Assessing public financing for nutrition in Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka

Bibliographic Data

ID15535766
AuthorsChristopher T Andersen (0000-0001-5599-6130, World Bank, corresponding author), James Cain (0000-0001-6640-0929, World Bank), Deepika Chaudhery (World Health Organization - India), Mamata Ghimire (0000-0001-8151-0026, Ministry of Health and Population), Hideki Higashi (0000-0002-5534-0905), Ajay Tandon (0000-0003-0578-7490, World Bank)
Year2022
Volume18
Issue3
Pagese13320-e13320
Publication date2022-03-21
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueMaternal and Child Nutrition (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1740-8695 • E-ISSN: 1740-8709
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/mcn.13320
PMID35307937
OpenAlexW4220748431
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited7

The objective of this study was to assess public financing for nutrition in Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka to identify limitations of available data and to discuss policy implications. A variant of the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement methodology was used. Budget allocations and expenditures for relevant government ministries during 2012-2018 were identified. Nutrition-related line items were tagged using definitions of nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions. Data were aggregated by year and calculated in constant United States dollars (USD). Expenditures by year were presented as a proportion of gross domestic product and general government expenditures. The percent utilization of budget allocations and proportion of funding from central government sources were determined. Per capita expenditures on nutrition-specific interventions varied from USD 1.08-8.76 and for nutrition-sensitive interventions varied from USD 20.22-51.20. Nutrition-specific expenditures as a percent of gross domestic product ranged from 0.08% in Sri Lanka in 2017% to 0.34% in Nepal in 2016. The median utilization rate was 64% for nutrition-specific and 84% for nutrition-sensitive interventions. Nutrition-specific funding financed by the central government was 90.7% in Bhutan and 99.4% in Sri Lanka. This study revealed the need to prioritize and invest in evidence-based interventions, including balancing investments in nutrition-specific versus -sensitive interventions. Challenges in estimation of nutrition expenditures and cross-country comparison were also observed, highlighting the need for appropriate nutrition line item tagging and standardized systems for data collection

Clinical nutrition · Economic growth · Economics · Environmental health · Government (linguistics · Gross domestic product · Per capita · Population · Psychological intervention · Socioeconomics · Child Nutrition and Water Access · Food Security and Health in Diverse Populations · Global Public Health Policies and Epidemiology · Medicine · Nursing

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access