Worldwide, an estimated USD 3.9 billion is spent annually on supporting solutions to combat malnutrition among women and children, a far cry from what is needed to meet global standards, estimated to require an additional USD 6.9 billion per year until 2025. In light of persistent, mounting challenges to malnutrition, new and existing funders need to reconsider their place in the funding landscape for maternal and child nutrition.
This report aims to serve as a resource for stakeholders in nutrition, to assess the opportunities and challenges in philanthropic funding for maternal and child nutrition in Asia, with a special focus on interventions in food fortification and first 1,000 days of life. It presents an overview of the current landscape of the state of funding for nutrition, highlighting innovative funding solutions by public, private sector and other key stakeholders. It features extended analyses of the state of affairs in three countries: Bangladesh, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Innovative funding solutions were selected because of their commitment to i) taking a novel approach to engaging the communities within which they work; ii) taking advantage of multi-stakeholder partnerships to scale impact, and; iii) ensuring the sustainability of the programme.
Key takeaways:
- Investment in nutrition can produce both short-term and long-term outcomes
- Funders can engage the power of collaboration, pooled funding mechanisms and collective action in order to fully utilise resources and scale impact.
- Nutrition outcomes must be viewed as integrated parts of interventions in other sectors, e.g., education, health, WASH — in a meaningful way so as not to dilute efforts.
- Alignment of interventions with national and international frameworks can ensure maximum positive impact, avoid adverse effects and guarantee the sustainability of projects beyond the intended commitment period.
