NEPAL NUTRITION AND FOOD SECURITY PORTAL

On September 29, 2022, the findings of the Mid-Term Review (MTR) of Multi-sector Nutrition Plan (2018-2022) were disseminated at Hotel Yak and Yeti, Kathmandu, Nepal. The event was organized by National Planning Commission and chaired by Dr. Uma Shankar Prasad, Honorable Member of the National Planning Commission. Ms. Eloisa Astudillo, Acting Head of Cooperation, Delegation of the European Union to Nepal, and Ms. Elke Wisch, Country Representative of UNICEF for Nepal were present as the special guest at the event. Over 60 participants including Joint Secretaries, Officials from NPC, and different ministries and departments, MSNP Focal Person of the different ministries and departments, Experts of High-Level nutrition and Food Security Steering Committee and National Nutrition and Food Security Coordination Committee, representatives from UNICEF, WFP, WHO, FAO, USAID, World Bank, and FCDO and from Private Sector, Civil Society Organization (CSOs) has attended the dissemination event. 

Dr. Kiran Rupakhetee, Joint Secretary/ Division Chief, Good Governance and Social Development Division, delivering the presentation on “Context setting- Multi-sector Nutrition Plan” during Dissemination of findings of Mid-term Review of MSNP-II” .

Ms. Laxmi Ghimire, Program Director of the National Planning Commission (NPC) welcomed the participants and shared the objective of the event. Following this, three different presentations were made. The first presentation was made by Dr. Kiran Rupakhetee, Joint Secretary of the National Planning Commission which outlined briefly Multi-sector Nutrition Plan-II (2018-2022) highlighting its vision, goal, and objective including its implementation modality. Thereafter, Dr. Sanjay Rijal, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer from UNICEF Nepal, delivered a presentation on “Impact Evaluation of Nepal’s Multi-Sector Nutrition Plan”.

Dr. Sanjay briefly presented findings from the impact evaluation assessed in terms of relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact, and sustainability of MSNP. He also shared the recommendation that came out of the impact evaluation of MSNP. The impact evaluation demonstrated that MSNP has played a crucial role in improving the nutrition outcome in Nepal, however, still more needs to be done to achieve the SDG 2030 targets. Strong recommendations for targeted interventions to reduce the disparities across the province and by sociodemographic characteristics, capacity strengthening of local government, and strengthening of monitoring and evaluation mechanisms were noted from the impact evaluation.

Dr. Sanjay Rijal, M&E Officer, UNICEF Nepal, delivering the presentation on “Findings of MSNP Evaluation” during Dissemination of findings of Mid-term Review of MSNP-II.

The third and final presentation was made by Mr. Sanjeev Kumar Sahani on “Key Findings of the Mid-term Review of MSNP-II (2018-2022)”. In his presentation, Mr. Sanjeev stated that MTR was commissioned by National Planning Commission with the objective to the review progress towards expected results after 3.5 years (from 2018–Oct 2021) of implementation of MSNP-II, gather evidence, and factors for the success, challenges, and areas that need more attention to realize the targets set for 2022/2023 and obtain recommendations and strategic directions for the formulation of MSNP-III. Mr. Sanjeev reported about the sectoral progress towards the MSNP results as per the MSNP’s result framework and the factors associated with the success of MSNP-II. In addition, information on key issues, challenges, and recommendations for the formulation of the next phase of MSNP was also presented. While concluding the findings from MTR, it was highlighted that MSNP has contributed to improving the nutrition outcome as demonstrated through some of the selected impact level indicators (stunting and underweight among children). Also, remarkable improvement was noted in nutrition-sensitive sectors such as agriculture and livestock, WASH, education, and local governance.

Mr. Sanjeev Kumar Sahani, M&E Consultant, NNFSS/NPC delivering the presentation on “Key findings of MTR of MSP-II” during Dissemination of findings of Mid-term Review of MSNP-II” .

MTR revealed that Nepal is off track to meeting all the nutrition-related SDG 2030 indicators. Moreover, MTR reported that wasting continues to remain stagnant for a decade now and anemia among women and children still stands as a widespread problem in Nepal. MTR recommended that for better nutrition outcomes tailored approach for marginalized group to reduce the disparities, capacity strengthening of local government by providing technical assistance to backstop them in planning, implementation, and monitoring of MSNP, increased resource allocation and mobilization (both human resource and financial resources for MSNP at the local level), improved coordination and collaboration across tiers of government and between the sectors, strengthening of nutrition governance mechanism and accountability towards the results is required. Further, it was noted that effective coherence and integration between sectoral policies and interventions including the projects of the government of Nepal and development partners, shift from gender sensitive to a gender transformative approach to address harmful social and cultural practices, adoption of social behavior change communication approach,  increased investment in girls and youth education and nutrition and prioritization of income generation activities and strengthening social protection mechanism for poorest of the poor is highly desired to achieve global and national nutrition targets.

The presentation was followed by remarks from European Union. Ms. Eloisa Astudillo, Acting Head of Cooperation, Delegation of the European Union to Nepal. Ms. Eloisa in her remarks highlighted that the EU is pleased to see the progress made so far but also pointed out the need to work more aggressively and in a targeted manner for better results. She also reiterated that the EU is committed to supporting Nepal in the formulation of MSNP-III and contributing to human capital development and economic prosperity in Nepal.

Ms. Eloisa Astudillo, Acting Head of Cooperation, Delegation of the European Union to Nepal sharing her remarks during the event

Thereafter, a plenary session to receive comments and feedback from the participants followed through and the session was moderated by Dr. Kiran Rupakhetee. Participants provided their feedback in terms of revisiting the efforts made so far and strengthening the nutrition governance mechanism, improving the accountability mechanism at all three layers of government, and working on the important recommendations and gaps identified through MTR that have been hindering the progress towards achieving the MSNP’s outcome and impact.

Mr. Lila Bikram Thapa, Section Chief, Nutrition Section, Family Welfare Division, Department of Health Services, sharing his remarks during the event.

Following the plenary discussion, Ms. Elke Wisch, Country Representative of UNICEF for Nepal shared her remarks and stated that she is overwhelmed to see the impressive result GoN has achieved in the nutrition sector, which was explicitly reflected through MTR and MSNP evaluation results. Ms. Elke further stated that the success story of Nepal for considerable reduction in stunting should be cherished and could be an example for other countries battling to reduce stunting among children. At the same time, she showed her concerns regarding the stagnation of wasting and underscored the need to revisit our approach to address the issues related to wasting.