[In this op-ed in Malnutrition Deeply, Dr. Jack Clift, a program director at R4D, and Mary D’Alimonte, a senior program officer at R4D, emphasize the need to leverage the Investment Framework for Nutrition to scale up nutrition-specific interventions and get smarter and more systematic about nutrition-sensitive projects in other sectors.]
We need more money for nutrition, and we need to spend it wisely.
As the nutrition community seeks to strengthen nutrition financing to meet the World Health Assembly (WHA) targets by 2025 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, we see two main themes that need to be pursued: We must fully leverage the Investment Framework for Nutrition to scale up nutrition-specific interventions and we must get smarter and more systematic about nutrition investments across other relevant sectors.
There is still a long way to go toward financing high-impact, evidence-based nutrition programs, and maximizing the value of the Investment Framework for Nutrition paradigm. The Investment Framework called for a fast ramp-up in donor funds to catalyze action, but are we meeting these benchmarks for progress? This isn’t easy to answer, which is why we need to track spending consistently over time in a way that can be mapped against the identified financial need.
To read the full article, click here.
Photo: Mothers and children take part in a nutrition-awareness-raising activity in Mali. COLIN DELFOSSE/AFP/Getty Images
