Will SUN push its way into India?

CLICK HERE for India Saga: Civil Society Organizations Raise Concern Over India’s Possibility Of Joining SUN Movement Aarti Dhar 22 May 2017

The Times of India

Don’t join SUN, a nutrition drive Its ties with food MNCs create Conflicts of Interest

TNN | May 24, 2017, 05.19 AM IST

Civil society groups have cautioned the central government about fresh efforts to persuade India to join the international

movement called Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN), whose stated mission is to help countries fight malnutrition.

Several paediatricians, nutritionists and public health activists wrote to the Niti Aayog stating that SUN, “while claiming to

support governments in taking the lead in policy setting, in reality, facilitated the entry of businesses into the policy space”.

Even as SUN’s efforts to persuade India to join it have not been very successful, Maharashtra joined the movement in 2014 and

Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand in 2016. SUN coordinator Gera Verburg of Netherlands is expected to meet Niti Aayog officials

this week.

Many countries that did not join the SUN network have raised the issue of conflict of interest in the SUN Business Network

(SBN), which includes multinational food corporations like Pepsi, Cargill, Nutriset, Britannia, Unilever, Edesia, General Mills,

Glaxo SKB, Mars, Indofood, Nutrifood, DSM and Valid Nutrition. In a document detailing the reasons for not joining networks

like SUN, officials from a Brazilian government agency said that international initiatives on fighting malnutrition ought to forbid

“the participation of the business sector in the decision-making process and the management and implementation of both

international and national strategies and policies”.

They pointed out that “such participation creates conflicts of interests and favours market-guided measures that ultimately

result in the increase of food insecurity,” and added that it goes against the concept of food sovereignty. Of the 58 countries in

the SUN network, over 40 are from Africa. Though SUN — started in 2010 — claims to be a global movement, it has only aided

recipient countries. The letter to Niti Aayog stated: “We cannot see how the Government of India – or any other government

claiming to uphold democratic principles – can allow themselves to be accountable to transnational corporations

CLICK HERE for a related article by Dr Arun Gupta, India Looks to Modi for justice to the undernourished Child