Scaling up nutrition through multisectoral planning: An exploratory review of 26 national nutrition plans

Abstract

With a growing consensus on the need to address malnutrition in a comprehensive and multisectoral way, there has been increased attention on the processes and factors for multisectoral nutrition planning to be successful. To guide countries, the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement developed a checklist that defined characteristics of good national nutrition plans. This exploratory review used the framework of the Checklist to assess 26 national multisectoral nutrition plans (MSNPs) developed between 2014 and 2020. The MSNPs were assessed against a subset of 31 Checklist characteristics defined as basic plan components. Although the level of detail varied across the reviewed plans, the majority included core components that are important to facilitate effective planning and implementation, such as an assessment of the nutritional status and determinants of malnutrition for children under 5 years of age, a commitment to global recommendations related to reducing malnutrition, actions consistent with global evidence and responding to identified issues/gaps, governance arrangements to facilitate coordination, and identification of capacity-building needs/ actions to support effective implementation. Common gaps across plans included risk analysis and mitigation, defined responsible agencies for each action, an assessment of the financial gap and defined mechanisms for financial tracking and resource allocation, and mechanisms to coordinate operational research. These findings provide a high-level, multi-country review of multisectoral nutrition planning that can support future policymakers, technical assistance providers and regional and global stakeholders to consider the foundational elements of and further validate and address common shortcomings in developing such a plan.

Preventing Child Wasting in Africa’s Dryland: An Exploratory Review of the Enabling Environment in 8 Sub-Saharan Countries Using a Food Systems Lens

“…When available, the authors also reviewed national multisectoral nutrition plans to assess the extent to which food systems overall and/or in their specific components were taken into account and how they considered risks and vulnerabilities linked to sustainable food systems framework drivers such as livelihoods, environment, and seasonality. Analysis of the country's multisectoral nutrition plans builds upon the methodology applied in systematic reviews [31][32][33] conducted using a checklist determining what criteria and characteristics a plan should contain. 34 A total of 6 national nutrition plan documents were reviewed from Burkina Faso, 35 Ethiopia, 36 Sudan, 37 Kenya, 38 Niger, 39 and Mali.…”

Utilising emerging perspectives at the global and regional level to frame multisectoral nutrition governance landscape in Kenya

“…Challenges in achieving multisectoral nutrition governance Several challenges that developing countries are encountering as they strive to establish effective MNG have been identified. These challenges can be attributed to various factors, including inadequate leadership and guidance, limited resources, weak institutional capacity, fragmented coordination mechanisms, and competing priorities among others (18,25,37,45,48,64) . Challenges specific to Kenya are given in the following sections.…”

Stunting Management with Exclusive Breastfeeding, Early Breastfeeding Initiation Toddlers at Sei Panas Community Health Center

“…A global movement called Scaling-Up Nutrition (SUN) was started in 2010 with the fundamental tenet that every citizen has a right to receive sufficient and nourishing meals (Coile et al, 2021). By creating two significant Stunting Intervention frameworks in 2012, the Indonesian government joined the movement (Kemenkes RI, 2021).…”