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Burundi

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On 26 February 2013, the Republic of Burundi joined the SUN Movement with a letter from HE, Pierre Mupira, Second Vice President. At the time, Burundi had finalised its multi-sectoral roadmap for scaling up nutrition. The roadmap was considered the basis for a national strategic plan for nutrition and establishing a multi-sectoral platform for nutrition, was a main priority.

Progress

Bringing people together
 94% 2019

Bringing people together
Coherent policy and legal framework
 75% 2019

Coherent policy and legal framework
Aligning programs around a Common Results Framework
 83% 2019

Aligning programs around a Common Results Framework
Financial tracking and resource mobilization
 79% 2019

Financial tracking and resource mobilization
TOTAL
 83% 2019

TOTAL
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Strengthening actions for Nutrition

July 1, 2015

67% of the population of Burundi live below the poverty line. 35.6% of the population suffer from high hunger levels (Global Hunger Index, 2014). Per capita calorie intake is the lowest in the East African region (1,600 Kcal/day). The fact that agricultural and livestock production have been structurally lacking since the year 2000 (+/-30% of annual requirements) due to high food prices, the exchange rate and demographic pressure, demonstrates how inextricably entwined the issues of malnutrition and food insecurity are.

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Nutrition situation

55.9%

Under Five Stunting

5.1%

Under Five Wasting

1.4%

Under Five Overweight

82.3%

0-5 Months Exclusive Breastfeeding

26.7%

Woman Anaemia 15-49 years

5.8%

Adolescent Overweight Male

13.8%

Adolescent Overweight Female

12.3%

Adult Overweight Male

22.1%

Adult Overweight Female

2.2%

Adult Obesity Male

9%

Adult Obesity Female

4.2%

Adult Diabetes Male

4.1%

Adult Diabetes Female
Nutrition Data Definitions

Strategic objectives

The multi-sectoral food and nutritional security platform (MSP), institutionalised by decree in 2014, brings together stakeholders in a high-level steering committee and 10 technical work groups – coordinated by the Deputy Head of Cabinet of the Second Vice-President, supported by a secretariat. The political landscape has complicated the working of this system since 2015. Efforts have focused on engaging new sectors (environment, finance and social welfare) on updating members of the technical work groups and on re-energising these. Decentralised platforms have been established in four provinces. The United Nations, donors and civil society networks are in place, this latter being decentralised in some communes. Certain donors have suspended their assistance, including the European Union. Links have strengthened with the global networks. Parliamentarians have mobilised: their network is established, however, still needs to be officially launched.

Last updated: November 2017

2016
The Multi-sectoral food and nutritional security platform (PMSAN), institutionalized by decree in 2014, associates various players in a high-level steering committee and ten technical working groups. This system is coordinated by the deputy chief of staff to the second Vice-President, with the support of a secretariat and the existing network coordinators (REACH, EU, Red Cross). Since 2015, the political context has slowed the work of the PMSAN; the need to reinforce the decentralized community approach has now been recognized.

Last updated: December 2016

2015
The Multi-sectoral Food and Nutritional Security Platform (PMSAN) has existed since 2013 and was institutionalised by presidential decree in February 2014. It unites various stakeholders (ministries, international organisations, civil society, research, technical and financial partners) in several coordination structures: steering committee, SUN/REACH secretariat, a select committee and 10 technical working groups. The Focal Point is the deputy head of the Cabinet of the second Vice-President. This architecture has proven its utility and vitality at the national level, even if it is important to note that the annual action plans and follow-up evaluation frameworks should help to strengthen and maintain the commitment of all participants. It is also a priority to decentralise it.
REACH facilitates the coordination of the United Nations and the European Union – the donor coordinator – in sending on the nutritional information, as well as coordinating the PMSAN among other donors. The civil society network of the SUN Movement, which has an executive committee and a secretariat, was launched in January 2015 under the distinguished patronage of the First Lady. Terms of reference are ready for the establishment of networks for scientists and for the private sector.

Last updated: October 2015

Nutrition is taken into account within strategic policy documents, sectoral plans and policies, including the National Agricultural Investment Plan, the National Social Protection Policy (2011) and the National Health Policy (2016-2025); these frameworks are poorly publicised. Legislation on maternity leave needs to be revised. This year, in response to the severe drought, the UN and civil society platforms drafted a humanitarian intervention plan for nutrition contributing to actions aimed at averting a nutritional emergency.

Last updated: November 2017

2016
A number of strategic documents testify to a coherent political and legal framework: the 2014-2017 strategic Multisectoral food and nutritional security plan (PSMSAN); a national food fortification strategy; the 2016-2025 National health policy. However, the legislation on maternity leave needs to be reviewed in order to be able to meet national directives concerning the feeding of infants and young children. Furthermore, the dissemination of validated policy documents needs to be improved, while at the same time consolidating the renewed commitments of parliamentarians. Finally, nutritional surveys are not conducted regularly.

Last updated: December 2016

2015
The national legislation on nutrition covers food fortification; feeding of infants and young children; the marketing of breast-milk substitutes; and free care for under-fives and pregnant women. Burundi has committed to adopting legislation on food fortification, updating legislation on importing and marketing salt, and improving the protection of maternity leave.

Nutrition is a national priority. It is considered a priority to analyse, update and disseminate existing sectoral policies. The policy and programme documents are under review by the working groups and members of parliament for the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Telecommunications and taken up in the 2016-2025 National Health Policy, which includes nutrition.

Last updated: October 2015

The 2014-2017 Strategic Multi-Sectoral Plan for Food and Nutritional Security (PSMSAN) acts as a national reference framework but it has no common results framework nor monitoring and evaluation framework. The cost estimate needs updating. The lack of these elements makes the alignment of stakeholders difficult, and annual and sectoral plans are not in line with the PSMSAN. The Ministries of Agriculture and Health implemented a pilot project in Ngozi Province, with support from the UN and funding from Swiss cooperation. The steering committee conducted a joint annual review resulting in an extension of the PSMSAN to 2018. It is acknowledged that the PSMSAN must be evaluated and a new plan produced. A mapping of stakeholders and actions is underway to enable guidance for this process.

Last updated: November 2017

2016
PSMSAN is a reference document for the implementation of activities contributing to nutrition, in respect of which, certain pilot activities have been implemented. In 2015, during the course of establishing its costs, the government, civil society and the United Nations agreed on the need to reach a consensus on a single list of priority actions corresponding to national priorities. This will serve as the basis for an action plan with more realistic associated costs, combined with a monitoring and evaluation system favouring the harmonization of players’ actions.

Last updated: December 2016

2015
The 2014-2017 Multi-sectoral Food and Nutritional Security Strategic Plan was finalised in June 2013 and approved in May 2014. It revolves around four strategic aspects: (1) Leadership and multisectoral coordination; (2) Prevention and treatment of malnutrition; (3) Promotion and scaling up of food security; (4) Development and strengthening of strategies sensitive to nutrition. The follow-up and evaluation plan which will soon be drawn up will serve as the common results framework. While waiting for the costs of this to be assessed, which is almost complete, a communication mechanism for the PMSAN plan has been proposed. Two flagship actions, which are effective, visible and easy to achieve, have also been prioritised in the shape of the formation of vegetable gardens for households (food diversification) and widespread instruction about hand washing. Stakeholders for food and nutritional security from six provinces (out of 17 in total) were made more aware of these actions during a workshop in July 2014 to bolster their knowledge and alignment. The objective is to achieve nationwide coverage by the end of 2016; the partners support these activities and some have already initiated multi-year projects and programmes in this area. Lastly, Burundi, with the support of the European Union, is actively working to establish a national information platform for nutrition.

Last updated: October 2015

Resource mobilisation is hindered by the lack of a cost estimate for the PSMSAN, and the country’s political landscape has seen a decline in funding for nutrition and an outflow of external partner funds. Over the past two years, Burundi has been tracking public allocations and budgetary implementation for nutrition, however, there is a need for better dissemination of results. A decline in allocations was noted in comparison to April 2015-April 2016. No estimate of external funding is available.

Last updated: November 2017

2016
Fund mobilization is rendered difficult by the absence of an estimate of the costs of PSMSAN, although the country’s political context has led to a reduction in budget allocations in favour of nutrition and disbursements of funds to external partners. In order to mitigate these difficulties, Burundi is in the process of analysing the budget allocations for 2015 and 2016 and envisages implementing a budgetary monitoring plan, as well as a common government fund to encourage sectors to align with national policies and programmes.

Last updated: December 2016

2015
Once the costing for the plan has been finalised, Burundi will start mobilising funds internally and externally. The ministries will be encouraged to introduce a budget line for nutrition, along the same lines as the ministries which have a remit for public health as well as agriculture and livestock farming. To further the monitoring of budget allocations for nutrition, which started at Abidjan in May 2015, Burundi intends to repeat the exercise and to update the annual data so that the funds can be evaluated on a regular basis.

Last updated: October 2015

SUN Government Focal Point

Dr. Célestin Sibomana
Permanent Secretary of the Multistakeholder Platform for Food Security and Nutrition

Donor Convenor

  • European Union

Key Documents

12 resources found
Burundi Country Profile 2019
Burundi Country Profile 2018
Burundi SUN Movement Annual Progress Report 2017
Burundi SUN Movement Annual Progress Report 2016
Burundi auto-évaluation 2016 (FR)
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