Establishing the MAC (4/4)
4. Appoint the Chair and other members
The Chair of the Multisectoral Advisory Committee and its members will need to have the technical and functional capacities to take on their roles. These roles are not minor and sufficient time should therefore be allocated to the MAC meetings and follow-up work. High-level Chairs may not have sufficient time to prepare an agenda or follow-up actions of a meeting and therefore require a good Secretary who has the time to do this work. The Secretary could be a member of the NIPN core team.
Experience suggests that the Chair and the members need to be officially nominated by their respective government institutions, and mandated to participate, speak and act on behalf of their institution. Practically, this could be done by an official memo from the Human Resources department to ensure dedicated participation. Appointing alternates may reduce the risk of gaps due to high turnover in government bodies.
Skills and competencies
In addition to the overall principles and criteria to establish a MAC, it is helpful to identify a Chair and MAC members with the following skills and competencies:
- Deep understanding of the relevant sectoral policy, planning and budgeting processes, timelines and actors which are relevant to nutrition
- Understanding of and experience in multisectoral nutrition strategy development and/or coordination
- Collaborative and inclusive attitude towards other sectors
- Capacity to influence strategy
- Convening power and leverage
- Influential and large network
In addition to the above, it is useful to select a Chair who has ‘soft’ skills in building trust, creating consensus and managing conflicts. She or he should have the convening power and ability to mobilise engagement and action across sectors.
Capacity building
Nominated MAC members and alternates from government institutions could benefit from the capacity building efforts of NIPN, such as participation in workshops and webinars related to the NIPN operational cycle of ‘questions-analysis-findings’.