New Report Examines the Key Role of Multilaterals in Ending Malnutrition

September 20, 2018

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Results for Development (R4D) and Action Against Hunger have released a new report that explores the role of multilateral development agencies in fighting malnutrition, including how their strategies incorporate nutrition across sectors and how they prioritize funding. This analysis was designed to help civil society organizations and nutrition advocates identify opportunities to increase nutrition funding and enhance nutrition programming.

The report, The Role of Multilateral Development Agencies in Tackling Malnutrition, documents multilateral agency strategies for nutrition across sectors and looks at funding flows in support of the World Health Assembly nutrition targets. In addition, the report also includes four case studies on influencers of the global nutrition agenda, including the International Development Association of the World Bank Group, the European Union, UNICEF and the World Food Programme.

“Multilateral agencies are key players in the nutrition financing landscape,” said Augustin Flory, managing director for nutrition at Results for Development. “The more/better information the community has on how they fund nutrition programs and what they fund; the better equipped countries, donors and civil society will be to work with them in support of the global nutrition goals and SDG agenda.”

The analysis provides several key takeaways, including:

  • Multilaterals continue to play an essential role in supporting SDG2, both as sources of financing and implementing partners, and multilateral funding for basic nutrition has increased by nearly eight-fold between 2007 and 2016.
  • Multilateral core funding to nutrition-specific interventions in support of the World Health Assembly nutrition goals totaled $384M in 2015. Read more about total donor funding to the global nutrition goals here.
  • Multilateral nutrition strategies strongly advocate for multisectoral, evidence-based, nutrition-sensitive approaches — but it is unclear to what extent this is followed in practice, which nutrition interventions are prioritized, and how sectors plan for, fund and implement nutrition-sensitive components to their programs.
  • There is room to better incorporate nutrition-sensitive programming across sectors and to include discussions on the importance of multisectoral approaches to tackling malnutrition in sectoral strategies.

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About Results for Development

Results for Development (R4D) is a leading non-profit global development partner. We collaborate with change agents around the world — government officials, civil society leaders and social innovators — to create strong systems that support healthy, educated people. We help our partners move from knowing their goal to knowing how to reach it. We combine global expertise in health, education and nutrition with analytic rigor, practical support for decision-making and implementation and access to peer problem-solving networks. Together with our partners, we build self-sustaining systems that serve everyone and deliver lasting results. Then we share what we learn so others can achieve results for development, too. For more information, visit our website at: www.r4d.org.

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