Landscape Analysis on Countries' Readiness to Accelerate Action in Nutrition

Taken during the Landscape Analysis site visit to the Northern Region in Ghana by Dominic Schofield from GAIN

The Landscape Analysis was developed as part of WHO-led interagency efforts in strengthening the contribution to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), in particular MDG 1, 4 and 5. It includes the methodology development for assessing readiness to accelerate actions in nutrition through desk review and in-depth country assessments, as well as the Nutrition Landscape Information System (NLIS) user-defined data-tables and Country Profiles.

The Lancet Series on Maternal and Child Undernutrition¹ launched in early 2008 provided a unique advocacy opportunity to accelerate evidence-based action in nutrition. Despite the recognized benefits, commitment to food and nutrition programmes as reflected in budget support and consolidated action is remarkably poor. The Landscape Analysis, therefore, is an effort to respond to the calls for stronger coordination as well as increased action at scale.

The Landscape Analysis is a readiness analysis of countries to accelerate action in nutrition and builds on the experiences of countries in developing and implementing national nutrition plans and policies developed as a follow-up to the 1992 International Conference on Nutrition (ICN). It reviews gaps and constraints and identify opportunities for integrating new and existing effective nutrition actions in order to create and accelerate intersectoral action for improving nutrition. The ultimate aim is to lay the foundation to implement consolidated and harmonized action at scale in the 36 high-burden countries, home to 90% of the 178 million stunted children in the world. In addition, following a more in-depth analysis this landscape analysis aims to support countries in developing an operational action plan as well as to guide not only the understanding of where best to invest, but also how to invest in order to accelerate the reduction of maternal and child undernutrition. The analysis will also develop a baseline on the current status of nutrition action in 36 high-burden countries, allowing tracking of their progress² in the future by pulling together all existing nutrition-related data and information not only in WHO, but also in various concerned agencies.

The analysis focuses on four areas:

• nature, severity and distribution of the maternal and child malnutrition problems
• commitment to resolve these problems
• capacity to resolve these problems
• overarching constraints for acting at scale for improved maternal and child undernutrition

To date, the Landscape Analysis country assessment has been undertaken in Burkina Faso, Comoros, Ghana, Guatemala, Madagascar, Peru and South Africa jointly with partner agencies including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), Helen Keller International (HKI), United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition (SCN), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and World Food Programme (WFP) amongst others, at the global, regional and country levels. The country assessment in Timor Leste isurrently being planned.

¹ The Lancet Series on Maternal and Child Undernutrition
The papers are available from www.thelancet.com/collections/series/undernutrition with more articles and speeches from the launch are available at www.thelancet.com/online/focus/undernutrition. A new website for nutrition was developed to support the launch of The Lancet’s Nutrition Series at - www.globalnutritionseries.org - which contain the advocacy material from the launch.

² Nutrition Landscape Information System (NLIS) development and progress
As a component of the Landscape Analysis on Countries' Readiness to Accelerate Action in Nutrition, a Nutrition Landscape Information System (NLIS) is being developed that will allow the monitoring of the country progress. Nutrition and health related indicators are available from 36 high-burden countries (where 90% of the global stunted children live), plus Timor Leste. The Regional and Country Offices requested that Timor Leste be included because of the food price crisis. The NLIS data will come from NHD and other WHO databases, as well as from UNICEF, World Bank, and UN Development Programme databases. In addition, a two-page Nutrition Landscape country profile with pre-selected indicators will be available for these 37 countries. These country profiles present key nutrition and health indicators in a format that is easy-to-read and interpret for use by policy-makers, health officials, and others.

More information available

- Report of the Workshop on the preparation for the Landscape Analysis Country Assessment
Hosted by the National Institute of Nutrition in Viet Nam at the occasion of the 35th Session of SCN
Hanoi, Vietnam, 7 March 2008
Report is being finalized

- Landscape Analysis country assessment

:: Burkina Faso
:: Comoros
:: Ghana
:: Guatemala
:: Madagascar
:: Peru
:: South Africa
:: Timor Leste

Special Issue of SCN News on the Landscape Analysis on Countries' readiness to accelerate action in nutrition
SCN News, No 37 early-2009 ISSN 1564-3743