Number 19, July 2012
briefing paper
Scaling Up Global Nutrition:
Bolstering U.S. Government Capacity
Bread for the World Institute provides policy
analysis on hunger and strategies to end it.
The Institute educates its network, opinion
leaders, policy makers and the public about
hunger in the United States and abroad.
www.bread.org
White House, Office of the Press Secretary
Abstract
Key Points
• U.S. leadership has helped build a global movement to scale up nutrition,
and U.S. health and food security investments have increased nutrition
programming.
• Now is a good time for the U.S. government to assess its resources and
capacity to support country-led efforts to scale up nutrition and to adopt
systems to sustain momentum and progress on nutrition.
• A well-articulated “whole of government” approach to nutrition—with a
supporting strategy and budget, implementation plan, and harmonized
technical and operational guidance—would help systematize and
strengthen U.S. nutrition investments.
• Strengthened leadership and capacity—a high-level nutrition focal point at
USAID, supported by additional nutrition-related technical, operational,
and managerial staff in relevant agencies, bureaus, offices, and field—will
ensure coordination and accountability for results.
• An interagency monitoring, evaluation, and reporting system for nutrition
will help track investments across multiple agencies, bureaus, and offices—
contributing to results-based programming.
The United States, recognizing
malnutrition’s devastating impacts,
especially on children between pregnancy and age 2, is a global leader
in scaling up nutrition. Reducing
maternal/child undernutrition is a
priority for Feed the Future (FTF)
and the Global Health Initiative
(GHI). Additional resources are
creating opportunities to build nutrition programs and technical capacity. The growing Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) movement1 includes
27 developing countries. FTF and
GHI support many SUN national
nutrition strategies.
Now is the time to strengthen
U.S. leadership by systematizing
nutrition within development
assistance. The existing operational
structure is fragmented and
complex, while funding to scale
up nutrition remains inadequate.
Action on five fronts is needed: an
overarching nutrition strategy with
a transparent budget; a high-level
nutrition focal point; increased
capacity in Washington and the field;
harmonized nutrition guidance;
and strengthened monitoring.