AU and AfDB launched African Leaders for Nutrition Accountability Scorecard

11 February 2019. Addis Abeba. AU and AfDB launched African Leaders for Nutrition Accountability Scorecard

 The African Union Commission, the African Development Bank and global partners launched the Continental Nutrition Accountability Scorecard to raise awareness and reinforce commitments by African governments to help end malnutrition.

The Continental Nutrition Accountability Scorecard is produced by the African Leaders for Nutrition Initiative (ALN), headquartered at the African Development Bank, in collaboration with ALN's partners including the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The scorecard launch presented key findings and recommendations, including calls for governments to increase budgetary allocations for multi-sectoral nutrition plans. The scorecard also calls for the enhanced empowerment of women and adolescent girls and the provision of nutritional support at the most critical time of a child's life - during pregnancy and early childhood.

The nutrition assessment tool provides a snapshot of the status of key nutrition indicators, including internationally agreed nutrition targets, specific interventions, sensitive interventions, policy and legal provisions, nutrition financing, and socio-economic impacts.

Background:Banking on Nutrition is a program helping to generate long-term economic growth across Africa by unlocking the nutrition potential of the African Development Bank’s investment portfolio.

It involves redesigning the Bank’s investments in areas such as agriculture, water, sanitation, hygiene, social protection, health and education to become “nutrition smart” and deliver a greater social and economic return alongside achieving nutrition impact, thus representing a double win for AfDB and its member countries. The program was launched in May 2016 by AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina in partnership with Big Win Philanthropy and Aliko Dangote Foundation. It has a three-part approach:

1. Mainstreaming nutrition into the Bank’s portfolio and pipeline, including Regional and Country strategies, lending programs, non-lending programs, and other activities. 
2. Working to increase the production and consumption of safe and nutritious foods, through partnerships with regional member countries and regional and private sector partners.  
3. Encouraging regional member countries to prioritize nutrition smart lending requests and investments that deliver greater social and economic return alongside achieving nutrition impact, representing a double win.

Call to Action: Partner with the African Development Bank

•  The $20.8 million Infrastructure Rehabilitation for Food Security Project (PRIASA II) in Sao Tome and Principe, which has a double bottom line of supporting economic development through better access to agricultural markets and improving nutrition. 
•  The Programme to Build Resilience to Food and Nutrition Security in the Sahel (P2RS), a $36 million multinational program in 7 countries, with nutrition-related activities including: mother-to-mother support groups for the promotion of adequate infant and young child feeding practices; creation of home gardens for the most vulnerable households; and provision of equipment for the production of local infant nutritious foods. 
•  The $38.5 million Gambia Climate Smart Rural WASH Development Project, which is designed to improve the socio-economic and environmental conditions of the rural and peri-urban population through improved access to sustainable WASH infrastructure and services. The African Development Bank is looking for new avenues of collaboration to expand the reach of Banking on Nutrition and achieve maximum impact. Examples of AfDB’s nutrition smart investments include: