The Politics of Ending Malnutrition - Challenging Conversations with Decision Makers

In this episode, Felix Phiri, who until recently played a lead role in the Government of Malawi coordinating multisectoral nutrition actions, highlights how leadership from the Office of the President helped accelerate progress across sectors towards national nutrition targets and how progress has been slower when this high-level political leadership has not been present. He explains how nutrition officers and budget lines were integrated into sectors and at local authority level increasing capacity to scale up multisectoral interventions. The role of parliamentarians and civil society in promoting and sustaining the required political commitment is another key message. Felix´s experiences at the heart of government efforts on nutrition for over 20 years are essential listening for nutrition leaders in other countries and everyone involved in supporting country led nutrition action.Please join the debate! Credits: Recorded edited and published by: N4D & Nutriat.coTheme tune: Saraweto, used with kind permission of Just East of Jazz© N4D Group 2024

The N4D Team introduce the latest mini-series on the weighty theme of more and better financing for nutrition in the run up to the Nutrition for Growth summit, an event through which national and international pledges are made towards reducing levels of malnutrition globally. In this first episode we set the scene for why this mini-series is important, locating this within current initiatives and studies intended to galvanise better financing for nutrition ahead of, during and post the N4G summit. One highly significant piece of work is the newly published World Bank Nutrition Investment Framework that we recommend as essential reading for our listeners. The N4D team also discuss some of the key messages from a policy brief on ‘more and better financing’ for nutrition’ that they have been working on together with a number of country nutrition specialists. This policy brief covers current financing challenges for nutrition, particularly in situations of protracted crisis, and some of the reasons for this. The policy brief will be disseminated in the build-up to the N4G summit. This introductory podcast signposts subsequent planned episodes in the mini-series, including a deep dive into the current state of financing for nutrition actions in situations of protracted crisis, through conversations with nutrition leaders from Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Niger and Yemen.  We will then broaden out the series to speak with nutrition leaders from more stable contexts. This will be followed by further episodes with global financing experts exploring issues such as the global financing landscape, advocacy for better financing and innovative financing approaches.N4D are not experts in financing but our listeners can look forward to a number of podcasts where we will be in discussion with knowledgeable people who understand what enables and hinders domestic (i.e. from national treasury) and external financing (often called aid or development assistance); and how these financing mechanisms align with national and sub-national multisectoral nutrition action plans. Please join the debate! Credits: Recorded edited and published by: N4D & Nutriat.coTheme tune: Saraweto, used with kind permission of Just East of Jazz© N4D Group 2024

This podcast features Dr Steve Collins who was key to the development of the globally recognized community base management of acute malnutrition (CMAM) approach.  Everyone in the international nutrition sector will know how Steve’s pioneering work helped to build the evidence for ready to use therapeutic food (RUTF) and the programme approach to empower communities and the parents of malnourished children to be actively involved in the effective and safe recovery of their malnourished child at home. Globally, it is reported that there is now 20% coverage of treatment for children with severe acute malnutrition which is a substantial improvement compared to the pre-CMAM era. However, this is still a frustratingly low level of coverage and as Steve argues could be significantly higher if cheaper RUTFs were employed. Furthermore, Steve believes the real percentage coverage is probably much less than the globally cited 20% and that agencies which proclaim this coverage are not following the science.  In response to the slow pace of progress, Steve and colleagues have built the evidence base for a cheaper plant based (rather than milk based) RUTF to overcome one of the key obstacles to scale up which is affordability.  Steve shares his experience of how the evidence around plant based RUTF efficacy hasn’t penetrated the normative UN agency guidance for acute malnutrition treatment postulating why robust study findings have met with such resistance from several agencies. Part’s of his analysis of the RUTF story are critical and challenging and as the discussion unfolds, Steve discusses the role of international agencies and the aid system in perpetuating obstacles to transformation of aid including support for  the localization of capacity and response. N4D hope to have follow up pod casts with WHO, UNICEF and country actors concerned with scaling up CMAM.Please join the debate! Credits: Recorded edited and published by: N4D & Nutriat.coTheme tune: Saraweto, used with kind permission of Just East of Jazz© N4D Group 2024

In this episode (13), the N4D Directors reflect on the pod cast mini-series “Country-led… Rhetoric or Reality” during which N4D had conversations with nutrition leaders in three countries: Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Kenya and with two global leaders from the Scaling up Nutrition Movement. While our national nutrition leaders spoke positively about the SUN Movement and other global nutrition initiatives, there was also consensus around the pressing need for better longer-term aligned financing and tailored technical support. The N4D Directors also discuss emerging developments at the global level which might address these needs but don’t shy away from asking whether these developments are really enough to shift the dial to ensure that countries needs and priorities really are at the centre of global actions.Please join the debate! Credits: Recorded edited and published by: N4D & Nutriat.coTheme tune: Saraweto, used with kind permission of Just East of Jazz© N4D Group 2024

What was the original vision and approach of the Scaling up Nutrition (SUN) Movement when it started in 2010? Has the approach remained consistent over time? How should we judge success of nutrition actions and the SUN Movement? What are the risks to success? How do you implement a systems approach to nutrition in practice when departments and organisations tend to work in siloes? Should SUN Movement be open to higher as well as lower income countries? In this conversation with the N4D team David Nabarro addresses these questions and more. Please join the debate! Credits: Recorded edited and published by: N4D & Nutriat.coTheme tune: Saraweto, used with kind permission of Just East of Jazz© N4D Group 2024

Strengthening domestic resource mobilisation and donor coordination. Our guest: Gladys Mugambi, KenyaGladys is Head of the Directorate of Health Promotion and Education in Kenya's Ministry of Health and Co-Chair of the global SUN Movement Executive Committee. In this conversation, Gladys explains how different interventions within Kenya´s multisectoral approach has led to progress in relation to key national nutrition targets. She highlights on-going challenges including the need to increase domestics resource allocations, further strengthen coordination across sectors, and the need for a greater focus on the promotion of healthy diets.The critical role of civil society organisations in advocating for these and other constraints to be addressed is recognised. As with Sisay in the previous episode, Gladys identifies the need for international donors to further strengthen coordination between each other and with the Kenyan Government. She argues that the key priority for the global SUN Movement is to help countries to strengthen their capacities to mobilise the resources required. Please join the debate! Credits: Recorded edited and published by: N4D & Nutriat.coTheme tune: Saraweto, used with kind permission of Just East of Jazz© N4D Group 2024

Matching international support with domestic commitmentsOur guest: Dr. Sisay SinamoIn this episode, Dr Sisay describes how Ethiopia has managed to reduce rates of stunting and what needs to be done to accelerate progress in order to meet national nutrition targets. He highlights the importance of high level political leadership and accountability at national and sub-national levels. Dr Sisay calls on international partners to match domestic financial commitments and more strongly align their investments with country priorities. He argues that the strengthening of the national SUN Donor Network is vital for improving coordination between donors and with the Government. Please join the debate! Credits: Recorded edited and published by: N4D & Nutriat.coTheme tune: Saraweto, used with kind permission of Just East of Jazz© N4D Group 2024

The role of international actors in mobilising country led, multisectoral nutrition action. Our guest: Dr Said Shamsul Islam Shams, AfghanistanIn this episode, Dr Shams describes how international support helped promote country led, multisectoral and multistakeholder actions for nutrition in Afghanistan. He highlights the importance of sustaining and adapting this support to changing circumstances even in highly complex contexts such as Afghanistan. Whilst international financial and technical assistance are vital, sustained, country specific advocacy also plays a vital role. Credits: Recorded edited and published by: N4D & Nutriat.coTheme tune: Saraweto, used with kind permission of Just East of Jazz© N4D Group 2024