About the SUN Civil Society Network
The SUN Civil Society Network brings together over 4,000 members in over 50 countries across the globe.
Our goals
As part of the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement (SUN), the SUN Civil Society Network (SUN CSN) is working to raise the voices of those who are affected by malnutrition. Our primary purpose is to end malnutrition globally by 2030.
The network contributes to this cause through five strategic objectives:
- Objective 1 – Civil Society Space: Promote meaningful civil society representation and engagement, especially from the most marginalised, across the SUN Movement and beyond.
- Objective 2 – An Enabling Environment: Advocate for improved financial, policy and legal action on nutrition, and hold all stakeholders accountable.
- Objective 3 – Network Sustainability: Drive sustainability across the CSN by equipping the Network’s structures with the skills and resources they need to deliver on their workplans and address the challenges they face.
- Objective 4 – Programme Delivery: Scale up effective nutrition interventions and sensitisation at community level.
- Objective 5 – Evidence & Learning: Generate evidence and use it to inform decisions and scale promising interventions.
Our impact
How are we helping to end malnutrition?
How are we governed
The SUN Civil Society Network is governed by a steering group of representatives from different member organisations across the globe, overseen by a chair and vice-chair. The steering group is responsible for network decision-making, with guidance from SUN Civil Society Alliances in SUN countries.
The day-to-day work of the network is coordinated by the SUN Civil Society Network secretariat, currently hosted by Save the Children UK.
How we are funded
The SUN Civil Society Network receives financial support from our donor partners. This funding ensures we’re able to provide an effective secretariat to support and galvanise civil society in a collective effort to end malnutrition.
Our incredible donor partners are Irish Aid and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.
Our donors
The secretariat team
Alexandra Newlands
Head of SUN CSN Secretariat
Alexandra focuses on:
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Managing the Secretariat’s team members and workplan
- Managing relations with the SUN Movement Secretariat and other SUN networks
- Leading CSN engagement with SUN 3.0 strategy
- Leading engagement with Nutrition for Growth summit and its preparations
Barbara Rehbinder
Deputy Head – Strategy & Advocacy
Barbara focuses on:
- Managing SUN CSN’s regional coordination work, and the Secretariat’s support to our civil society alliances
- Leading our global governance processes
- Working with head on team on strategy and engaging with the other SUN networks
- Working with head of team to lead the network’s advocacy plans
Nazgol Kafai
Senior Impact & Evidence Advisor
Nazgol focuses on:
- Managing global level MEAL, Knowledge Management, and the SUN CSN Technical Assistance programme
- Providing technical assistance on MEAL and KM to country alliances
- Supporting the Asia regional group and a range of CSAs globally
- Organising learning events and trainings for CSAs
Andy Rooke
Senior Development & Sustainability Advisor
Andy focuses on:
- Leading of the CSN fundraising and sustainability capacity, systems and tools.
- Developing the CSN fundraising and sustainability strategic approach.
- Coordinating the Pooled Fund to CSAs
- Leading on design and supervision of CSN competitive grant initiatives
- Supporting the Asia regional group and a range of CSAs globally
Sean Counihan
Senior Advocacy & Youth Advisor
Sean focuses on:
- Managing the Youth Leaders 4 Nutrition Programme and supporting our youth leaders in their local, national, and global advocacy efforts
- Working with SUN movement stakeholders and CSN members to mainstream youth participation and leadership across all levels of the movement
- Supporting CSAs to adapt global advocacy plans and develop national-level advocacy strategies, and developing tailored resources to suit specific contexts
Michèle Semaan
Senior Communications Officer
Michèle focuses on:
- Supporting alliances with their communication strategies
- Delivering the SUN CSN’s communication strategy
- Creating and delivering a social media plan for the SUN CSN Secretariat’s social channels
- Support the Western and Central Africa Region
Carolina Turriago Borrero
Senior Regional Adviser for Latin America & the Caribbean
Carolina focuses on:
- Leading on the Network’s strategy implementation at the regional level
- Ensuring that CSAs have access to the information, opportunities and technical assistance they need to deliver their plans and to contribute to multi-sectoral efforts to address malnutrition
- Fostering a culture of cross-country and cross-regional learning exchanges
- Leveraging advocacy opportunities for nutrition at the regional level and supports countries in their advocacy activities
- Ensuring synergies with the SUN Movement Global Secretariat regional hub
Bessie Ndovi
Senior Regional Adviser for Eastern & Southern Africa
Bessie focuses on:
- Leading on the Network’s strategy implementation at the regional level
- Ensuring that CSAs have access to the information, opportunities and technical assistance they need to deliver their plans and to contribute to multi-sectoral efforts to address malnutrition
- Fostering a culture of cross-country and cross-regional learning exchanges
- Leveraging advocacy opportunities for nutrition at the regional level and supports countries in their advocacy activities
- Ensuring synergies with the SUN Movement Global Secretariat regional hub
François Yaovi AMEDE MEGNAN
Senior Regional Adviser for West & Central Africa
François focuses on:
- Leading on the Network’s strategy implementation at the regional level
- Ensuring that CSAs have access to the information, opportunities and technical assistance they need to deliver their plans and to contribute to multi-sectoral efforts to address malnutrition
- Fostering a culture of cross-country and cross-regional learning exchanges
- Leveraging advocacy opportunities for nutrition at the regional level and supports countries in their advocacy activities
- Ensuring synergies with the SUN Movement Global Secretariat regional hub
Emilita “Emily” MONVILLE-ORO
Senior Regional Adviser for Asia
Emily focuses on:
- Leading on the Network’s strategy implementation at the regional level
- Ensuring that CSAs have access to the information, opportunities and technical assistance they need to deliver their plans and to contribute to multi-sectoral efforts to address malnutrition
- Fostering a culture of cross-country and cross-regional learning exchanges
- Leveraging advocacy opportunities for nutrition at the regional level and supports countries in their advocacy activities
- Ensuring synergies with the SUN Movement Global Secretariat regional hub
The Steering Group
Muhammad Irshad Danish
Chair of the Steering Group
An International Development professional with over 22 years of experience in policy advocacy, public health nutrition, and international legal frameworks. His expertise centers on health and nutrition advocacy, human rights, and child rights governance. He has held senior positions in organizations like Save the Children International, SPARC, and Children First, successfully implementing large-scale public health and human rights projects supported by international donors and UN agencies.
Callum Northcote
Vice Chair of the Steering Group
Callum Northcote is the Head of Hunger and Nutrition (Global Policy, Advocacy and Research) at Save the Children UK. Callum leads Save the Children UK’s policy and advocacy on nutrition, managing a team of 5 experts. He is an active member of numerous sector working groups, both in the UK and globally, and has been vice-chair of the SUN CSN since February 2023. Callum has vast experience in policy and advocacy and previous work experience includes working for RESULTS UK and the Scottish Government as well as being on the board of International Service.
Georgine Obwana
CSA Representative for Uganda
A journalist by profession, Georgine has a vast experience in health communication. She is a communications specialist currently working as the Senior Programs Officer at the Civil Society Alliance for Nutrition Uganda (CISANU). She has led a successful online Breastfeeding campaigns raising awareness through strategically coordinating media campaigns. She manages and steers the secretariat of a network of organizations that form CISANU.
Yvonne Takang
CSA Representative for Senegal
Yvonne is the Regional Advocacy Advisor for Action Against Hunger’s Regional Office for West and Central Africa. For over 15 years she has campaigned and lobbied in favour of food sovereignty, food security and good governance within the agriculture and rural development sector. One of her main missions is supporting and building capacity of staff and partner organisations including local civil society organisations to better influence decision makers and policies in the fight against hunger and malnutrition.
Edward Jusu
CSA Representative for Sierra Leone
Edward is the National Coordinator of the Sierra Leone Alliance Against Hunger and Malnutrition (SLAAHM) since 2012. SLAAHM is a founding member of SUN Civil Society Platform on Nutrition and Immunization (SUNI) and Edward is a National Steering Committee Member in 2015.
As head of SLAAHM, he provided the leadership in 2016 in collaboration with other partners and successfully advocated for the explicit inclusion of Right to Food in the current Draft National Constitution of Sierra Leone.
Dorothy Monza
Youth Representative
Dorothy is a Senior Associate for Nutrition and Child Health at RESULTS and spearheads the design and implementation of the nutrition policy advocacy strategy with the U.S. government, global agencies, and U.S. grassroots advocates. She is also the U.S. focal point for nutrition and child health in the ACTION Global Health Advocacy Partnership, a partnership of 14 locally rooted organizations across five continents.
Christine Campeau
Global Member Representative for CARE
Christine is the Global Advocacy Director for Food and Nutrition Systems at CARE, where she leads the execution of CARE’s global policy and advocacy on food and water systems at global, regional, and national levels. She also serves on the Scaling up Nutrition (SUN) Movement’s Executive Committee, which acts on behalf of the SUN Movement Lead Group to oversee the implementation of the Movement’s strategy for SUN 3.0 (2021-2025).
John Otieno
Global Member Representative for Action Against Hunger
John is the Regional Advocacy Officer for Action Against Hunger for Horn, East and Southern Africa with over 12 years of experience in the development and humanitarian world in Horn and East Africa. He is currently coordinating the Regional Advocacy work of Somalia, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Kenya and Haiti. He supports efforts to influence policies and practices while fostering relationships with Government and decision makers to achieve advocacy objectives.
Robyn Bright
Global Member Representative for Nutrition International
Robyn Bright is an international development and policy advocacy professional, based in Ottawa, Canada. Her 20-year career has brought her from Parliament Hill to the streets of Phnom Penh, and from rural Liberia to the UN’s peacebuilding office in Geneva, in roles spanning government relations, resource mobilization and policy advocacy. She is currently the Director, Global Advocacy, at Nutrition International, responsible for helping to shape global nutrition priorities and approaches, and support country-lead action on women’s and girls’ nutrition.
Carmen Tse
Global Member Representative for World Vision International
Carmen is the Senior Nutrition Technical Advisor within the Global Health and Nutrition Team at World Vision International. Her expertise in nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive approaches comes from her 14 years of technical assistance serving Asia and Africa within nutrition and multisector technical teams. Carmen has worked in both stable and fragile contexts for programme design, monitoring and evaluation; developed nutrition tools and trainings (in-person and online) for community-based volunteers, practitioners and adolescents; facilitated capacity building and peer learning for integrated nutrition approaches, including Positive Deviance Hearth Plus; and supported development of World Vision’s nutrition advocacy campaign, ENOUGH.