The COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated the challenges African countries face in financing and implementing their national development plans – including their multisectoral nutrition plans. The associated disruptions in the food supply, noticeable lack of coordination across government, and constrained fiscal space threaten to upend demonstrable nutrition gains made in all Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) countries.

To meet the increasing demands placed on health, agriculture, WASH and education, African ministries of finance and ministries working in nutrition-relevant sectors will need to enhance their collaboration and find ways to increase domestic resource mobilisation, ensure effective and efficient public financial management and increase value-for-money in nutrition spending.

On July 9, CABRI partnered with SUN and AUDA-NEPAD on a webinar on financing nutrition during and beyond COVID-19 and its implications for an African budget manager.

The objectives of the webinar were to:

• Enhance participants’ knowledge of the context of the nutrition finance landscape and the real opportunities to increase domestic resources and enhance both disbursement and effectiveness (including both public and private avenues).

• Provide to all participants a deeper understanding of the impact of COVID-19 in the budget cycle for nutrition and share experiences of how countries are responding to these challenges through the Public Finance Management (PFM) system.

• Identify the assistance needs at both a sectoral and national level to improve the next budget cycle for nutrition and ensure the sustainability of investments for nutrition in the medium term.

We were joined by Mrs. Gerda Verburg, Assistant Secretary General to the United Nations and Coordinator of SUN movement as well as:

The panel discussion was moderated by the Executive Secretary of CABRI, Neil Cole. The panellists were:

• Abbas Sylla - Director-General of Development Policy and Strategy, Ministry of Finance and Economy, Mauritania
• Ernest Aubee - Head of the Agriculture Division, ECOWAS Commission
• Maleshoane Lekomola-Danziger - Budget Controller of National Budget, Ministry of Finance, Lesotho
• Gladys Mugambi - Head of Division of Health Promotion, Department of Primary Health Care, Ministry of Health of Kenya
• Pontsho Sepoloane - Senior Technical Advisor, Nutrition, Social and Human Development Unit, SADC

We apologise for the technical glitches encountered during the webinar.