Finance and Regulation for Good Nutrition: Two Recent NGO Reports

"The nutrition community is, I think, uniquely blessed with some very good NGO research and evidence gathering. Perhaps the NGO work is filling a gap that the UN and research organisations have inadvertently created, I don’t know, but I am continually impressed by their work. Two recent reports are good examples of the value they add. First, there is a report by ACF International on the financing of nutrition. It is a short Information Note on Aid for Nutrition. It builds on some work that IDS and others contributed to. The thing I really like about this note is the exceptional clarity it brings to a topic that is not a natural fit with the nutrition community. The crux of the note is a table ranking 5 different financing mechanisms (nutritional impact bonds, matched funds, financial transactions tax, high fat, sugar and salt tax and solidarity lottery against undernutrition) by 5 different criteria (additionality, predictability, feasibility, economic efficiency and nutritional impact). The 5 financing mechanisms are clearly explained (and that is not easy), the criteria are the right ones, and the ratings, while essentially guesses based on a weak evidence base, are intelligent guesses, transparently explained."