https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9090-290X
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ABSTRACT
The Government of Burkina Faso committed to the multi-sector approach on nutrition in 2014 and has conducted the development of a Multi-Sector Nutrition Plan 2020–2024. This study aims to understand and analyse the Nutrition organizational capacities at the municipal level to support the scaling up of interventions within the National Multi-Sector Nutrition Plan. A qualitative study was conducted at the end of 2017, based on the framework for nutrition capacity developed by the United Nations Network Secretariat in collaboration with five funding agencies, to assess the organizational capacity dimension. Data collection consisted of focus groups and information collection through workshops with key informants. In total, 22 rural municipalities were targeted and 152 key informants were involved, including mayors, municipal councillors, members of the village development committee, and local technical agents in charge of agriculture, livestock and health. The gaps identified were poor integration of nutrition into local development strategic plans, less evolved coordination on nutrition, weak development of nutrition community approaches and dependence on the state budget matched to a non-existent budget monitoring system. The findings showed an unequal distribution and limited number of technical agents to cover villages within a given municipality, inadequate skills to support services expansions such as water and sanitation, health, agriculture and livestock. In addition, no reference was made to monitoring and evaluation, accountability or sharing information. The main capacity needs on nutrition are the transfer of technical competencies from the regional to the municipal level, the strengthening of technical skills on nutrition, and the setting up of an integrated data collection system involving key players. The identification of needs and opportunities and the newly finalized guide on nutrition integration into local development plans and strategies are useful to drive change for multisectoral implementation.
Responsible Editor
Julia Schr..oders
Responsible Editor
Julia Schr..oders
Acknowledgments
We would like to express our sincere thanks to the Ministry of Health and Technical Evaluation Committee, and Nutrition Focal Points at the United Nations agencies engaged in Burkina Faso’s United Nations Nutrition Network. We highly appreciate the contribution of the colleagues at the UN Network in Rome, Italy and Mrs Akezamutima Emelyne for her support.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Ethics and consent
The study obtained approval from the institutional Ethics Committee of Centre Muraz. All the institutions were informed of the purpose of the study and provided verbal consent prior to starting interviews.
Author contributions
Mr Dieudonné Diasso and Mrs Maimouna Halidou Doudou conceived the study. Mr Dieudonné Diasso designed the study, led data collection and analysis, and wrote the first draft. Mrs Maimouna Halidou Doudou, Mr Mohamed Cheikh Levrak, Ms Holly Dente Sedutto and Mr Aly Savadogo contributed to the design and the finalization of this manuscript.
Paper context
A number of studies have been carried out on capacity building in nutrition through training curricula and skills development. However, no assessment has yet considered a multisectoral approach focusing on organizational capacity dimensions. Our study is based on a nutrition capacity assessment framework developed by the United Nations Nutrition Network. Our findings represent important insights on municipalities’ organisational capacity for nutrition, and can be useful to improve nutrition impact in the Sahel region.