Nutrition

Landscape Analysis on Countries' Readiness to Accelerate Action in Nutrition

The Landscape Analysis assesses countries' readiness to accelerate action in nutrition, with a focus on the 36 high-burden countries* identified by the Lancet Nutrition Series on maternal and child undernutrition (January 2008) to be home to 90% of the world's stunted children. "Readiness analysis" is frequently used in the private sector for assessing where investing resources is likely to give the greatest return and for determining how best to invest in order to yield the maximum benefits. The Landscape Analysis was therefore developed to systematically assess the readiness of stakeholders' commitment and capacity to implement the evidence-based interventions in the high-burden countries. It builds on the work and experiences of countries in developing and implementing national nutrition policies and plans developed as a follow-up to the 1992 International Conference on Nutrition (ICN) and looks specifically at the set of interventions proven to be effective in addressing maternal and child undernutrition identified by the Lancet.

The Landscape Analysis has three components:

Development of country typologies for "readiness"
In-depth Country Assessments
Nutrition Landscape Information System (NLIS)

Country typologies for "readiness" to accelerate action in nutrition

Taken during the Landscape Analysis site visit to the Northern Region in Ghana by Dominic Schofield from GAIN

This systematic desk analysis of data available at the global level for the 36 high-burden countries uses multiple statistical methods to define country typologies of "readiness" in order to understand where best to invest and how to invest in order to accelerate action. Although there is a reasonable body of work pulling together the experience accumulated on what needs to be done to improve nutrition outcomes, this programme area commonly receives very little development funding. Recognizing that much less is known about “how” to implement nutrition programmes at scale, several attempts have been made in past years to categorize readiness to act in nutrition using data collected through interviews and/or through analysis of documents available at the country level.

The aim of this desk analysis is to further develop the methodology to assess countries' readiness to act in nutrition in a more systematic and scientific manner, using readily available data at the international level to group countries into certain typologies according to "need" for action and "readiness" to act at scale.

The report of the Landscape Analysis desk review is currently being finalized. The typologies were presented at a High-Level Meeting in Brussels, November 2009, in a presentation on Mapping policies, programmes and country readiness to act by Dr Chizuru Nishida.

Information available

Landscape analysis on countries’ readiness to accelerate action in nutrition: Country assessment tools
Landscape Analysis on Countries' Readiness to Accelerate Action in Nutrition (1 page summary overview)
pdf, 60kb
Updates from the Landscape Analysis Country Assessment 2010
pdf, 61kb
Landscape Analysis on Readiness to Act in Nutrition: Executive Summary
pdf, 34kb
The 36 high-burden countries, home to 90% of the 178 million stunted children in the world
pdf, 1.06Mb
Summary note of the technical follow-up meeting of the partner agency group on the Landscape Analysis
pdf, 31kb
New York, USA, 19 December 2007
Report of the Partner Agency Consultation on the Landscape Analysis on Readiness to Act in Nutrition
pdf, 210kb
Geneva, Switzerland, 5 - 6 November 2007
High-level policy makers' briefing meeting on the Landscape Analysis
Geneva, Switzerland, 21 May 2008
Plenary presentation made at the 35th Annual Session of the UN Standing Committee on Nutrition (SCN)
pdf, 1.57Mb
Hanoi, Vietnam, 3 - 7 March 2008

Report of the Workshop on the preparation for the Landscape Analysis Country Assessment
Hosted by the National Institute of Nutrition in Viet Nam at the occasion of the 35th Session of SCN Hanoi, Vietnam, 7 March 2008
- Report is being finalized -