Like many Latin American countries, El Salvador’s malnutrition problems are increasingly more likely to be Type 2 diabetes amongst eight year-olds than stunting amongst children under 5. Elisa Gamero, Chief of Health and Nutrition Projects in the Office of the First Lady, paints a picture of how the country is tackling high rates of both undernutrition and child overweight/obesity and increased consumption of ultra processed foods. In recent years, El Salvador has made big strides in putting nutrition high in the political agenda, including new laws promoting a healthy start in life, launch of a youth platform, work with the private sector, a national nutrition strategy and more aligned action by UN and other international partners. A multisectoral approach and resource mobilisation, both domestic and international, lie at the heart of these initiatives. 

“It was not easy at first… when we first convened these actors, they look at each other [around] this table and say ‘what do I have to do with nutrition? This is a health perspective.’ But when we started developing the actions and they feel that they could connect with all the actions that surround the reduction of malnutrition in El Salvador, they're fully and strongly committed.” SUN’s Latin America regional learning hub and technical support are other features that El Salvador counts as gifts from the SUN Movement - “it’s so important that we learn from countries with a similar political approach and context”.

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