Afshan Khan named as the coordinator for Scaling Up Nutrition Movement by the UN

The Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement, country-driven new tools and techniques by 65 nations and four Indian states to abolish all kinds of malnutrition by 2030, has named Indo-Canadian Afshan Khan as its coordinator.

According to a UN release, Afshan will oversee the SUN Movement Secretariat in her new position and lead the network of SUN Government Focal Points, the Movement's stakeholders, and its backers.

Through forming alliances and energizing support for the SUN strategy and the goal of eradicating all types of malnutrition, she will seek to secure its implementation on a worldwide scale. 

Gerda Verburg of the Netherlands, whose leadership of the SUN Movement was commended by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, will be succeeded by her. In Mozambique in 1989, Afshan began her employment with Unicef; she is presently the region's director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

She has served as the Unicef Representative in Jamaica, Associate Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa, Director of Emergency Programmes, Director of Public-Sector Alliances and Resource Mobilization, and Director of Emergency Programs, according to a UN release.

She has worked on projects in Colombia, Kenya, Mozambique, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. She has extensive knowledge of the UN as a result of her work with the UN Development Group, the Executive Office of the Secretary-General, and the Inter-Agency Standing Committee for Humanitarian Affairs (IASC) in Geneva.

As the former CEO of Women for Women International, Afshan also has considerable expertise in global civil society organizations. Afshan grew up in India and holds dual citizenship with Canada and the United Kingdom. She has a Bachelor of Political Science from McGill University and a Master's in Public Policy from the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies. In 2010, the SUN Movement has been established.