This poster details evidence gathered from a multi-year assessment of institutional/ individual collaboration and commitment to nutrition governance at sub-national levels in Nepal.
Global commitments to nutrition have supported calls for better evidence to support effective investments at national level. However, too little attention has so far been paid to the role of governance in achieving impacts. This article explores the ways by which the commitment and capabilities of policy implementers affect collaborative efforts for achieving nutrition goals.
Effective governance is essential for effective nutrition program implementation. There are additional challenges in launching multisector plans to enhance nutritional status. The present study compares the challenges and opportunities in Ethiopia and Nepal in designing and implementing a multisector plan for nutrition. A semi-quantitative questionnaire with open-ended questions was used to solicit information from senior national-level policy officials and other key stakeholders.
Based on the data collected in Uganda, Nepal, and Ethiopia, the papers included in this supplement fill a critical gap in evidence regarding multisectoral National Nutrition Action Plans. The studies offer new data and new thinking on how and why governance, effective financial decentralization, and improved accountability all matter for nutrition actions in low-income countries. This introductory paper offers an overview of the current state of evidence and thinking on the multisectoral nutrition policy cycle, including how governance and financing support that process.
The Government of Ethiopia (GOE) is committed to improving the nutritional status of the population. The GOE has made significant progress in reducing malnutrition since 2000. The revised National Nutrition Program is aimed at accelerating the decrease in under nutrition through a multi sector nutrition plan. This study assessed the facilitators and constraints to adopting the NNP at the national and sub national level. Key issues were identified including leadership, coordination, awareness, capacity and budget. A series of recommendations derived from the study data are included.
From a LCIRAH Workshop, June 21-22, 2012, London.
This research brief presents preliminary findings from work in Nepal that explores how policy processes influence the implementation of nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive actions. At a time when the government?s Multi-Sector Nutrition Plan (MSNP) is being rolled out, and new multi-dimensional nutrition programmes are scaling up, this study captures insights and experiences of stakeholders from central government to ward-level service providers.
Demand for empirical evidence of “what works” for nutrition through agriculture has arguably never been higher. In the past few years, there has been a proliferation of interest in how to leverage agriculture to maximize its impacts on nutrition, particularly among mothers and children. The belief that “agriculture contributes not just to food production, but also to human nutrition and health” is widely held, and it underpins ongoing efforts globally to “make agricultural policies and programs nutrition-sensitive”.
At the 19th International Congress on Nutrition in Bangkok (in 2009), the United Nations? Standing Committee on Nutrition concluded that ?there is an urgent need to provide evidence- based information on food-based strategies and systems in order to make a case for their promotion. A series of scientific articles on food security interventions for nutrition should therefore be published to complement the public health interventions promoted by the Lancet Series [of 2008].
In the context of commitments shown by the Government of Nepal to addressing the country?s nutrition challenges, the National Planning Commission, in collaboration with the Nutrition Collaborative Research Support Program (N/CRSP), organized a two?day stakeholders? forum to discuss research priorities in nutrition, health, and agriculture.