This chapter reports on the process we followed to identi- fy and track the N4G commitments, and it presents findings, challenges, and ideas for strengthening the process in the 2015 Global Nutrition Report. Improving the tracking process will be important as Brazil gears up to host the next Nutrition for Growth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. Our attempts to track these commitments highlight the challenges of improving accountability in nutrition, and the chapter thus also makes suggestions about how to strengthen accountability in nutrition, drawing on a range of panels that are featured throughout the chapter.1
TRACKING THE NUTRITION FOR GROWTH COMMITMENTS
Ninety stakeholders were signatories to the N4G Compact, and an additional 20 stakeholders made commitments after the Compact was formulated. As we describe our attempts to track these commitments, it is important to note two things: First, the N4G signatories made commitments to nutrition that are not captured specifically in their N4G commitments. Unless the signatories report on these other commitments, they will not appear in the online tables. Second, not everyone working in nutrition made N4G commitments, and their lack of involve- ment does not make them any less important. Experience with identifying and tracking N4G commitments may have lessons for tracking similar non-N4G commitments, and the 2015 Glob- al Nutrition Report will explore ways of doing this.
We divided the 110 stakeholders into six groups: national
governments, UN agencies, civil society organizations (CSOs), businesses, donors, and a group of organizations that did not fit easily into any of the first five categories. Assisted by the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement Secretariat and the SUN UN, Business, Donor, and CSO Networks, we followed up with all signatories to the Compact. Commitments were divided into financial pledges (to increase funding) and nonfinancial pledges (which did not involve explicit financial pledges to increase funding but involved resource reallocations) that could be cate- gorized into impact, programmatic, or policy commitments. The timeline for commitments was 2013 to 2020.
The process for identifying and tracking commitments was as follows: (1) identify the specific commitment in the Compact
document, (2) remind the signatory of this commitment and ask it to report progress via a template tailored to each group, (3) clarify issues with those who responded, (4) enter the final re- sponses into a set of detailed online N4G commitment tracking tables, and (5) make an assessment of progress.
The full, detailed N4G tracking tables are available online
(at
www.globalnutritionreport.org). They show responses from each signatory, with only minimal editing of language, giving a flavor of the rich variety of responses from different organiza- tions and countries.
To assess progress, two members of the writing team
reviewed the detailed N4G tracking tables for each signatory, making independent assessments and then—twice—reviewing and reconciling each of the two independent assessments.2 Assessing progress on financial commitments was relative- ly straightforward. If progress reported for 2013–2104 met or exceeded the commitment, we assigned a status of “on course”; if it was clear it did not, we assigned a status of “off course”; and if it was unclear, we assigned “not clear.” Assess- ing nonfinancial commitments was more difficult. Again we looked for specifics. Was something promised actually reported as complete or near complete? Whenever on-/off-course status was not clear to either reviewer, independently and after two joint reviews, we assigned a status of “not clear.” On this basis, we compiled a series of tables summarizing each signatory’s progress. In these tables, we also make it clear which signatories did not send us the requested data by the date requested and which signatories did not make commitments in certain areas. In these tracking tables, readers can view the evidence on which our assessment was made and make their own assessments of progress.
Table 8.1 shows the rate of response to our requests, which
were sent in collaboration with the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) starting in March 2014. For this report, we accept- ed responses until September 15, 2014.
Country commitments
Twenty-five signatory governments committed themselves to making reduction of undernutrition a high priority, to increasing domestic budgets for improving nutrition, and to scaling up the
TABLE 8.1 RESPONSE RATES TO REQUESTS FOR PROGRESS AGAINST N4G COMMITMENTS N4G signatory group Countries
UN agencies
Civil society organizations Businesses
Funders – financial
Funders – nonfinancial Other organizations Total
Source: Authors.
15 29 11 18 5
110
Number of progress requests issued Number of responses 25 7
24 6
14 24 11 18 4
101
Response rate (%) 96 86 93 83
100 100 80 92
ACTIONS & ACCOUNTABILITY TO ACCELERATE THE WORLD’S PROGRESS ON NUTRITION
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