Abel Ahmed (he/him) is a food and nutrition expert who has worked for national, regional and global nutrition programs for more than 13 years. His particular areas of expertise include diet quality, food systems, evidence communication and food fortification.

Mr. Ahmed is a senior program officer in the DataDENT program at Results for Development (R4D), where he coordinates the program across the key implementing partners including John Hopkins University (JHU), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the African Population & Health Research Center (APHRC). He oversees and contributes to DataDENT’s three major outcomes with a focus on multisectoral nutrition data alliances and strengthening the data value chain to ensure quality data collection, synthesis and utilization.

Abel contributed to the introduction and scale-up of multisectoral coordination for addressing nutrition and health related issues. He led an agriculture-health-education linkage through executing key nutrition packages at the community and household level including cooking demonstrations, backyard farming and school gardening. As an advisor to Ethiopia’s Ministry of Industry, he helped to change the food fortification landscape and led the approval of mandatory fortification of wheat flour and edible oil.

Abel has managed the coordination of multiple stakeholders at the household, community and facility level, which was then expanded to national level flagship programs. He has provided evidence about how to integrate gender and nutrition explicit objectives into multidisciplinary agricultural interventions to improve the nutritional status of entire communities. He has helped translate micronutrient data into evidence for policy-makers, made program recommendations, and assisted the food fortification program transition from planning and preparation through implementation. He also led the 5-year national food fortification strategic plan to orchestrate the program implementation phase.

Abel has served as the national food fortification steering and technical committee secretary, and a member of the national nutrition technical committee.  

He holds a master’s degree in food science and nutrition from Addis Ababa University and a B.Sc. in food science and post-harvest technology from Haramaya University. He is a native speaker of Amharic and speaks intermediate English.  

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In 2017, the World Bank, R4D, and 1000 Days created the Investment Framework for Nutrition as a roadmap toward achieving the World Health Assembly (WHA) nutrition targets by 2025. The framework estimates that the world needs to mobilize an annual additional investment of $7 billion per year to scale-up nutrition-specific interventions at the level needed to achieve the global targets, where, of these costs, $2.3 billion per year is needed for a priority package of ready-to-scale interventions.

Since then, R4D has been tracking donor disbursements to priority interventions needed to achieve the WHA nutrition targets to monitor progress toward the financial benchmarks laid out in the Investment Framework. In our latest update, we report donor disbursements from 2015 to 2021 and the financing gap that remains. The beginning of the period started on an upward trend, but overall progress has been stagnant and actually decreased after 2020, resulting in the largest gap in nutrition financing since tracking began. Financing for stunting, anemia, and exclusive breastfeeding has either plateaued or decreased over the full period, and financing for wasting and above-service delivery investments decreased significantly in this last year after previously positive trends.

Please contact Caroline Andridge or Mary D’Alimonte for any questions or comments on these materials.

We wish to thank the many partners who participated in the development of the method and review of the findings, including members of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Donor Network who contributed their time and input to this analysis across the years. The authors would like to thank the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for supporting this study.

Additional Resources

• Methods (September 2022)
• Supplementary Material for 2021 Analysis (July 2023)

We are grateful for the support provided by the 2023 research team, led by Abbe McCarter with support from Caroline Sarpy, Christina Knapski and Kerong Kelly. R4D is also grateful to the core team that helped spearhead this initiative in 2016, including Mary D’Alimonte, Jack Clift, Emily Thatcher, Stephanie Heung, and Augustin Flory, and to integral team members who joined as the analysis evolved into what it is today, including Caroline Andridge, Kyle Borces, Ryan LeMier, Felicity Nelson, Abbe McCarter, and David Christensen.

The post Tracking aid for the WHA nutrition targets: Progress toward the global nutrition goals between 2015 to 2021 appeared first on Results for Development.

The nutrition policy marker (NPM) is a voluntary, qualitative reporting tool that identifies investments made with a nutrition objective or indicator within any sector. Since its introduction in 2018, members of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Donor Network (SDN) have made significant progress to adopt and report it across multisectoral investments.

When used correctly, the NPM can contribute to more and higher quality financing for nutrition. It enables donor institutions to (1) actively identify opportunities for improved nutrition mainstreaming and (2) enables both public data users and the reporting institutions themselves to track progress against nutrition commitments and hold actors accountable. USAID Advancing Nutrition has supported the SDN to pursue accurate and standardized use of the NPM to realize these two benefits since 2020.

Now, these 3 resources are available to support current and potential NPM users and advocates to communicate about what the marker is and does to a broader audience and potentially attract new NPM users.

Resource 1: Blog, “New data-driven tool shows promise to strengthen multisectoral nutrition investments for better nutrition”

Published on the SUN website on July 28, 2023, this blog explains the potential and importance of the nutrition policy marker and presents a Q&A conversation with several of the donor institutions that have already begun using the NPM. It shares insights and lessons learned through their early experiences.

Resource 2: NPM Advocacy Brief

This 2-page Advocacy Brief explains what the policy marker is, why it’s important to end malnutrition, and the benefits institutions can experience by adopting it. Donor institutions and advocacy organizations are encouraged to use this brief to advocate for increased uptake and use of the policy marker.

Resource 3: PowerPoint Presentation about the NPM

This PPT deck explains what the policy marker is, why it’s important to end malnutrition, and the benefits institutions can experience by adopting it. Donor institutions and advocacy organizations are encouraged to use this PPT to facilitate discussions about the NPM.

Acknowledgments: We are grateful to the contributions from SDN technical working group members that have piloted the marker adoption and shared the lessons articulated in these resources. TWG members include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), the European Union (EU), Global Affairs Canada (GAC), Irish Aid (IA), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO), and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

These resources were supported by USAID Advancing Nutrition, the Agency’s flagship multisectoral nutrition project. The contents are the responsibility of JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc. (JSI), and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the U.S. Government.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Results for Development (R4D) has released a report showing a worrying decline in donor disbursements for priority nutrition interventions between 2020 and 2021, the most recent year for which donor disbursement data is available. This drop in aid for nutrition in the year following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic is especially concerning given the dramatic rise in malnutrition during that same time.

The report, Tracking aid for the WHA nutrition targets: Progress toward the global nutrition goals between 2015-2021, examines trends in donor disbursements for stunting, wasting, anemia, exclusive breastfeeding, and the enabling environment. We don’t yet know if this trend has improved from 2021 to 2023 in light of new nutrition financing commitments made during that period. The $577 million pledge to tackle severe wasting from several governments, philanthropies, and private donors in 2022 is particularly promising, but the impact from that funding remains to be seen in future data.

In 2017, the World Bank, R4D and 1,000 Days launched the Global Investment Framework for Nutrition (GIFN), which estimated the costs to scale up a package of nutrition-specific interventions to achieve the World Health Assembly (WHA) targets for nutrition. Since then, many have called for greater investments to combat malnutrition, but the financing gap has continued to grow.  The need also continues to grow; the 2022 Global Nutrition Report states that nutrition-specific financing needs have grown from GIFN estimates of $7 billion per year for 2016-2025 to $10.8 billion over 2022-2030. This means even if donor funding did meet the targets expressed in the GIFN, it still would not be enough to address the true need.

“This new analysis exposes the largest gap between donor financing and what is needed since tracking for donor commitments for nutrition started in 2015,” said Albertha Nyaku, R4D’s nutrition practice lead. “We see a similar trend at the country level, with domestic resources for nutrition facing huge strains. Sustainable financing from both donors and country governments is critical to get back on track in the fight against malnutrition.”

The report includes six key messages for the global community to act on:

1. Donor disbursements to WHA priority interventions decreased by $43 million from 2020 to 2021.
2. Development assistance for the priority interventions has been relatively flat over the past 5 years, and humanitarian assistance decreased between 2020 and 2021 (despite increasing needs due to COVID-19, conflict, and climate change).
3. In 2021, there was a nearly $500 million shortfall, which is the largest single-year gap since tracking began. This means that nearly a quarter of what’s needed from donors isn’t being met.
4. There’s been no progress on stunting, anemia, or exclusive breastfeeding, as donor disbursements to these targets have either plateaued or significantly decreased since 2015.
5. While wasting has seen a bump in investments overall, funding channeled through development assistance for wasting has plateaued, indicating that not enough is being done to strengthen the treatment of wasting within existing systems.
6. Most major nutrition donors increased funding for the WHA priority interventions since 2015, but some have seen significant dips since 2020.

“The drop in financing for priority nutrition interventions between 2020 and 2021 is concerning in light of growing need, but recent initiatives to increase multisectoral financing for malnutrition (exhibited through the 2022 pledge for wasting prevention and treatment, the UN Food Systems Summit, and the Global Gender Nutrition Gap Action Agenda, for example) are promising,” said Caroline Andridge, a senior program officer at R4D. “The growing interconnectedness between malnutrition, health, gender and climate make ongoing efforts to improve accuracy and transparency in donor financial reporting with multisectoral tools, like the OECD nutrition policy marker, even more critical.”

Since 2017, R4D has been tracking donor disbursements to priority interventions for achieving the WHA nutrition targets and monitoring progress toward the GIFN’s financial benchmarks. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation supports the project in collaboration with other partners.

Click here to view the latest full report and previous financing analyses.

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About Results for Development

Results for Development (R4D) is a leading non-profit global development partner. We collaborate with change agents — government officials, civil society leaders and social innovators — supporting them as they navigate complex change processes to achieve large-scale, equitable outcomes in health, education and nutrition. We work with country leaders to diagnose challenges, co-create, innovate and implement solutions built on evidence and diverse stakeholder input, and engage in learning to adapt, iterate and improve. We also strengthen global, regional and country ecosystems to support country leaders with expertise, evidence, and innovations. R4D helps country leaders solve their immediate challenges today, while also strengthening systems and institutions to address tomorrow’s challenges. And we share what we learn so others around the world can achieve results for development too. www.R4D.org

Photo © USAID/Tanzania

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As part of its national development agenda, the Government of Ethiopia has implemented several strategies and programs to ensure food and nutrition security over the past decade. To accelerate its efforts and catalyze the implementation of the food and nutrition strategy, the Government of Ethiopia launched the Seqota Declaration, which is an innovative and bold commitment to end stunting in children under two by 2030. After successful completion of the Innovation Phase the, government launched the Expansion and scale up phases (2021 – 2030), that aims to reduce stunting in children under two from 28% to 14% by the end of 2025, and to zero by the end of 2030.

Seqota Resource Mobilization Plan

A Resource Mobilization Plan has been developed to support the three sustainable financing goals of the Seqota Declaration.

Download the plan

A Resource Mobilization Plan has been developed for each year of the Expansion and Scaleup Phases 2021-2030. It presents a set of government and development partner actions to support the three sustainable financing goals of the Seqota Declaration:

1. Strengthen multi-sectoral financial management for improved nutrition outcomes and evidence-based decision making.
2. Increase sustainable funding sources by engaging with existing & new innovative stakeholder to fund the Seqota Declaration.
3. Mobilize 123 billion ETB/ 3.86 billion USD for the next 8 years for Expansion and Scale-up Phases.

Watch a video of the event below:

The post Launch Event: Mobilizing Resources for the Seqota Declaration Expansion appeared first on Results for Development.

Post-event communiqué

Discover key messages that emerged from the high-level side event to strengthen sustainable nutrition financing for countries in Africa.

Read more

To achieve the global nutrition goals and SDGs, accelerated progress for nutrition financing is needed across all sources including the private sector.

On the side of the 37th African Union Summit, R4D and esteemed partners—the Government of Ethiopia, African Union Development Agency-NEPAD, and Scaling Up Nutrition Movement (SUN)—convened nutrition experts from around the world for a discussion on how to mobilize more funding for nutrition, how to leverage sources of funding to strategically maximize nutrition gains, and how to engage the private sector to improve nutrition. The event began with an official session, inclusive of opening remarks from esteemed colleagues, followed by the keynote address given by H.E. Dr. Dereje Duguma, State Minister of Health, Ethiopia. A technical session followed, showcasing experiences from Ethiopia, Nigeria, Ghana, Malawi, and Côte d’Ivoire on how each country has made significant progress in sustainable nutrition financing. Lastly, the technical session included a presentation on new guidelines for engaging the private sector for win-win nutrition outcomes in home-grown school feeding programs, developed by AUDA-NEPAD in collaboration with Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and within the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) framework.

Four key messages emerged, which are captured in the following 3-minute highlights video.

Watch a video of the full event here.

Download the English program | Download the French program

The aim of the event was to bring together experiences across African countries that have improved financing for nutrition sustainably. The objectives included:

• Accelerating the Malabo achievement and review nutrition indicators and sustainable financing strategies for integration into the AU Post-Malabo Agenda.
• Introducing the Private Sector Framework for nutrition and accelerate home-grown school feeding.
• Sharing experiences and lessons on sustainable nutrition financing across African countries.
• Sharing tools and resources being developed to support countries in achieving nutrition financing goals and initiatives that can accelerate progress.

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ADDIS ABABA — Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health, in collaboration with Results for Development, launched the Resource Mobilization Plan for the Seqota Declaration expansion and scale-up phases at an event on February 13, 2024.

The Government of Ethiopia has demonstrated a strong and sustained commitment to improving food and nutrition security in the country. Despite significant progress, malnutrition remains a massive socioeconomic and public health problem in Ethiopia. To address this, the Government of Ethiopia launched the Seqota Declaration in July 2015. The Seqota Declaration is the Government of Ethiopia’s high-level commitment to end stunting among children under two years old by 2030. It builds on and catalyzes the implementation of the national food and nutrition strategy by delivering high-impact nutrition-specific, nutrition-sensitive, and climate and nutrition-smart infrastructure interventions. After a successful innovation phase implementation in 40 woredas, or districts, the Government of Ethiopia launched an ambitious expansion phase in 240 woredas that aim to reach more vulnerable households with multi-sectoral interventions.

A critical component for the success of nutrition programming is securing the required resources to implement activities at the proposed scale and coverage to achieve the set targets. The interventions designed to achieve the food and nutrition security goals outlined in the Seqota Declaration Expansion and Scale-Up Phases Investment Plan prioritizes locally relevant, high-impact interventions. This is achieved through the costed, woreda-based plans which will require significant resource mobilization and a sharp increase in funding for the remaining years of the expansion and scale-up phases. The Seqota Declaration Roadmap indicates that over a 10-year period, scaling up programs to achieve the eight strategic objectives of the Seqota Declaration would cost a total of 146 billion ETB, funding the expansion and scale-up phases. On January 1, 2024, the government has made a decision to expand the number of woredas from 240 to 700 woredas, which requires significant investment to achieve the Seqota Delcaration’s goal of ending stunting in these geographic areas.

Taking this into account, a Resource Mobilization Plan has been developed to support the three sustainable financing goals of the Seqota Declaration:

1. Strengthen multi-sectoral financial management for nutrition for improved nutrition outcomes and evidence-based decision-making.
2. Increase sustainable funding sources by engaging with existing and new and innovative stakeholders to fund the Seqota Declaration.
3. Mobilize resources to finance the expansion and scale-up phases.

To achieve these funding targets the Resource Mobilization Plan for the Seqota Declaration expansion and scale-up phases has established 13 supportive partner actions to reach these goals. The objective of the launching event, therefore, is to share the major components of the Seqota Declaration Resource Mobilization Plan, to provide a platform for stakeholders to share commitment and reflections, officially launch the Resource Mobilization Plan and forward the call to action.The Resource Mobilization Plan launch event will feature esteemed keynote speakers including members of the government, donors and philanthropists who will make their commitments to contribute finances to fully operationalize the Seqota Declaration expansion and scale-up phases as per the roadmap. In order to effectively implement the scale-up phase, 6 billion birr is needed from the government, including the regional integrated budget (equivalent budget), and an additional 6 billion birr from donors and partners. A total of 12 billion birr is required annually.

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About Results for Development
Results for Development (R4D) is a leading nonprofit global development partner. We collaborate with change agents — government officials, civil society leaders and social innovators — supporting them as they navigate complex change processes to achieve large-scale, equitable outcomes in health, education and nutrition. We work with country leaders to diagnose challenges, co-create, innovate and implement solutions built on evidence and diverse stakeholder input, and engage in learning to adapt, iterate and improve. We also strengthen global, regional and country ecosystems to support country leaders with expertise, evidence, and innovations. R4D helps country leaders solve their immediate challenges today, while also strengthening systems and institutions to address tomorrow’s challenges. And we share what we learn so others around the world can achieve results for development too. www.R4D.org

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The Resource Mobilization plan was developed by the Seqota Declaration Federal Program Delivery Unit team within the Nutrition Coordination Office of Ethiopia’s Federal Ministry of Health. Technical support was provided by Results for Development (R4D) and funding provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Please contact Wossen Negash for any questions or comments on this report.

The Government of Ethiopia has demonstrated strong and sustained commitment to improving food and nutrition security in the country. Despite significant progress, malnutrition remains a massive socioeconomic and public health problem in Ethiopia. To address this, in July 2015, the Government of Ethiopia launched the Seqota Declaration.

The Seqota Declaration is the Government of Ethiopia’s high-level commitment to end stunting among children under two years by 2030. It builds on and catalyzes the implementation of the national Food and Nutrition Strategy by delivering high-impact nutrition-specific, nutrition-sensitive, and climate and nutrition-smart infrastructure interventions. After a successful Innovation Phase implementation in 40 woredas, the government of Ethiopia launched the ambitious Expansion Phase in 240 woredas that aim to reach more vulnerable households with multi-sectoral interventions. On January 1st, 2024, the Government of Ethiopia made the decision to expand the number of woredas from 240 to 700, which requires significant investment to achieve the goal of ending stunting among children under two years in these geographic areas by 2030.

A critical component for the success of nutrition programing is securing the required resources to implement activities at the proposed scale and coverage to achieve the set targets. The Seqota Declaration Roadmap indicates that over a 10-year period, scaling up programs to achieve the eight strategic objectives of the Seqota Declaration would cost a total of 146 billion ETB, funding both the Expansion and Scale-Up Phases. To meet these costs, the federal government has committed to allocate 3 billion ETB annually from Treasury which will be matched by regions for an additional allocation of 3 billion ETB annually from regional governments. The Seqota Declaration has issued a request to partners to match the government contribution of 6 billion ETB annually for a total of 12 billion ETB annually in government-managed funding to meet the Scale-up Phase costs.

Taking this into account, a Resource Mobilization Plan has been developed to support the three sustainable financing goals of the Seqota Declaration:

1. Strengthen multi-sectoral financial management for nutrition for improved nutrition outcomes and evidence-based decision-making.
2. Increase sustainable funding sources by engaging with existing and new and innovative stakeholders to fund the Seqota Declaration.
3. Mobilize resources to finance the Expansion & Scale-Up Phases.

All stakeholders have a role to play in achieving the Seqota Declaration financing goals, and the Resource Mobilization Plan establishes thirteen supportive partner actions for all stakeholders to reach these goals.

Download the full report by clicking the link above, or download the one-page summary document here.

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On February 16th, 2024, on the side of the 37th Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union, the Government of Ethiopia, African Union Development Agency-NEPAD, Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement and Results for Development, with support from esteemed partners including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and USAID, hosted a high-level side event on nutrition financing. The side event convened nutrition experts from around the world for a discussion on how to mobilize more funding for nutrition, how to leverage sources of funding to strategically maximize nutrition gains, and how to engage the private sector to improve nutrition.   

Approximately 200 participants joined in-person and virtually from across 45 countries, with 83% of participants joining from Africa.  

Four key messages emerged from the high-level side event to strengthen sustainable nutrition financing for countries in Africa, which are important for the Post-Malabo Agenda:  

KEY MESSAGE 1: Institutionalize guidelines for nutrition financing and resource tracking within annual budgeting.
KEY MESSAGE 2: Intensify country–led resource mobilization to ensure sustainability of funding and reduce the risk of fragmentation across partners.
KEY MESSAGE 3: Strengthen existing country investments to maximize their impact on nutrition outcomes and ensure more strategic use of funding.
KEY MESSAGE 4: Mainstream nutrition within national planning and budgeting processes as a priority at all levels of government -national and subnational.

Watch a video of the full event here.

See below for a full list of speakers from the African Union Summit High-level Nutrition Side Event.

The Official Session:

• Moderator: Mrs. Estherine Lisinge-Fotabong, Director of Agriculture, Food Security and Environmental Sustainability – AUDA-NEPAD     
• H.E. Mrs. Nardos Bekele-Thomas, CEO, AUDA-NEPAD  
• Dr. Hameed Nuru, United Nations Representative to the AU and ECA   
• ASG Afshan Khan, UN Assistant Secretary-General and Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement Coordinator (virtual)   
• Dr. Mohamed Kadah, COMESA Assistant Secretary General   
• Mabita Luwabelwa, Director, Policy, Planning and Resource Mobilisation SADC 
• Keynote Address: H.E. Dr. Dereje Duguma, State Minister of Health, Ethiopia    

The Technical Session:

• Moderator: Dr Namukulo Covic, Director General’s Representative to Ethiopia, CGIAR Ethiopia Country Convenor, CGIAR Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, President of the African Nutrition Society  
• Dr. Sisay Sinamo, Senior Programme Manager, Seqota Declaration, Federal Programme Delivery Unit & SUN Focal Point, Ethiopia   
• Mrs. Chito N. Nelson, Deputy Director/Head Food and Nutrition Division, Dept of Social Development, Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, Nigeria   
• Mr. Blessings Muwalo, Deputy Director of Nutrition, Ministry of Health, Department of Nutrition, Malawi   
• Mrs. Mary Mpereh, Technical Advisor, Food Systems and Nutrition Security, National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Ghana   
• Dr. Patricia N’Goran, Adviser to the President of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire and SUN Focal Point   
• Ms. Providence Mavubi, Director, Agriculture and Industry, COMESA   
• Ms. Kefilwe Moalosi, Nutrition and Food Safety, Programme Officer, AUDA-NEPAD  

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Undernutrition for women and children is a major driver of infant and child morbidity and mortality. Supplementary and therapeutic products for malnutrition have the proven potential to save many lives and substantially improve health outcomes in mothers and children – but market access remains low even for the most mature of these products, and innovative products have an uncertain path to reaching scale.

The Maternal and Child Wasting Management project used a hypothesis-driven approach to explore market barriers and develop strategic options for the introduction or scale-up of four key lipid-based nutritional commodities: small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements (SQ-LNS); lipid-based nutrient supplements for pregnant and lactating women (LNS-PLW) and/or balanced energy protein (BEP) supplements; ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTF); and, microbiome-directed RUTF (MD-RUTF).

This diagnostic report provides a holistic analysis of the critical challenges limiting product introduction and scale-up across key market domains and serves as a resource for decision-makers to better understand the market barriers and opportunities to increasing access to LNS commodities, globally and in the focus geographies of Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Kano State in Nigeria, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province in Pakistan, and Tanzania.

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