Technical assistance and capacity development to SUN partner countries, in support of implementation of SUN 4.0 strategy

The Multi-Donor Action "Capacity for Nutrition 2.0" (C4N 2.0) is jointly co-financed by the European Union (EU) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH as part of the BMZ Global Programme (GP) "Knowledge and Policy Coherence for Nutrition" (KPCN). C4N 2.0 contributes to the following overall objective: "To contribute to the transition to inclusive, climate-neutral, resilient and sustainable agri-aquatic food systems". The specific objective of C4N 2.0 is "to support the nutrition and gender sensitive transformation of agri-food systems". Good nutrition is a human rights marker and a driver of health, resilience, economic development and stability. Multiple crises and competing budgets jeopardize shifts toward efforts to transform agri-food systems to support healthy and sustainable diets. Effective nutrition requires multisectoral approaches and sustained investments across sectors. Strengthened nutrition governance will be essential for advancing nutrition integration, including a reinforced Team Europe approach and enhanced multistakeholder engagement and coordination. Ensuring sustainable, resilient, and healthy diets is critical to both improve nutrition and mitigate climate change. Climate change exacerbates all forms of malnutrition via reduced yields, damaged infrastructure and heightened disease susceptibility, while today"s food systems significantly drive climate change and environmental degradation. Healthy diets are key to poverty reduction and climate adaptation/mitigation. Achieving SDG 2 within planetary boundaries requires jointly addressing the food-nutrition security, climate and gender interlinkages. Implementation challenges include low political prioritization, capacity and investment gaps, and inadequate frameworks. C4N 2.0 addresses the nutrition-climate-gender nexus to drive food systems transformation for healthy, sustainable diets. Building on N4G momentum and the EUR6.5bn Team Europe pledge, C4N 2.0 promotes nutrition integration in global, regional and national agendas, supporting climate-smart, gender-transformative policies and interventions, including via Global Gateway blended finance investments. It strengthens the alliance between the European Commission and Germany, extending to EU member states and like-minded countries (Team Europe+) for greater coherence and efficiency in line with Global Gateway. This will be achieved through 4 mutually reinforcing outputs: Output 1: Positioning - Coherent and evidence-based positions on the Nutrition-climate-gender nexus are developed to promote healthy and sustainable diets in a Team Europe+ approach. Output 2: Advisory -Increased technical capacities of INTPA, EUDs and BMZ to scale up effective, equitable, sustainable, and resilient nutrition policy responses and outreach at global, regional, and national levels. Output 3: Country support - Improved technical and institutional capacities to implement evidence-based recommendations for integrated climate- and gender-sensitive nutrition action in (SUN) partner countries. Output 4: Stakeholder Engagement - Nutrition integration is supported through civil society organisations, think tanks and academia. These outputs will be implemented through tailored technical assistance (TA), capacity development (CD), grant mechanisms, and multilevel coordination with EU and BMZ partners. The Action builds on the achievements of the first C4N phase and leverages established networks in Senegal, Kenya, and Thailand as regional hubs. C4N 2.0 has a duration of 41 months (1 April 2026 to 31 August 2029). Technical assistance and capacity development to SUN partner countries, in support of implementation of SUN 4.0 strategy: Tasks to be performed by the contractor Objectives, outputs and indicators: The contractor contributes to achieving the following objectives: - Overall objective: Contribute to the transition to inclusive, climate-neutral, resilient and sustainable agri-aquatic food systems - Specific objective: Support the nutrition- and gender-sensitive transformation of agri-food systems. The contractor mainly contributes to Output 3: County Support - Improved technical and institutional capacities to implement evidence-based recommendations for integrated climate- and gender-sensitive nutrition action in (SUN) partner countries. Indicators of Output 3: - 3.1. Number of partner countries, with focus on SUN members and NIPNs, that have received advice on the implementation of recommendations from global agendas and regional processes for integrated climate- and gender-sensitive nutrition action. - 3.2. Number of technical contributions and implementation experiences on climate- and gender-sensitive nutrition integration introduced by (SUN) partner countries into global, regional and national processes. - 3.3. Number of individuals in partner countries reached by C4N 2.0 supported TA or CD measures related to the Nutrition-climate-gender nexus or data value-chains. In parallel, the contractor is expected to support the strategic objectives (SO) of the SUN 4.0 strategy, as follows: - SO1: To Strengthen and Sustain Strong Policy and Advocacy Environments - SO2: To Enhance Sustainability, Knowledge Management and Capacity Strengthening - SO3: To Increase Sustainable Financing for Nutrition. On that basis, three main domains of interventions are planned: Nutrition-Climate-Gender Nexus ("The Triple Nexus"); Nutrition Data, and Nutrition Finance. Mode of implementation: demand-driven technical assistance and capacity development (TA/DC), mostly of a short to medium-term nature, with assignments emanating from requests to KPCN/C4N 2.0 from SUN countries and networks or other actors in the food sector collected, prioritised and processed in accordance with BMZ and EU guidelines. Once a decision will be made by KPCN/C4N 2.0 to implement a request, the Contractor will be informed, with respective expert(s) to be then identified and mobilised. Within the three domains, requests and their scope may vary in duration - short to medium-term - and geographical coverage - mostly SUN countries in Asia and Africa. Therefore, the skills and experiences of the requested experts are extensive. The project will be implemented by a mix of key experts and two pools of experts. The experts will be expected to be available throughout the project and on an ad-hoc basis and their services are requested on-demand to deliver tasks on a short notice based corresponding specific assignments drawn up by GIZ. Non-exhaustive list of assignments within each of the three domains of interventions. (i) Nutrition-Climate-Gender nexus Objective: Strengthen integrated climate- and gender-sensitive nutrition action in SUN partner countries through TA/CD for (SUN) Partner Countries, civil society, private sector, regional SUN focal points and multi-stakeholder platforms. Key assignments: - Integrate nutrition in climate policies and climate in nutrition policies as well as in strategies and plans, incl. accountability frameworks. - Build resilience of vulnerable groups (e.g., nutrition-sensitive social safety nets). - Promote adaptation (e.g., food system and livelihood diversification). - Build national capacity on data/evidence for integrated climate- and gender-sensitive action. - Advise on standardized nutrition indicators that incorporate climate risks, shocks, vulnerabilities. - Enhance public-private collaboration and accountability - Identify nutrition financing options, including climate finance. - Develop strategies/action plans for food environments (labelling, consumer behaviour). (ii) Nutrition Data and NIS Objective: Provide technical guidance to strengthen national Nutrition Information Systems (NIS) across the Data Value Chain-collection, analysis, dissemination, monitoring and use for decision-making-ultimately reinforcing SUN countries" systems. Key assignments: - Diagnose existing NIS and their integration in national programming, policy and institutions. - Support evidence-based program planning (e.g., LiST and other methodologies). - Map data and review survey calendars to identify gaps, harmonization opportunities and new data needs. - Deliver TA and training on M&E including healthy diet monitoring. - Develop policy briefs, technical notes. - Integrate gender and equity in all outputs. - Facilitate consultations, workshops and peer learning between NIPN and non-NIPN countries. (iii) Finance Objective: Support countries to diversify nutrition finance sources, including innovative and private finance. Key assignments: - Support countries in their nutrition resource mobilization efforts, involving the public and private sector; support areas include: - financing mechanisms, involving private sector or public/private partnership. - guidance for countries to mobilise funding from selected partners, (e.g. foundations, development banks, private finance, blended finance). - design of innovative finance tools, such as SSB Taxation - barriers to nutrition investments/ strengthening investment readiness - Knowledge sharing events on the above-mentioned topics - Partnership strengthening: Build country-level relationships with private sector for PPPs in nutrition finance; Collaborate with MDBs, DFIs, PDBs to meet criteria for new financing. - Nutrition finance tracking: TA to countries on tracking/tagging nutrition finance; TA to civil society on nutrition budget advocacy.