Nutrition investment can be a powerful catalyst for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Globally, malnutrition costs the economy approximately USD 3.5 trillion, or 5% of global GDP yet global investments in nutrition have changed little in the last ten years. The scaling up of nutrition financing, fund alignment, and disbursement are critical for countries’ progress to eliminate all forms of malnutrition.
To this end, the SUN Movement Secretariat (SMS) Asia Hub organized a workshop convening 10 countries from across the Asia Region to accelerate governments’ efforts in the region to scale up nutrition financing. The workshop was supported by the Finance Capacity Development Platform (FCDP) and Capacity for Nutrition (C4N) and was held in Bangkok, Thailand from August 27 – 30, 2024.
Five key learnings and insights emerged from the capacity strengthening workshop on what’s necessary to transform nutrition financing in Asia:
- Ministries of Finance and/or Budget and Planning must be engaged in nutrition financing discussions and can lead the way towards country-led innovations.
- Country-led resource mobilization is a high priority, with a need to diversify funding sources and attract partners that will invest in government systems.
- Mainstreaming nutrition into planning and budgeting is essential: so is a common understanding of how to leverage sectoral investments to optimize nutrition gains.
- Accelerated advocacy efforts are necessary—backed with targeted, evidence-based messages and strengthened accountability systems.
- Sharing experiences and learning across countries is essential to transform nutrition financing, which should be supported by regional partners.
Participants shared excitement for the way forward. Each country team outlined a vision of success for sustainable nutrition financing in their country and will take practical steps forward by convening partners and expanding on the work started at the workshop to develop sustainable financing frameworks for nutrition. The report additionally details six example actions that countries commit to take forward to strengthen sustainable financing for nutrition after the workshop.
Lessons learned shared above can be used broadly to accelerate global and regional discussions on how to scale up funding for nutrition sustainably, especially in context of the next Nutrition For Growth Summit and other milestones.
FCDP is a SUN Movement resource available to all 66 SUN Countries. The platform aims to transform the nutrition financing landscape by inspiring and igniting government leaders to elevate nutrition financing as a priority and accelerate impact across sectors.
