Bénin
Joined Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement:
décembre 2011National multi-stakeholder platform for nutrition:
Food and Nutrition Council (FNC)Country nutrition status
- Yes
- In process
- No
- Costed
- M&E framework
National multi-stakeholder platform (MSP)
National nutrition plan
Advocacy and communications framework/plan
Subnational nutrition coordination mechanism
SUN networks in-country presence
Finance for nutrition
Country priorities 2022
- Strengthening advocacy towards the Government to increase public resources allocated to nutrition.
- Revising the mechanism for the representation of sectoral ministries within the Food and Nutrition Council (FNC).
- Increasing cooperation and coordination between sectoral ministries, stakeholders and the FNC on convergent nutrition interventions at all levels (especially the communal level).
- Building the capacity of parliamentary networks for nutrition activities.
Progress towards SUN 3.0 Strategic Objectives (SO)
Overall, the members of the FNC consider Benin as being on track to achieve its key national nutrition goals, though there is still work to be done. The team responsible for monitoring and evaluating food and nutrition indicators records actions taken to achieve the national nutrition goals and monitors any progress. The National Food and Nutrition Policy is currently under review and several workshops have been held with the support of the SUN Donor Network. A draft version of the revised policy document is now available.
The Nutrition Action Plan is in development and will be derived from the National Food and Nutrition Policy once this has been finalized. The State budget allocated to the FNC increased by 100 per cent in 2021. The FNC now receives a government grant for its running costs, as well as matched funding for projects that require it. The FNC is currently advocating for the National Association of Communes of Benin to create a budget line for nutrition at the subnational level within the Commune Development Support Fund. In 2021, funding was successfully secured from the national budget for the Food, Nutrition and Health Programme for Pregnant Women.
In 2021, the FNC received technical support from the Technical Assistance to Strengthen Capabilities (TASC) project via the SUN Movement to help cost the Nutrition Action Plan currently being developed. There are plans for a study to propose sustainable mechanisms for coordination between the FNC and key stakeholders, which include the sectoral Ministries of Agriculture, Health and Social Affairs, among others.
Reforms are under way to revise the mechanism for sectoral ministries’ representation within the FNC. The department-level consultation frameworks for food, health and nutrition introduced in 2021 continue to be implemented. Benin has a Common Results Framework for nutrition in place, which allows the commune-level consultation frameworks to monitor progress within communes. There is also synergy between stakeholders’ nutrition actions (the German Development Agency, Dutch Embassy, International Fund for Agricultural Development) to ensure complementarity and coverage of the whole country, especially communes that are not currently covered. However, much remains to be done.
2021 shared country good practice
Commune-level consultation frameworks
Decentralized coordination of nutrition at the communal level
Actors tackling malnutrition at the departmental level come together within commune-level consultation frameworks, where they use a Common Results Framework as a strategic planning and operational tool to ensure coherent, integrated nutrition actions.
