As part of its commitment to reducing malnutrition, the Government of Zambia conducts national and sub-national nutrition advocacy to create and maintain momentum for strengthening and expanding access to nutrition services across the country. To support the government’s efforts, FANTA led a multi-stakeholder and multisectoral collaborative process that culminated in data estimating the potential benefits of addressing malnutrition, a national nutrition advocacy plan, and advocacy briefs designed to help various sectors support nutrition.
PROFILES Estimates for Nutrition Advocacy
In February 2017, FANTA and the Government of Zambia brought together multisectoral stakeholders to generate data to support nutrition advocacy using PROFILES, a set of computer-based models that calculate the benefits of improved nutrition over a period on health, development outcomes, and economic productivity—as well as the consequences of no improvement in nutrition indicators over the same period. Through a participatory, consensus-building process led by FANTA, the participants identified and used country-specific data for calculations covering 2017 to 2026. The PROFILES estimates showed that implementing effective nutrition interventions at high coverage during that 10-year period would save 43,951 children under 5 from stunting-related deaths and gain nearly US$6.9 billion in economic productivity and 9 million equivalent school years of learning. The PROFILES estimates are captured in a report and a summary.
Zambia Nutrition Advocacy Plan
Guided by the PROFILES estimates, FANTA worked with the stakeholders to develop the Zambia Nutrition Advocacy Plan 2017–2019, a multisectoral strategic plan designed to help increase visibility, commitment, action, and resources for nutrition across Zambia’s health, agriculture, education, and social development sectors, coordinate nutrition efforts at national and sub-national levels, and strengthen the enabling environment for nutrition. The plan prioritizes target audiences and lays out the activities, materials, proposed actors, and a timeframe for achieving the potential gains identified through the PROFILES process.
Zambia Nutrition Advocacy Briefs
To support implementation of the advocacy plan, FANTA then helped develop the following briefs that lay out evidence-based actions that the Government of Zambia, civil society, cooperating partners, government sectors, the media, and the private sector can take to help improve nutrition in Zambia:
- Working Together for Our Future: What Zambia’s Civil Society Can Do to Improve Nutrition
- Working Together for Our Future: What Zambia’s Cooperating Partners Can Do to Improve Nutrition
- Working Together for Our Future: What Zambia’s Government Sectors Can Do to Improve Nutrition
- Working Together for Our Future: What Zambia’s Media Can Do to Improve Nutrition
- Working Together for Our Future: What the Office of the President and Vice-President, Parliament, and the Ministry of Finance Can Do to Improve Nutrition
- Working Together for Our Future: What Zambia’s Private Sector Can Do to Improve Nutrition
The PROFILES estimates, advocacy plan, and advocacy briefs developed with FANTA’s support equip the Government of Zambia and stakeholders from other sectors to strengthen and sustain their efforts to advocate for, plan, and budget for the interventions needed to support the country’s fight against malnutrition.
