ADDIS ABABA — Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health, in collaboration with Results for Development, launched the Resource Mobilization Plan for the Seqota Declaration expansion and scale-up phases at an event on February 13, 2024.
The Government of Ethiopia has demonstrated a strong and sustained commitment to improving food and nutrition security in the country. Despite significant progress, malnutrition remains a massive socioeconomic and public health problem in Ethiopia. To address this, the Government of Ethiopia launched the Seqota Declaration in July 2015. The Seqota Declaration is the Government of Ethiopia’s high-level commitment to end stunting among children under two years old by 2030. It builds on and catalyzes the implementation of the national food and nutrition strategy by delivering high-impact nutrition-specific, nutrition-sensitive, and climate and nutrition-smart infrastructure interventions. After a successful innovation phase implementation in 40 woredas, or districts, the Government of Ethiopia launched an ambitious expansion phase in 240 woredas that aim to reach more vulnerable households with multi-sectoral interventions.
A critical component for the success of nutrition programming is securing the required resources to implement activities at the proposed scale and coverage to achieve the set targets. The interventions designed to achieve the food and nutrition security goals outlined in the Seqota Declaration Expansion and Scale-Up Phases Investment Plan prioritizes locally relevant, high-impact interventions. This is achieved through the costed, woreda-based plans which will require significant resource mobilization and a sharp increase in funding for the remaining years of the expansion and scale-up phases. The Seqota Declaration Roadmap indicates that over a 10-year period, scaling up programs to achieve the eight strategic objectives of the Seqota Declaration would cost a total of 146 billion ETB, funding the expansion and scale-up phases. On January 1, 2024, the government has made a decision to expand the number of woredas from 240 to 700 woredas, which requires significant investment to achieve the Seqota Delcaration’s goal of ending stunting in these geographic areas.
Taking this into account, a Resource Mobilization Plan has been developed to support the three sustainable financing goals of the Seqota Declaration:
- Strengthen multi-sectoral financial management for nutrition for improved nutrition outcomes and evidence-based decision-making.
- Increase sustainable funding sources by engaging with existing and new and innovative stakeholders to fund the Seqota Declaration.
- Mobilize resources to finance the expansion and scale-up phases.
To achieve these funding targets the Resource Mobilization Plan for the Seqota Declaration expansion and scale-up phases has established 13 supportive partner actions to reach these goals. The objective of the launching event, therefore, is to share the major components of the Seqota Declaration Resource Mobilization Plan, to provide a platform for stakeholders to share commitment and reflections, officially launch the Resource Mobilization Plan and forward the call to action.The Resource Mobilization Plan launch event will feature esteemed keynote speakers including members of the government, donors and philanthropists who will make their commitments to contribute finances to fully operationalize the Seqota Declaration expansion and scale-up phases as per the roadmap. In order to effectively implement the scale-up phase, 6 billion birr is needed from the government, including the regional integrated budget (equivalent budget), and an additional 6 billion birr from donors and partners. A total of 12 billion birr is required annually.
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About Results for Development
Results for Development (R4D) is a leading nonprofit global development partner. We collaborate with change agents — government officials, civil society leaders and social innovators — supporting them as they navigate complex change processes to achieve large-scale, equitable outcomes in health, education and nutrition. We work with country leaders to diagnose challenges, co-create, innovate and implement solutions built on evidence and diverse stakeholder input, and engage in learning to adapt, iterate and improve. We also strengthen global, regional and country ecosystems to support country leaders with expertise, evidence, and innovations. R4D helps country leaders solve their immediate challenges today, while also strengthening systems and institutions to address tomorrow’s challenges. And we share what we learn so others around the world can achieve results for development too. www.R4D.org
