on the various roles that civil society can play in achieving stronger Code implementation, from trainers to whistle-blowers to researchers, and provided specific examples from Zimbabwe.

Sadly – Kuda had to leave his position because of lack of funding… after 12 years of incredible service

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Peru

Achievements

The goal of this project was to organise a Civil Society Observatory on food and nutrition security, based on monitoring the country's commitments within the framework of the Food Systems Summit, validate the need for regular accountability and a methodology. A first public follow-up report on the roadmap presented by the Peruvian government to the Food Systems Summit was prepared in a participatory manner.

The CSA influenced both the Ministry of Economic and Finance and National Center for Strategic Planning (CEPLAN Information System) to maintain and update public information. They also secured training for civil society members on using these databases, which included updates to goals in Integrated Financial Administration System (SIAF) and the correlation of budget progress with strategic objectives and operational plans in CEPLAN.

The observatory’s design was developed collaboratively, beginning with a questionnaire to identify organisations interested in PERUSAN, followed by a validation meeting with 12 participating organisations.

Subsequently, FIIAPP requested a meeting between PERUSAN and the Right to Food Observatory (ODA), comprised of three universities in Lima and based at the National Agrarian University of La Molina, which is part of an American ODA network. The framework for collaboration between the two observatories is still being developed.

Civil society observatory for the accountability of Peru's commitments at the 2021 Food Systems Summit

Achievement

Bormey Chhun as the youth nutrition champion for the SUN CSN Youth Leaders for Nutrition Programme, set out to raise awareness among youth on food security and nutrition, encourage and motivate youth to support the promotion of healthy diets, food security and nutrition and encourage youth to participate in policy making on issues related to food security and nutrition and to promote these kinds of youth engagement activities.
Bormey Chhun mobilsied youth in Cambodia by organising youth forums, peer-to-peer learning opportunities and youth camps.
Bormey Chhun mobilsied 50 Youth Nutrition Champions who received training on food security, nutrition, breastfeeding and safety at the beginning of their tenure were able to engage with other young people in their communities to share the knowledge they had gained. In just one year, a total of 2,000 young people were reached through various efforts.
Six youth forums were held, with at least 200 people attending each forum. The forums were held at universities in various cities and provinces. For each forum in a province, up to five schools were invited. Youth focal points from various sectors (women’s affairs, education, agriculture and others) were invited to participate as panellists and to share how they have used the platforms in their municipalities to work with rural youth.
A series of interactive games was designed, and healthy and nutritious dinners were provided to those participating in the forums.
Bormey Chhun organised a residential youth camp at which young campers were given recipes for healthy meals and then divided into groups to implement what they had learned in a cooking competition.

Secretariat Contribution

The SUN CSN Secretariat leads the Youth Leaders for Nutrition Programme, through this programme Bormey Chhun was selected as the youth nutrition champion representing Cambodia. The SUN CSN Secretariat supported financially and technically the youth nutrition champions and provided them with opportunities and small grants to implement their projects.

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Tanzania

Achievements

The goal of this project was to improve the nutritional status of school children and adolescents by incorporating fruit and vegetables into school meals to enhance meal quality. Strategies included supporting the production of fruit and vegetables to increase their consumption among students by introducing simple and affordable gardening techniques that could be replicated at home, along with enhancing nutrition knowledge and healthy eating practices.

All 18 selected schools have received gardening inputs and training to establish vegetable nurseries and gardens, now managed by students through nutrition clubs. Each school’s nutrition club, with 810 trained members in total, coordinates activities, including maintaining the gardens.

Sustained fruits and vegetable production and consumption in schools project – Kilindi District

Schools report surplus vegetable harvests added to their meals, inspiring committees to grow staple foods. Sustainability plans are in place, and a handover event with district-level government ensures the project’s integration into ongoing services

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Togo

Achievements

As part of the project to improve nutritional quality through the adoption of agroecology in the context of climate change in Togo:

Eighteen producers were trained in packaging, labeling, hygiene, sanitation, and advertising for the sale of organic products, including 16 women and 2 men.

Twenty-four Alliance for Nutrition in Togo members were trained on the risks of synthetic chemicals and the benefits of bio-inputs, a first for them.

Support for the improvement of the nutritional quality of food through the adoption of agroecology in a context of climate change in Togo

The Kpalimé Organic Basket and seven member entities received the BioSPG Togo certification from Ana-Bio, boosting their visibility and organic credibility across Togo and beyond.

The third edition of the CSA’s magazine, Memory of the Farmer, featuring good agroecological practices, is now available in PDF and print. It is popular among technical and financial partners, training centers, NGOs, ministries, financial institutions, and cooperatives in Togo.

Fourty-seven farmers, including 18 women from 13 villages in Kloto Prefecture, learned to make biofertilisers and bioprotectants. Participants included members of NGOs, cooperatives, individual producers, and agri-food companies