SCN News No 36 - UNSCN

www.unsystem.org/scn FEATURES 41
“They (NGOs) are at odds with one another in many respects, and that makes the situation a little more
confusing. That’s true for [all three countries].” (International NGO)
Structural factors
As suggested above, many of the disagreements concerning nutrition strategies and interventions are
intimately related to divergence in institutional perspectives, interests and agendas. Other structural factors
can also create challenges for the relevant actors. One such factor relates to short funding periods for
externally-financed projects, interventions favoured by donors and other donor procedures and practices.
“So at the time, the pervasive impression from the nutrition community was that that shift occurred because there was
a lot of advocacy and a lot of pressure from donor agents, who wanted their micronutrient programs implemented in
the (country).” (University professor in developing country)
“Not being committed to intervention undermines the process. What we saw was efficient small scale programs
financed by (donors), but these did not manage to make the jump to larger scale program. Whenever financing ends
[], they just leave program to dead” (Donor agency)
One of the most common problematic structural factors relates to institutional arrangements for promoting
and coordinating a multisectoral approach to nutrition.
“Multisectoral committee? It is fragmented. It was in the strategy that MoH should have the implementation role, and
be coordinated by the Prime Minister. However, the Prime Minister does not have a coordinating power or mandate
to coordinate the ministries” (Country nutrition actor)
“[Country] established a National Food and Nutrition Committee in 1996, chaired by the Ministry of Agriculture. []
However, without any budgetary authority, this committee remained largely ineffective in shaping nutrition policy and
action.” (Country nutrition actor)
Finally, poorly implemented de-centralization was a common structural sub-theme in many countries:
“Decentralization, although it’s a great idea, really was more a failure than anything else because there was a
total lack of capacity at the regional level to absorb those resources and (to) absorb the new
mandates.” (International NGO)
“Most of the de-centralization process is completely stuck on taxes that local government gets, and (on) the
ministries refusing to give up their control over their system. ” (Donor agency)
Strategies and tactics
One of the most insightful and valuable themes to emerge from this study of country experiences relates to
the wide variety of strategies and tactics used by nutrition actors to address, overcome or circumvent the
many obstacles and complications described in the first four themes. These are clustered in three
overlapping categories (Table 1). Molding and adapting to institutions refers primarily to strategies used to
deal with the Structural Factors described above. Planning and agenda formation refers to strategies used
specifically to seek agreement on a common agenda, and Leadership and Strategic Capacity refers to
personal, interpersonal and tactical considerations involved in forming and advancing the agenda. Though
the boundaries among these sub-themes are quite fuzzy, they begin to reveal a body of craft knowledge with
considerable practical utility.
The following quotes illustrate some strategies used to form agreement on a common agenda despite the
existence of structural barriers, diverging institutional interests and points of contention:
“NGOs got together and sort of formed a networking organization or an alliance. They agreed to put their logo on all
the national program reports rather than trying to claim ownership for themselves, and things like that. So there was a
period where there was a lot of, fairly large NGO-run programs, and they wanted to make it one national program,
and they managed to get their act together to do that.” (International NGO)
“[] they had a lot of disagreements but they always went ahead with one voice. They sat behind closed
doors and didn’t get out, but then they put on a good face when they came out and had one
recommendation. (Donor agency)
“The 10-year plan and 5-year program became the references for external assistance to the health sector. The World
Bank agreed to a US$40 million credit to assist the implementation of (the program).” (Country nutrition actor)
These quotes reveal some strategies that have proven useful in aligning the diverse actors, building
ownership and ensuring sustainability of commitment over time:
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