• Display

an Eldis Resource

Many transnational organisations work to support efforts to eliminate maternal and child undernutrition in high-burden countries. Financial, intellectual, and personal linkages bind these organisations loosely together as components of an international nutrition system. In this paper, it is argued that such a system should deliver in four functional areas: stewardship, mobilisation of financial resources, direct provision of nutrition services at times of natural disaster or confict, and human and institutional resource strengthening. A review quantitative and qualitative data from various sources to assess the performance of the system in each of these areas is undertaken, and the paper finds substantial shortcomings. Fragmentation, lack of an evidence base for prioritised action, institutional inertia, and failure to join up with promising developments in parallel sectors is recurrent themes. Many of these weaknesses can be attributed to systemic problems affecting most organisations working in the field; these are analysed using a problem tree approach. The paper also makes recommendations to overcome some of the most important problems, and it proposes five priority actions for the development of a new international architecture.

• the international nutrition system—made up of international and donor organisations, academia, civil society, and the private sector—is fragmented and dysfunctional. Reform is needed so that it can perform key stewardship functions, mobilise resources, provide services in emergencies, and strengthen capacity in low- income and middle-income countries
• current processes for producing normative guidance are laborious and duplicative, and fail to produce guidance that is prioritised, succinct, and evidence-based. Programme evaluation is weak, and insu?cient resources are devoted to analysing and responding to major global challenges (including the evolving epidemiology of nutrition)
• the funding provided by international donors to combat undernutrition is grossly insu?cient and poorly targeted, and is inappropriately dominated by food aid and supply-led technical assistance. Much more investment is needed in human and institutional capacity for nutrition in low-income and middle-income countries
• the problems of the international nutrition system are long-standing and deeply embedded in organisational structures and norms. The international community needs to identify and establish a new global governance structure that can provide greater accountability and participation for civil society and the private sector
• linkages with national-level processes need to be signi?cantly enhanced, so that priorities that are felt at country level are better re?ected in international normative guidance, donor funding, research, and advanced training

• Full text of document
• Publisher details
• Send to a friend