Advocacy to reduce malnutrition: Lessons from Uganda, Ghana and Bangladesh

Nutrition policies and programs in Uganda, Ghana and Bangladesh have had limited impact on reducing child malnutrition over the past two decades. Malnutrition (including stunting, anemia, iodine deficiency and low-birth-weight) is an underlying contributor to childhood mortality. Nutrition, a complex issue that affects people across the lifespan, requires a coordinated, multi-sectoral approach. The FANTA-2 Project, with host country governments and in-country partners, used the PROFILES tool to estimate costs of malnutrition (e.g., expressed as lives lost and economic productivity losses) and gains in key development outcomes that could be achieved through investing in nutrition. The average annual economic productivity losses related to malnutrition are at ~$310 million in Uganda, ~$350 million in Ghana, and ~$2.5 billion in Bangladesh. Through a systematic planning approach, country teams developed successful nutrition advocacy strategies to develop targeted materials and disseminate PROFILES results to policymakers, program managers, media, civil society and other stakeholders. In Uganda, these efforts contributed to adoption of the multi-sectoral Uganda Nutrition Action Plan. In Bangladesh, a costing model estimating costs of scaling up effective nutrition interventions was undertaken during a Government planning year to ensure adequate resources for national nutrition services. In Ghana, government and non-government stakeholders are undertaking advocacy efforts in parallel with a nutrition policy process to mainstream nutrition. While each country is at different stages in the process, results of the advocacy campaigns include development of strong nutrition policies, increased investment and implementation of comprehensive programs addressing treatment and prevention of malnutrition and promoting wellness across the lifespan.