Malnutrition is a global challenge worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, conflict and climate change. Results for Development is working to increase donor financing for nutrition globally while also supporting governments to develop sustainable domestic financing strategies through evidence-based approaches and capacity building.
The Challenge of Global Malnutrition
Malnutrition remains a persistent problem throughout the world. Progress to address it has been slow, and the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the nutrition situation in many places. To get efforts back on track, there is a need for increased investment in nutrition, coordinated use of resources for nutrition across all sectors, and aligned strategies and priorities of government, donors, and other development partners.
The Opportunity for Sustainable Financing
At the 2021 Nutrition for Growth Summit, country governments and global development partners came together and made significant and ambitious commitments to improve financing and outcomes for malnutrition. Progress against those financing commitments so far, however, is unclear and is likely to fall short of the need exacerbated by COVID-19, ongoing conflict and food crisis, and the impacts of climate change.
The sustainable financing for nutrition (SUSTAIN) project presents an opportunity to promote increased investment for nutrition at the global and country levels. At the global level, Results for Development (R4D) aims to increase donor financing for nutrition by generating clear, evidence-based recommendations on how donors can optimize investments across health and agriculture to improve nutrition outcomes. At the country level, R4D aims to increase country-level 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.
R4D’s Work on Global Nutrition
At the global level, R4D seeks to increase global donor financing across health and agriculture to improve nutrition outcomes through improved access to clear, evidence-based donor financing asks and financial data across sectors. This work includes annually reporting donor disbursements to priority nutrition interventions across sectors, tracking donor funding to the WHA targets and assessing the financing gap based on the Global Investment Framework for Nutrition (GIFN).
At the country level, R4D is supporting the governments of Nigeria, Ethiopia, Ghana and Malawi in their efforts to increase country-level financing for nutrition by strengthening the capacity of government and local partners to develop sustainable financing strategies and articulate SMART financing goals across sectors, based on evidence and data. The approach is government-led and owned and is centered on learning. A cross-country expert group of colleagues across the four countries meet regularly to discuss progress, tools and approaches. Together, we’re developing an approach that is generalizable across countries with tools and resources contextualized to each country (noting each country is approaching things slightly differently based on context and what works best).
Our experience thus far indicates that the approach is scalable and we are exploring opportunities to make tools and guidance available for broader use. We’ve developed tools to facilitate the development of a national or subnational sustainable financing framework for nutrition including the following components:
- Mainstreaming nutrition within annual planning and budgeting: Identify processes and tools to elevate and optimize nutrition within budgets and ways to institutionalize these actions year after year
- Benchmarking: Set nutrition financing benchmarks for states by sector and source which can be embedded within sectoral strategies and development plans (nationally and sub-nationally)
- Resource mobilization planning: Identify priority sources of financing, funding opportunities across sectors, and engagement strategies
- Tracking and accountability: Determine ways to track progress and hold partners accountable to elevate nutrition across sectors
- Effective advocacy planning: Identify key messages uniquely targeted to key audiences to elevate nutrition financing
Sustainable Financing for Nutrition in Ethiopia
In Ethiopia, SUSTAIN is supporting the government’s Seqota Declaration by facilitating the development of a resource mobilization plan for the Seqota Declaration Roadmap for Expansion and Scale-Up Phases. R4D has supported the government of Ethiopia since 2015 on nutrition resource tracking and provided technical support in the costing of the Seqota Declaration Roadmap. Now, SUSTAIN is supporting the government by establishing nutrition financing targets across partners as well as practical guidelines for all partners to help achieve long-term, sufficient and efficient funding. We are supporting the Triangle of Knowledge partnership and the Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI)’s resource tracking and partnership management tool (RTPM) to strengthen the quality and availability of nutrition financing data.
Sustainable Financing for Nutrition in Nigeria
In Nigeria, SUSTAIN is supporting the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning (MBNP) to develop state-level nutrition financing frameworks. Based on the federally costed nutrition plan, states and local governments are expected to contribute more than half of all resources to support nutrition. So we are working at the state-level to strengthen annual budgeting and planning for nutrition, nutrition benchmarking, resource mobilization, tracking and accountability, and effective advocacy planning to ensure nutrition is elevated on the financing agenda. We are working with the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria (ANRiN), and Civil Society – Scaling up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN) across 14 states in Nigeria, with thanks to funding from BMGF and the World Bank.
Sustainable Financing for Nutrition in Ghana
In Ghana, SUSTAIN is supporting the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) to develop a nutrition financing framework for 17 districts in northern Ghana to strengthen decision-making on program planning, financing and implementation for nutrition and resilience through USAID Advancing Nutrition. The financing framework is situated under the guidance of and aligned with the implementation of the National Medium-Term Policy Development Framework (NMTPDF) 2022-2025. With support from USAID Advancing Nutrition, R4D is working within the districts’ medium-term development plans (MTDPs) to agree on nutrition financing benchmarks and set annual and medium-term financing goals for nutrition. Finally, R4D is supporting districts to build their capacities for budget advocacy and further nutrition resource mobilization.
Sustainable Financing for Nutrition in Malawi
In Malawi, SUSTAIN is supporting the District Nutrition Coordinating Committee (DNCC) of four districts to develop a sustainable nutrition financing framework to help strengthen nutrition financing goals and targets. With support from USAID Advancing Nutrition, R4D is working directly with key stakeholders at the district and national level to agree on nutrition financing benchmarks, to develop sustainable resource mobilization strategies, and to identify synergies for improved national coordination and financing for nutrition in Malawi. Throughout this process, R4D is engaging with national and district-level government focal points across multiple sectors. We are working with the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) and the Civil Society Organization Nutrition Alliance (CSONA).
