Nutrition, a traditionally neglected development sector, has been attracting increased attention and resources over the past decade. However, the resources, evidence, policies and programs needed for nutrition scale-up remain insufficient.

At present, donors and governments in low- and middle-income countries spend $3.9 billion per year on nutrition-specific interventions. The World Bank estimates that reaching the targets to reduce stunting among children and anaemia in women, increase exclusive breastfeeding rates, and mitigate the impact of wasting will require an average annual investment of $7 billion over the next 10 years.

Nutrition policies and programs are often less than optimal due to gaps in the evidence base, including around nutrition information systems, programs, understanding what works best and where, and knowledge dissemination.

Although many developing countries are committed to scaling up nutrition, a lack of technical capacity to design, deliver and track the progress of gender-sensitive multisectoral nutrition plans and programs can often make it very challenging to turn this vision into reality.

We provide technical support to governments to influence the development of:

• National nutrition plans
• Guidelines that meet global best practices in nutrition
• Analytic tools to support sound decision-making for nutrition

We work with governments at all levels to:

• Advocate for increased financing for nutrition programming
• Develop tools for use by governments and global partners to better:
  • Monitor nutrition interventions
  • Determine the cost-effectiveness of interventions
  • Model the health and human capital impacts of nutrition interventions
• Form partnerships and build on existing relationships with ministries of health and other government departments