Malnutrition continues to weigh heavily on development
efforts in Zambia. Like trying to juggle a double-edged
sword, Zambia is experiencing the double burden of
malnutrition: the prevalence of stunting at an alarming
40%, while those who are overweight or obese constitute
around 23% of the population in the country (CSO et al.
2014). Despite these high rates, nutrition has historically
remained largely a silent crisis with limited attention in
the country’s development agenda. Notwithstanding its
impact on Zambia’s future, malnutrition did not make
national headlines.
However, recent efforts, in response to the global Scaling
Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement, offer some hope. A drive
to invest in nutrition at the global level has spurred
greater action in Zambia. The SUN Movement is a
renewed effort to eliminate all forms of malnutrition,
based on the principle that everyone has a right to food
and good nutrition (SUN 2014). The Zambia Civil Society
Scaling Up Nutrition Alliance (CSO–SUN),1 which is part of
the SUN Movement's Civil Society Network (SUN CSN),
sees in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) an
opportunity to continue to bring global attention to
addressing nutrition challenges in the coming years, along
with SUN. In this paper, we explore potential of these
global movements in the context of Zambia for the SDGs,
based on the lessons learned from the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs).