The organization Action Against Hunger has released a brave, land marking “detailed analysis of current spending on nutrition and of the adequacy of current aid reporting systems“.
Despite the issues related to data collection, the results are striking:
- “Investment in nutrition is inadequate. Current investments in proven nutrition interventions account for approximately 1% of the estimated US$11.8 billion required to tackle undernutrition
- “44% of investments in direct nutrition interventions were allocated to projects to reduce micronutrient deficiencies, 40% to treat malnourished children with special foods and 14% to promote good nutritional practices
- “Comprehensive programmes which deliver the full package of direct nutrition interventions were inadequate (only 2% of funding)
- “Nutrition programmes were mainly delivered through the health sector or in response to humanitarian crises. Few are delivered through development programmes indicating the reactive, short-term and unpredictable nature of aid for nutrition
- The “data indicates that aid is not necessarily directed to the countries with the highest burden (in terms of caseload) of undernutrition, particularly in the Africa region
- “Fulfilment of individual donor commitments varied widely. Collectively, there was a negative trend indicating that donors failed to deliver 11% of their commitments”
The same document reports also important recommendations for the future.
Download the entire paper, here.
