Since the inception of the multisectoral National Nutrition Policy 2016–2026, some leverage was achieved in securing government support for nutrition interventions. Through the establishment of the National Nutrition Project Management Unit, nutrition programmes have been institutionalized to some extent, but effective governance systems are still needed to monitor and coordinate the available structures and frameworks in place to facilitate the delivery of nutrition-specific and -sensitive interventions for vulnerable populations. Central coordination and collaboration need to be strengthened at both implementation and policy levels for comprehensive monitoring and evaluation going forward.

The establishment of the Nutrition Sector, which brings together stakeholders from different sectors (government entities, development partners, civil society organizations, academia, faith-based organizations and business, among others) is an ideal platform to collectively realign priorities of varying sectors into one consolidated priority that strategizes its implementation into national and subnational priorities. The National Strategic Action Plan 2016–2022 will end this year (2022), affording Papua New Guinea the opportunity to collectively develop a new strategic action plan that includes all these changes and others to better coordinate different Nutrition Sector interventions.

Technical and professional capacity for nutrition at the national and subnational levels has been one of the leading setbacks in improving the deteriorating nutrition indicator. Since 2014, the Department of Health has developed and completed the undergraduate and postgraduate nutrition training curriculum to improve capacity. However, unfortunately, Papua New Guinea has no in-country nutrition training institute. The need to institutionalize nutrition training at the pre-service training level is therefore crucial for the country, which currently has around just three or four nutritionists, all of whom were trained abroad.

Although the Government of Papua New Guinea has institutionalized nutrition governance systems, higher-level leadership is still needed to ensure that all in-country stakeholders work together to support the Government in its efforts. The nutrition MSP has proxies that work in collaboration with and have linkages to various high-level decision makers, who need to be gradually brought on board during this year, alongside high-level influencers, to ensure that the SUN agenda and activities gain traction.

The Nutrition Sector replaced the Nutrition Cluster in 2021. It provides a platform for coordinated reporting, information-sharing, technical capacity and other resource needs. The Department of Health is the chair until a permanent arrangement is in place at the Nutrition Project Management Unit.