Off the wire
• Sweden's royal family greet and baptize newcomer Prince Oscar  • 1st LD Writethru: U.S. stocks keep rising ahead of key jobs report  • Roundup: Dutch economy could keep growing, integration of immigrants crucial: OECD  • Hubble spots farthest known galaxy in universe  • Urgent: U.S. stocks keep rising ahead of key jobs report  • Over 5,000 pregnant schoolgirls re-admitted in Sierra Leone: official  • Chicago wheat rallies strongly on weather concerns; corn, soybeans edge higher  • Report highlights improved safety of global capital markets  • 2012 GOP nominee blasts 2016 GOP front-runner, refusing to endorse any other  • British wine producers take on French vineyards in export drive  
You are here: 　 Home

Ban names head of UN group to improve nutrition for people worldwide

Xinhua, March 4, 2016 Adjust font size:

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon on Thursday announced the appointment of Gerda Verburg of the Netherlands as coordinator of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement.

Verburg succeeds the acting SUN Movement coordinator, Tom Arnold, who has coordinated the movement from August 2014.

Previously, David Nabarro, the special adviser to the secretary-general on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable development and special representative for food security and nutrition, coordinated the movement.

The secretary-general is grateful for dedicated service of Nabarro and Arnold to the movement, in helping to establish the powerful driving force for nutrition, which it is today, Ban's spokesman told reporters here.

Verburg will work with 56 country governments that lead the SUN movement, united with United Nations agencies, civil society, business and donors, in a common mission to defeat malnutrition, the spokesman said.

Since 2011, she has served as the permanent representative of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the United Nations Organizations for Food and Agriculture in Rome and in 2014 she was appointed chair of the Global Agenda Council for Food and Nutrition Security of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

From 2013 to 2015, Verburg served as chair of the United Nations Committee on World Food Security (CFS). From 2007-2011, she served as speaker in the Dutch House of Representatives on economics, energy and innovation and as Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality.

In 2008 she was elected chair of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development.

Scaling Up Nutrition, or SUN, is a unique movement founded on the principle that all people have a right to food and good nutrition. It unites people -- from governments, civil society, the United Nations, donors, businesses and researchers -- in a collective effort to improve nutrition.

Within the SUN Movement, national leaders are prioritising efforts to address malnutrition. Countries are putting the right policies in place, collaborating with partners to implement plans with shared nutrition goals, and mobilising resources to effectively scale up nutrition, with a core focus on empowering women.

With a shared understanding that many factors impact nutrition, each of us has a unique contribution to make. Enditem