The need to better track nutrition investments has been highlighted since the beginning of the Movement. A 2013 literature review examined what could be done to track spending and in 2014, online budget reviews were undertaken of 28 countries in the SUN Movement. The 3-Step Approach to Budget Analysis was identified by SUN Countries and technical partners as a quick and practical way to report on nutrition relevant allocations in national budgets. The objective of the 2014 pilot exercise in Costa Rica was to reach an estimate of the total budget allocated to nutrition relevant activities across key sectors based on a common understand with key Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). These findings were presented at the 2014 SUN Movement Global Gathering.
By June 2015, in response to a call of interest during the 17th series of SUN Country Network Meetings, 30 SUN Countries had gone through Step One and Step Two and 14 of those had made considerable progress with Step 3. The preliminary analysis, was featured in the 2015 Global Nutrition Report and used to inform the first ever framework for investing in nutrition, in addition to being presented at the 2015 SUN Movement Global Gathering.
Moving into 2016, the budget analysis work continued with two regional workshops in Nairobi and Bangkok aimed at enhancing financial tracking capabilities which resulted in 19 additional SUN Countries joining the exercise for the first time in addition to 22 countries undertaking the exercise for the second time.
Reflecting from these initial years to where we are today, the budget analysis seems to be an exercise less about financial tracking and more about showing how countries are investing and assisting them in increasing and/or spending better their resources. SUN countries who performed the budget tracking analysis at least twice have reported that this exercise provides a very useful entry point for sensitizing relevant sectors and stakeholders of the value of addressing malnutrition. Specifically, the budget analysis exercise data helps SUN Countries to:
- Map alignment of planned and budgeted interventions
- Monitor performance and expenditures of implemented interventions
- Map alignment of budgeted programs’ objectives against drivers of malnutrition (in the case of nutrition-sensitive budget allocations)
- Advocate for
- scale up implementation and mobilize resources
- better coordination and targeting of programs (both geographic and population)
- integration of nutrition high-impact interventions in selected programs
For these reasons, conducting budget analysis on a regular basis can support the continuous engagement of all those actors who have a key role to play in scaling up nutrition.
Last updated: October 2019
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