Funds invested in nutrition are inadequate warns Action Against Hunger

Read both reports:

Phase 1: Aid for Nutrition:
Can Investments to Scale Up Nutrition Actions Be Accucately tracked?
Phase 2: Aid for Nutrition:
Using Innovative Financing to End Undernutrition

Or read a summary of both reports:

12 September 2012 - Action Against Hunger launches its second Aid for Nutrition report at the House of Commons today, which investigates solutions to meet shortfalls in current investments in nutrition aid.     
 
The first report, Aid for Nutrition: Can investments to scale up nutrition actions be accurately tracked?, revealed that only one per cent of the annual $11.8 billion needed to combat undernutrition around the world, was delivered each year between 2005 and 2009.

Now, the second report, Aid for Nutrition: Using innovative financing to end undernutrition, goes a step further to explore the future of financing for nutrition programmes that are essential to reduce undernutrition for the long term. The report predicts that the costs of scaling up nutrition will remain high in years to come.

Unless increased efforts to scale up nutrition are made now, in 2025, when many of the countries with high burdens of undernutrition should be more developed, the most optimistic forecasts estimate that $9 billion will still be needed every year worldwide, to effectively tackle undernutrition, assuming populations grow as predicted and financial investments remain constant.

Researched and written by the Institute of Development Studies and Action Against Hunger, the second phase of Aid For Nutrition explores options to divide costs for nutrition between domestic sources and external donors.

Traditionally, external donors cover the costs of materials for nutrition interventions, while domestic sources cover labour costs. If this continues, there is a risk that the countries with the highest burdens of undernutrition, typically the poorest, will face the highest costs of tackling the problem, as some interventions require more investment in labour than in materials.

The second report continues by exploring different mechanisms for raising additional funds, both for domestic governments and regional and international bodies. The report assesses the potential of innovative mechanisms such as market-based solutions (including financial transaction taxes or taxes on CO2 emissions) to generate additional revenues to boost overseas development assistance.

Dr. Sandra Mutuma, author of the first Aid for Nutrition report, said: “The first Aid for Nutrition report highlighted the worrying lack of aid investment in direct nutrition interventions. The funds that are being invested in nutrition are only delivering some interventions, to some of those in need, some of the time, greatly undermining the principles of aid effectiveness. The second report offers hope by demonstrating that the challenge is not beyond our reach.”

Both Aid for Nutrition reports urge donors and developing country governments to scale up investments in direct nutrition interventions and to be more transparent in their reporting of aid activities so that progress can be more effectively tracked.

They also complement existing research on direct nutrition interventions with similar research for indirect interventions, to tackle the underlying causes of undernutrition to ensure a robust and holistic response.

Download the notes from the discussion

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