Making aid for nutrition more sustainable: 5 key lessons from our work so far
Malnutrition is escalating worldwide. Rising food prices, conflict, climate change and the lasting impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have caused more people to go hungry, while at the same time stifling global efforts to end malnutrition.
The need to invest in nutrition is urgent and intensifying. Funding for nutrition has increased, but not enough to meet the growing demand. While we work to mobilize more funding in the immediate term, we must also find ways to maximize nutrition investments to get more nutrition impact out of every dollar spent.
At Results for Development (R4D), we are exploring new frontiers on how to optimize investments for better nutrition outcomes.
Through our Sustainable Financing for Nutrition (SUSTAIN) project, R4D is supporting more strategic use of funding to accelerate impact on nutrition outcomes. At the global level, we are working to increase donor funding for nutrition by generating clear, evidence-based recommendations. And at the country level, we are working to increase domestic financing by strengthening the capacity of governments and local organizations to develop sustainable financing strategies and articulate SMART financing goals in health and agriculture based on evidence and data.
Our work with stakeholders in Nigeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Malawi to support their national and/or sub-national nutrition financing goals has generated an approach that speaks to country stakeholders because it was co-developed by country stakeholders, based on existing government planning, costing, and budgeting systems and rooted under the leadership of the ministries of finance.
This work is country-led and focused on learning. Through a series of highly collaborative and iterative multisectoral stakeholder workshops, we are providing tailored support in multiple countries to strengthen annual budgeting and planning for nutrition, improve financing tracking and accountability, and effectively advocate to ensure nutrition is a funding priority — ultimately making nutrition financing more strategic and more sustainable.
5 key lessons from our work on sustainable financing for nutrition
- The value in bringing the right stakeholders to the table: When the leadership in finance ministries, including treasury departments and social development sectors are involved in leading discussions on nutrition funding this helps minimize missed opportunities for elevating nutrition in government costing and budgeting processes and optimizes investments for nutrition.
- The importance of equipping government leaders with practical tools and evidence: Budget and cost analysis data, in addition to practical decision making and finance planning tools (e.g., planning templates, worksheets and guidance documents), is necessary to help make informed decisions on costing and budgeting nutrition investments, whether it be for resource tracking, economic evaluation or resource mobilization planning.
- The critical role of technical experts: Technical support from local and global experts experienced in steering government relationships and navigating the intricacies of government planning and budgeting helps to build stakeholders’ confidence in their ability to develop sustainable financing strategies.
- The essential role of expert facilitation: The intentional and well-structured convening of key stakeholders from different sectors is often a critical factor for success.
- The importance of bringing diverse stakeholders to the table: Bringing decision-makers, community representatives and leaders, and technical officers from different agencies together around the same table and providing appropriate tools for engagement results in game-changing outcomes. For example, we have seen permanent secretaries develop additional guidance for medium-term development plans to increase allocation for nutrition in subnational budgets and costed
Additionally, critical persons responsible for approving funds from national budgets such as the director of treasury are better engaged and motivated to take ownership of ensuring prompt release of funds — a common bottleneck to implementation.
Equipped with demand-driven sustainable financing strategies, countries are also exploring opportunities to engage in deep dive dialogues with external and domestic donors, such as the World Bank, the private sector and community philanthropies — thereby elevating more nutrition interventions in government budgets at national and sub national levels and increasing more funds for nutrition within sectoral budgets and development partners programs.
By combining global expertise with analytic rigor, practical support for decision-making and implementation, and facilitation of peer problem-solving networks, we have developed a systematic approach to understand bottlenecks to nutrition financing to co-develop an approach to address them. The process is powerful and could result in innovative ideas that change the status quo without major financial investment.
