Reducing gender inequality could increase GDP per capita by more than a fourth in Niger by 2030. These significant economic gains would be generated by enabling women to have the same earnings as men and reducing fertility and thereby population growth. Investing in girls’ education and reducing child marriage are critical to achieve these objectives, as are investments to raise women’s participation in the labor force and their productivity at work. While the estimates of the gains presented in this study are meant only to provide orders of magnitude, they suggest that achieving gender equality could have major benefits and should be a top priority for the government. (Niger)
The authors evaluate an intervention to raise young women’s economic empowerment in Sierra Leone, where women frequently experience sexual violence and face multiple economic disadvantages. The intervention provides them with a protective space (a club) where they can find support, receive information on health or reproductive issues and vocational training. Unexpectedly, the post-baseline period coincided with the 2014 Ebola outbreak. Our analysis documents the impact of the Ebola outbreak on the economic lives of 4,700 women tracked over the crisis, and any ameliorating role played by the intervention. In highly disrupted control villages, the crisis leads younger girls to spend significantly more time with men, out-of-wedlock pregnancies rise, and as a result, they experience a persistent 16pp drop in school enrolment post-crisis. These adverse effects are almost entirely reversed in treated villages because the intervention enables young girls to allocate time away from men, preventing out-of-wedlock pregnancies and enabling them to re-enroll in school post-crisis. In treated villages, the unavailability of young women leads some older girls to use transactional sex as a coping strategy. The intervention causes them to increase contraceptive use so this does not translate into higher fertility. (Africa)
The development objective of the Multisectoral Nutrition and Child Development Project for Cote d'Ivoire is to increase the coverage of early childhood nutrition and development interventions i selected areas in the Recipient’s territory. This restructuring aims to extend the closing date from January 2018 to June 2023. (Cote d'Ivoire)
The development objective of Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria Project is to increase utilization of quality, cost-effective nutrition services for pregnant and lactating women, adolescent girls and children under five years of age in select areas of the Recipient's territory. This project has two components. 1) The first component, Basic Package of Nutrition Services, aims to scale up a basic package of nutrition-related interventions in twelve states. 2) The second component, Stewardship and Project Management, aims to strengthen key stewardship functions at the federal and state levels for the sustained delivery of nutrition services. (Nigeria)
Nutrition has been ingrained in key social and economic development policies in Senegal since the birth of the Republic. The evolution of nutrition policy, and its impact on the state of nutrition in Senegal, is the result of a constant interplay between social, environmental, and economic events; politics; the state of nutrition knowledge; and the engagement and influence of external stakeholders. Nutrition policy also encompasses what actually gets implemented; therefore, it is also influenced by available capacity and resources at all levels. With a 46 percent reduction in under-five stunting, from 34.4 percent in 1992 to just over 19.4 percent in 2014, Senegal has witnessed one of the biggest rates of improvement in the world and currently has one of the lowest rates of stunting in West Africa. This success has put Senegal in the spotlight, and other countries, especially those in Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa, look to Senegal as a model for nutrition intervention. Indeed, in the global fight against malnutrition, more often than not Senegal has been ahead of the curve, in a position of informing global advocacy initiatives, not just a beneficiary of the global evidence base. The purpose of this report is to provide an historical overview of nutrition policies in Senegal including analysis of the nutrition policy landscape, the evolution of nutrition policies and institutions, and their implications in terms of programming and prioritization of interventions. In so doing, the report aims to provide context to future nutrition investment and the PSMN currently under development, and to inform the decision-making process at this critical juncture. Here, ‘policy’ refers to all guidance for the management of nutrition, be it effective (everyone does it) or ineffective (it never leaves the paper it is written on), formal (written and adopted) or informal (unwritten institutional behaviors and practices). The timeline of nutrition policies and related initiatives is provided in appendix A. (Senegal)
Senegal is known for having one of the most effective and far-reaching nutrition service delivery systems in Africa. Government commitment to improving the nutritional status of the population has increased over time and has been marked, among other things, by the creation in 2001 of the CLM and its Bureau Exécutif National (National Executive Bureau) (BEN); an increase in annual budget allocations to nutrition (from $0.3 million in 2002 to $5.7 million in 2015); and intensificationof community-based nutrition interventions. These commitments are reflected in the improvementof nutrition indicators, notably a 46 percent reduction in under-five stunting from 1992 to 2014.Unfortunately, these improvements have not led to greater visibility of nutrition sensitive interventions in relevant sectors such as agriculture, livestock, education, social protection and health. This shortfall, combined with a recent series of exogenous shocks, has led to recurrent fragmentation of nutrition approaches, paradigms and interventions, resulting in the absence ofa general framework that provides guidance on both nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive investments.Meanwhile, progress in reducing stunting has slowed,and low birthweight, iron-deficiency anemia, adolescent undernutrition, and maternal undernutrition have received little attention. These shortcomings threaten the achievements of recent decades. Recognizing this challenge, the government of Senegal joined the Mouvement pour le Renforcement de la Nutrition (Scaling Up Nutrition) SUN Movement in 2011 and adopted the United Nations Approach to Renewed Efforts Against Child Hunger and Undernutrition (REACH) in 2014. These initiatives aim to strengthen institutional capacity and facilitate a multisectoral process to help governments plan, prioritize and more efficiently manage nutrition actions involving multiple stakeholders. With respect to national policy, the government of Senegal has adopted the Politique Nationale de Développement de la Nutrition (National Policy for the Development of Nutrition)(PNDN)2 covering the period 2015 to 2025, which will be operationalized through a multisectoral nutrition strategy, outlined in the Plan Stratégique Multisectoriel de la Nutrition (Multisectoral Nutrition Strategic Plan) (PSNM). These policies aim to expand coverage and improve the quality of nutrition services in sectors whose functional prerogatives affect the prevention and management of malnutrition. (Senegal)
In Senegal, government commitment to nutrition has increased progressively in recent decades. Thecreation in 2001 of the Cellule de Lutte Contre la Malnutrition (the Nutrition Coordination Unit) (CLM) and its Bureau Exécutif National (the National Executive Bureau) (BEN) marked a major turning point, as did an increase in annual budget allocations to nutrition (from US$0.3 million in 2002 to US$5.7 million in 2015) and concomitant intensification of community-based nutrition interventions. This commitment is reflected in the improvement of nutrition indicators. With a 46 percent reduction in under-five stunting, from 34.4 percent in 1992 to 19.4 percent in 2014, Senegal has witnessed one of the biggest rates of improvement in the fight against undernutrition in the world and currently has one of the lowest rates of stunting in Sub-Saharan Africa (Spray 2018). However, these developments have not led to greater visibility of pronutrition interventions in relevant sectors such as agriculture, livestock, health, education, social protection, and hydraulics. Moreover, some nutrition-specific problems with major consequences—low birthweight, iron-deficiency anemia, adolescent nutrition, and maternal undernutrition—still receive little attention. These shortcomings threaten the gains achieved in recent decades. Recognizing the challenge, the government of Senegal joined the SUN Movement in 2011 and adopted the United Nations REACH approach in 2014. Both initiatives aim to strengthen institutional capacity and facilitate a multisectoral process to help governmentsplan, prioritize and more efficiently manage nutrition actions involving multiple stakeholders. With respect to national policy, the Document de Politique National de Développement de la Nutrition (National Policy for the Development of Nutrition) (PNDN) has been adopted for the period 2015 to 2025. The PNDN will be operationalized through a multisectoral nutrition strategy, the Plan Stratégique Multisectoriel de la Nutrition (Multisectoral Nutrition Strategic Plan) (PSMN). The PSMN is designed as a sectoral reform program to broaden coverage and improve the quality of nutrition services.Against this background, this institutional and organizational capacity assessment (IOCA) analyzes the performance of Senegal’s nutrition sector and makes 8 Analysis & Perspective: 15 Years of Experience in the Development of Nutrition Policy in Senegal recommendations for strengthening implementation of the PNDN and forthcoming PSMN. (Senegal)
