About
African Leaders for Nutrition (ALN) initiative
The African Leaders for Nutrition (ALN) initiative, set up by the African Union Commission (AUC) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) works to spearhead the implementation of Africa’s commitments on nutrition security, and serves as a platform for regular political engagement on nutrition in Africa.
Continental Nutrition Accountability Scorecard
The Continental Nutrition Accountability Scorecard is an advocacy tool that will support the ALN platform to highlight individual country progress and provide a high-level snapshot of continental progress towards reaching global and continental nutrition targets for mutual accountability.
The Continental Nutrition Accountability Scorecard also provides recommendations to African Leaders on how to accelerate progress on nutrition situation in Africa.
The Continental Nutrition Accountability Scorecard is based on data from 20 indicators clustered in five categories to highlight status in achieving nutrition goals in Africa. The categories include: - Nutrition Status; Coverage of nutrition related Services Provision of nutrition related Governance, Policy and Legal provisions; Nutrition Financing; and Socioeconomic Impacts.
Logic and Choice of Indicators
The choice of the five domains underpin the realization that good nnutrition is a pre-requisite for unblocking the economic potential of the people of Africa.
- Investing in human capital is a sure way to promote innovation and improve economic development
- Malnutrition is a key threat to human capital development as shown by the effect of stunting, wasting, low birth weight, overweight, and anaemia on human development, earnings and participation in economic development activities
- Investing in both nutrition sensitive and specific interventions is needed to address all forms of malnutrition and set the continent of Africa on the path to increased economic development
The choice of the five domains is informed by our theory of change, that is premised on the assumption that reduction in all forms of malnutrition as represented by the six WHA targets/outcomes require investment in both nutrition specific and nutrition sensitive interventions, across sectors that have the greatest influence on nutrition. These include health, agriculture, water and sanitation, education and social protection. In addition, an enabling environment characterized by supportive policies, laws legislations, and allocation of budgets to the relevant sectors are needed to propel the achievement of the global and continental targets for addressing malnutrition.
Data for the scorecard indicators originate from different national surveys in the countries. These data, under various international data arrangements, are sent from countries to data holding organizations such as the WHO, UNICEF, World Bank, the Global Nutrition Report among others, where they are processed and released in different reports and updates.
Data and Methodology
Data used in compiling the current scorecard are derived from The Global Nutrition Report, World Bank, WHO, UNICEF, FAO, SUN Movement and the Food Fortification Initiative.
The six nutrition status indicators use the WHA average annual rates of reduction to show progress, while the rest the indicators rely on thresholds set by the data owners in line with continentally/globally agreed targets that are used by countries.
Credits
The Scorecard website has been developed by Mapping Worlds. The nutririon themed imagery has been created by the Ivorian artist and illustrator O'Plérou Grebet, with overlays by Mapping Worlds. All rights reserved.