Landscape of official development assistance for nutrition data and information systems

Nutrition data and information systems (ND&IS) are critical to guide the prioritisation, collection, analysis and dissemination of nutrition data in countries. However, there is limited guidance for countries regarding how to invest in their ND&IS and little is known about current financing allocations by both countries and donors. This hinders our ability to identify the most critical funding gaps and to effectively advocate for increased financial commitments to ND&IS. To better characterise donor investments, we conducted a review of Official Development Assistance (ODA) financing for ND&IS between the years 2017 and 2019. The analysis showed overall donor financing for ND&IS is not trending up between 2017 and 2019 with the majority of funding being channelled through multilateral organisations to the health sector and spent on global initiatives and emergency early warning system and surveillance activities. Given these findings, donors should dedicate at least 5% (4%–6%) of nutrition investments, alongside country governments, to support country capacity building and strengthening of ND&IS. Donors should also consider channelling a larger part of ODA for ND&IS activities through public institutions to build their capacity to manage ND&IS strengthening.