Since 2013, Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) countries have made major strides to bring together different stakeholders from multiple sectors to align national efforts to end malnutrition. There is a growing understanding of the importance of estimating the financial costs of national nutrition programmes and tracking the financing for nutrition interventions at the country level, as well as having a better understanding of the composition of this financing, particularly the budgets allocated by governments to nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions. Costing of individual nutrition investments at the country level is an essential step in the process of mobilising resources, while tracking these investments informs advocacy and helps ensure they are used to best effect. Costing and tracking of investments in nutrition are important parts of the SUN policy planning, implementation, and monitoring cycle.

To support SUN countries in conducting nutrition costing and financial tracking, MQSUN+ developed a guidance note and a brief on ‘Approaches for Nutrition Costing and Financial Tracking in SUN Countries’.