Decentralization

Intro

Improving access to services across sectors throughout the country by forecasting the request for services at a local level and the level of support needed, and ensuring nutrition services are included in these calculations. This begins with understanding the local context and how all forms of malnutrition affect communities.

Lack of decentralized nutrition approaches creates favorable ground for dominant industries to increase the cost of nutrition, making it more difficult for the poorest households to access diversified diets.

Helping communities access systems that deliver healthy diets from sustainable food syste is a key enabler to support improved nutrition results.

Decentralizing nutrition interventions will help reduce the cost of food at the community level, help the communities produce food by themselves, and contribute to achieving the national socio-economic objectives.

Why

Why the sector needs to get involved

Decentralizing nutrition supports human capital development, enhanced productivity, economic growth, and sustainable development.

Flourishing local communities will be enabled by unlocking the nutrition core elements to Human capital development

Key asks

• Include a budget line for nutrition in the local domestic budgets and monitor its actual disbursement and impact.
• Improve access to food, addressing impediments to access through decentralization of the food system including the transportation, distribution and sale of safe and nutritious food , affordable, adequate, and culturally acceptable.
• Support small and medium enterprises to produce and sell more locally or regionally produced nutritious food and secure their access to markets¹⁹.
• Diversify the approach to the private sector and unlock the potential of retail, logistics, marketing, communications and other non-food sectors (e.g., soap and hygiene product manufacturers) to mobilise resources and improve access to healthy diets.