The Tokyo “N4G” Summit in December 2021 brought together 45 countries and numerous donors, the private sector, civil society groups and academia to deliver policy and financial commitments to end malnutrition. More than US$27 billion was pledged, along with the commitment of delivering more effective and sustainable financing actions for nutrition. To achieve nutrition targets and leave no one behind, countries and the global community will also need to strengthen accountability for nutrition actions and results.
To support stakeholders in translating their commitments to concrete action, the World Bank Group (Nutrition Global Solutions team), the Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents (GFF), Results for Development (R4D), World Health Organization (WHO), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Republic of Indonesia and the Joint Learning Network for Universal Health Coverage (JLN) hosted the Nutrition Financing Week through a series of virtual N4G official side events, taking a deep dive into key actions and strategies to strengthen nutrition financing and accountability mechanisms and maximize results.
The series of virtual events:
Webinar 1: Leading by Example: A Conversation on How to Achieve N4G Financing Goals | Watch Session
This kick-off event offers inspirational insights on emerging initiatives in nutrition financing and a broad overview of thematic areas that subsequent webinars explored in greater detail. With an engaging panel of country representatives from different contexts, participants learn about strategies and the institutional capacity building needed to strengthen nutrition financing and achieve financing goals for nutrition. This includes mobilizing funding, increasing efficiency and effectiveness of resource use, and ensuring data-driven accountability. Important enabling system issues such as public financial management and governance is highlighted.
AGENDA & SPEAKERS - Session led and coordinated by the World Bank Group, Results for Development, and the GFF. Please direct any inquiry to Mary D’Alimonte, Results for Development - mdalimonte@r4d.org
Materials: More Money for Nutrition, More Nutrition for the Money: Financing Nutrition (Global Nutrition Report 2021, Chapter 3) | Presentation
Webinar 2: Optimizing Health Financing Levers for Nutrition: Commitment to Action | Watch Session
This session dives into how UHC-oriented reforms offer an opportunity to optimize health financing arrangements to reach global nutrition targets and bridge the disconnect between known advantages of investing in nutrition with actionable recommendations on how to leverage financing reforms and mechanisms. Participants gain insights on how to use health financing levers (revenue raising, pooling and strategic purchasing) to improve nutrition service coverage and quality as part of the movement toward UHC. Drawing from their experiences, panelists from different countries share concrete lessons learned on challenges and solutions in optimizing health financing levers for nutrition.
AGENDA & SPEAKERS - Session led and coordinated by the World Bank Group, the GFF, and the World Health Organization. Please direct any inquiry to Michelle Mehta, The World Bank Group - mmehta2@worldbank.org
Materials: Discussion Paper | Brief | Presentation
Webinar 3: The Fizzy Potential of Fiscal Policies for Nutrition: How Taxes and Other Tools Can Encourage Healthy Diets | Watch Session
Fiscal policies, such as taxation and subsidies, have enormous potential to promote healthy behavior and improve nutrition. These policies include taxing unhealthy food and drinks such as sugar-sweetened beverages, subsidizing healthy substitutes such as fruit and vegetables, and other measures. Through this session, participants learn about the range of fiscal policies available to encourage healthy diets, the evidence of their effectiveness to date, and a vision for the future. Participants also hear about the experiences of policymakers from champion countries that have pursued pioneering fiscal policies for nutrition.
AGENDA & SPEAKERS - Session led and coordinated by the World Bank Group and the Joint Learning Network for Universal Health Coverage (JLN). Please direct any inquiry to Kate Mandeville, The World Bank Group - kmandeville@worldbank.org
Materials: Presentation
Webinar 4: Allocative Efficiency Analysis for More Nutrition for the Money: Country Experiences with Optima Nutrition | Watch Session
The N4G Summit saw numerous countries and key stakeholders pledging more than US$27 billion for nutrition, but how can policymakers, implementors and partners maximize the efficiency of these investments for nutrition? Optima Nutrition is a data-driven tool developed to support country planning and decision-making for allocative efficiency to maximize the impact of nutrition investments. This webinar gives participants the opportunity to discover the tool's potential and to learn more about the process of undertaking an allocative efficiency analysis. Presenters from different contexts share lessons learned, challenges encountered, and results achieved from their experiences developing Optima Nutrition analyses. The session will involve presentations of country experiences with different stages of the process and a panel discussion, and a Q&A session for participants to engage with the speakers.
AGENDA & SPEAKERS - Session led and coordinated by the World Bank Group and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Please direct any inquiry to Jonathan Kweku Akuoku, The World Bank Group - jakuoku@worldbank.org
Materials: Optima Nutrition Brief and FAQ | Presentation
Webinar 5a: Nutrition-Responsive Public Financial Management: Strengthening Financing and Accountability for Results | Watch Session
Strengthening accountability for nutrition financing is critical to efficiently deploy the resources committed at the N4G Summit and achieve the desired results by 2030. This session will focus on the emerging concept of Nutrition-Responsive Public Financial Management (PFM) and on critical reforms, tools and mechanisms for its institutionalization. With the aim to move towards stronger accountability for nutrition financing and results, participants will be exposed to the lessons learned, challenges and opportunities experienced by different countries that have implemented multi-sectoral Nutrition Public Expenditure Reviews and nutrition budget tagging and tracking system and the critical reforms and enabling policy environment.
AGENDA & SPEAKERS - Session led and coordinated by the GFF and the World Bank Group. Please direct any inquiry to Ali Subandoro, GFF Secretariat – asubandoro@worldbank.org
Materials: A Guiding Framework for Nutrition Public Expenditure Reviews | Presentation
Webinar 5b: Making the N4G Financing Goals A Reality: Translating Commitment to Action | Watch Session
This brief session concludes the N4G Nutrition Financing Week. The webinar summarizes key highlights from the series of webinars, gives space for stakeholders to share concrete actions that can be undertaken to fulfill their policy commitments, and harvest from participants ideas to keep momentum for nutrition financing.
AGENDA & SPEAKERS – Session led and coordinated by the GFF and the World Bank Group. Please direct any inquiry to Kyoko Shibata Okamura, The World Bank Group - kokamura@worldbank.org
Materials: Presentation