Who are our "Champions"? how do you recognize them, how are we engaging with them?

My key take away points about Champions involvement and role in scaling up nutrition from the the 23rd SUN Movement Country Call (15/5/2016) – Uganda, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Ghana, ENN, SUN Movement:

- Champions are individuals that: are passionate of the topic, have capacity to effectively influence, are opinion leaders, willing to give time to prioritize nutrition. Champions are self-driven, results oriented (“opportunistic”). Champions are able to communicate and/or demonstrate with actions the importance of nutrition.

- Once you find a person with those attributes…. you “pick it up” and develop collaboration. It is key for us to make them able to let be able to sustain the effort. We should contribute in building his/her confidence in speaking out loud, transmitting her/his expertise and reach out even more people, influence even more the people around her/him.

We must support his/her effort boosting communication skills, technical knowledge; keep them always up to date with news and relevant news and evidences.

- Local champions and “high-level political” champions have a key role in “accelerating, propagating” our plans, they are key in helping us in “shaping and re-shaping” our actions and approach and connecting us to remote stakeholders.

What else do you think is needed to enhance and potentiate champions’ effort/effects?

How can we build around them a vibrant, stimulating and enabling environment?

Thank you to all the participants to the inspiring discussions.
Best,
Cecilia

Hi all,

please also check out some of the great work CSAs have been doing in engaging and mobilising champions to date:
- MPTF annual report 2014 & - MPTF evaluation (annex 9) accessible on http://scalingupnutrition.org/about/how-is-the-movement-supported/sun-mptf
- Some key impacts also showcased on a map - https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=zZ-gUhseYYec.k7e_hOBcmgEQ
- A lot in news pieces published on the SUN website - http://scalingupnutrition.org/news?category=cso-network
- SUN in practice brief on social mobilisation, advocacy and communications - available at http://scalingupnutrition.org/about
- Transform nutrition champions - http://www.transformnutrition.org/2016/01/2016-transform-nutrition-champions-announced/
- Sustainable Development champions - http://www.unscn.org/en/publications/publications-mailing-lists/newsletter-archive.php?newsletter=76

Just thought it would be good to sign post to some of these great existing resources.

Thanks Cecilia, Claire and Colleagues

The role of Nutrition Champions in advancing the nutrition agenda among audiences we cannot impact enough using our technical knowledge/skills, is vital.

My experience working with Nutrition Champions in Kenya:

1. Develop criteria to identify good champions to sustain the nutrition agenda. Some have relevant knowledge, others should be nurtured to embrace nutrition while many more are identified based on their status and influence in the society.

2. Diversity of champions is crucial. We need champions to influence the young (in schools, colleges), celebrities to reach millions through sports and entertainment industry, opinion leaders and politicians to influence their constituents and experts to create an impact among the technical community. Politicians or opinion leaders play an important role in pushing nutrition agenda at times contributing to policy changes and allocation of more resources. With well-articulated research findings and evidence, these champions can transform the nutrition landscape at any level.

3. Nutrition Champion as an office (structure) or individual. In some cases, it is possible to identify the Champion as an office e.g. The President or First Lady, to accommodate political transitions during the election circle. As discussed yesterday during SUN Country calls, individual nutrition champions are those with passion in nutrition issues and often sustain the agenda beyond political regimes, daily duties etc.

4. Nutrition champions as institutions. It is possible to identify an institution to spearhead a nutrition agenda, to be the face of nutrition and take lead in influencing other institutions. Such institution aught to be an example for best practices and we seek to impart to the community.

5. Nutrition champions in context. The champions work within different contexts and different settings - their identification and roles should be suitable to the context at hand.

Will be good to read Cecilia's comments and references materials provided by Claire, to understand more the country experiences and progress made working with nutrition champions.