The case of Benin Scaling Up Nutrition Movement In-depth Country Studies1
Figure No. 1. Timeline of the country pathway
Country context and main policy decisions Nutrition situation Benin has made significant progress towards meeting global nutrition targets in recent years. From 2006 to 2014, the prevalence of stunting in children under 5 decreased from 45 percent to 34 percent while wasting decreased from 8 to 5 percent. Despite this progress, in Northern areas of the country wasting prevalence continues to surpass WHO alert and even emergency thresholds.
1 This Country Case was prepared by Paola Victoria, International Consultant for the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement In-Depth Country Studies with contributions from Christopher Coffey (MQSUN Consultant), Fanny Granchamp, International Consultant for the SUN Movement In-Depth Country Studies, and Ophelie Hemonin, SMS Country Liaison Team, for the SUN Movement Mid-Term Review Team. It is based on the information collected at subnational level in two municipalities through 10 interviews with government officials (7), and civil society representatives (3); and 3 group discussions that included 17 people participating from government (12), civil society (1), and UN representatives (4). This study was not supported by a sufficient number of interviews at national level due to a clash with other SUN Movement Study that was carried out during the same time. Information at national level was therefore mostly collected through a group discussion with United Nations representatives, and the analysis of the country Joint Annual Assessments.
1 There has also been significant progress in reducing anaemia in the country. According to a study carried out by SPRING, from 2006 to 2011-2012 anaemia among children aged 6 to 59 months fell from 78 to 58 percent, similarly the rate of anaemia in women of reproductive age (15 – 49 years old), decreased from 61 to 41 percent2.
Less encouragingly, over the same time period breastfeeding of children aged 0-6 months decreased from 43 to 41 percent. However, the country is still on track in reaching the WHA target.
Despite efforts to increase coverage of nutrition related interventions and diversify dietary intake3, poor dietary diversity and complementary feeding practices, and limited access to health services and sanitation continue to hamper progress in improving nutrition outcomes.
Political economic context Since the 1990s Benin has experienced a stable and democratic government, accompanied by moderate economic growth of 4 to 5 percent on average over the past two decades, with even higher growth seen in 2013 (7.7 percent) and 2014 (6.4 percent). However, poverty remains widespread and despite continued economic growth is on the rise. According to World Bank estimations, the percentage of the population living below the poverty line increased from 36 percent in 2011 to 40 percent in 2015.
Currently, 67 percent of the population has access to safe drinking water and only 14 percent to basic sanitation. According to the International Labour Organization, less than 10 percent of the population benefits from social protection systems4.
Benin’s economy relies heavily on informal re-export and transit trade to Nigeria, which makes up roughly 20 percent of GDP, and on agricultural export production which accounts for approximately 25 percent of GDP and between 45 to 55 percent of country’s employment.
Benin is vulnerable to climate and economic shocks, primarily: adverse weather conditions, terms of trade shocks (cotton and oil prices), and conditions in neighbouring Nigeria. Although agriculture is the economy's key sector, structural and natural disasters play a significant role in fluctuations in food security and nutrition insecurity in the country.
Benin made important commitments at the Nutrition for Growth summit in 2013; pledging to reduce stunting to 30 percent by 2020; to increase exclusive breast‐feeding rates to 46 percent by 2020; and to maintain levels of wasting at less than 5 percent among children under 5. In 2017, the country also undertook a national review of its implementation of the 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development.
Setting the course: Benin’s National Nutrition Strategy
Although Benin does not have a formal national nutrition policy, the country has a number of legal provisions and national guidelines in place relevant to nutrition, including on food fortification in iodised
2 SPRING, United States Agency, BENIN. National Anemia Profile., February 2017 https://www.spring- nutrition.org/sites/default/files/publications/anemia-profiles/spring_nap_benin.pdf 3 SUN Movement Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, Learning (MEAL), p. 30 4 ILO | Social Protection Platform | Social Security Profile | Benin’
Nutrition sensitive policies and strategies are in place covering key sectors including agriculture and food security (“Strategic Plan for Boosting the Agricultural Sector 2011-2015”, and the “National Agriculture Investment and Food and Nutrition Security Plan, PNIASAN, 2017 -2021”); public health and education sectors (for pregnant women and nursing mothers, children and adolescents and school meals) social protection (“Holistic Social Policy 2012”), and more recently water and sanitation targets have been integrated into the 2016 – 2021 National Development Plan.
The National Development Strategy for Food and Nutrition (PSDAN 2009 -2019) is a key policy document which had the ambition of setting up a pathway towards nutrition advancements in the country. The Strategy defines two ‘roads’ for improving nutrition in Benin and has a strong focus on community led efforts. Firstly, the “short road” focuses on the first 1000 days, implemented largely through the Results- Based Food and Nutrition Programme (PANAR). This includes the outline for the 2012-2015 Community Nutrition Project that included specific interventions in Infant Youth and Child Feeding (IYCF), adequate food for adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating mothers, promotion of hygiene and sanitation, community- based management of acute malnutrition as well as other interventions in food and nutrition. Secondly, the “long road” covers key nutrition relevant sectors with special focus on health, agriculture and education. As of today, its implementation largely relies on the 2014 – 2019 Multisectoral Food, Health and Nutrition Project (PMASN). Both are supported by the World Bank and implemented by various national NGOs.
The PMASN has an increased focus on institution building and strengthening. It has two main components. The first component is focused on strengthening policy and program management, and coordination by establishing communal consultative groups and developing a common results framework for improved service delivery for child nutrition in municipalities. The second component focuses on community mobilization and services delivery strengthening. It aims to mobilise communities at the village level primarily through; Food and Nutrition Surveillance Committees (CSAN); and Nutrition Assistance Groups (GAN) comprised of volunteers chosen by communities who track and treat cases of malnutrition and provide education and behaviour change messaging. The project, expiring in 2019, is expected to be followed by a new World Bank project called “Early Nutrition and Development Project” 2019-2024.
To rectify the fragmentation of rather short-term projects, Benin reported drafting a 2016-2025 Common Results Framework for chronic malnutrition since 2015, which was not shared with the SUN Movement and whose status is still uncertain. The latter was not costed and the associated monitoring and evaluation framework was not comprehensive to all projects listed above'
Aligning efforts across sectors and among stakeholders Coordination and presidential elections: a rapid shift from central to local Nutrition has been a priority in Benin at least throughout the last decade. In 2007 experts from across Benin – public, private, civil society, local collectives, academics and financial partners – came together to chart the way forward in a workshop organised by the World Bank. The common vision forged paved the road for the elaboration of the national strategy on food and nutrition and for the establishment of the multi sectorial and multi stakeholder platform for nutrition. In 2009 the government created the Food and
3 Nutrition Council (CAN) that became operational in 2011 and developed the 2009 – 2019 National Development Strategy for Food and Nutrition described above.
The CAN is an independent body responsible for leading policy and coordinating interventions implemented by national and international organizations in the field of food and nutrition in Benin. It is chaired by the President (or his representative) and is composed by 34 members including government Ministers of Finance, Health, Agriculture, Social Protection, Development, Decentralisation and Trade. It also includes other stakeholders through decentralised collectives comprising the National Association of Municipalities of Benin (ANCB), civil society organisations, the private sector, farmers’ organisations and research and training institutions. The United Nation System Agencies and Donors and International Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) are also involved.
To support its work, the CAN has a Permanent Secretariat (SP-CAN) that acts as the executive body and a technical arm composed of a small team in charge of coordinating sectoral interventions.
In order to increase its convening capacity vis-a-vis different government sectors, the CAN developed an integrated institutional communication plan that aimed to target political and administrative decision- makers at national and subnational level. It also developed a Common Results Framework for chronic malnutrition (2016-2025) meant to facilitate close working with decentralized authorities to create coordination mechanisms for nutrition related activities in municipalities in order to implement the PSDAN.
The country saw significant improvement in multisectoral and multi-stakeholder coordination around nutrition between 2009 and 2015. In 2015, the Chair of the CAN and simultaneously SUN focal point (who, chairing on behalf of the President of the Republic, was the technical advisor to the President of Benin on agriculture issues) and FP was dismissed for political reasons in the context of the 2016 elections5.
Since the election of Patrice Talon as the new President of the Republic of Benin, and the consecutive nomination of a new government, the CAN and its permanent secretariat are operating without the guidance of an officially nominated Chair. Respondents in interviews conducted for this country case study expressed a feeling that this situation led to “less government leadership and understanding among sectorial ministries of what nutrition is, and what sectors’ roles and responsibilities are. Government commitments with the Common Results Framework were and still are less and less followed up by the presidency, and hence there are less frequent MSP Meetings”6.Since 2015, the SP-CAN’s focus shifted as it began to implement the Multisectoral Food, Health and Nutrition, PMASN Project. This shift in focus led to a greater role in implementation rather than in the mandated role of planning and coordination. Respondents felt that both the somewhat reduced high-level political prioritisation of nutrition and the refocus of theSP-CAN towards a role as implementer “has led to an overall downplaying of the level of representatives sent to various meetings on nutrition, not only from the government side but also from partners, putting at risk nutrition coordination advancements”7.
Despite these challenges much progress continues to be made in the area of nutrition governance within the country as outlined below.
5 Due to clashes with another SUN Movement Study that was carried out in Benin the In-depth Study mission did not do national level interviews. The information at national level registered here is based on desk review and a group discussion with United Nations Representatives in country 6 UN Agencies Group Discussion, Benin National Level Interview. 7 UN Agencies Group Discussion 4
The SUN Movement in Action in Benin Benin joined the SUN Movement in 2011, through a letter of commitment from the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries that emphasised their efforts in establishing a multi stakeholder platform and a stated hope to ‘benefit from the support of financial and technical members of the Movement’. The SUN MSP is the CAN, whose president used to be the SUN FP. However, this post has been vacant since 2016, with the Permanent Secretary filling this role ad interim with a more technical focus.
The first SUN Movement Stakeholder Network created in Benin was the Donor Network in 2012. The World Bank and UNICEF acted as co-conveners of the network which also includes bilateral and multilateral partners8 and different international NGOs that were part of the Technical and Financial Partners' Inclusive Platform for Nutrition. Although the network does not hold regular meetings since 2016it provides support to government for the implementation of the PMASN and contributes to government coordination efforts.
A United Nations Network has also been established in the country. It is presided by UNICEF and includes WFP, FAO, WHO, UNDP and UNFPA. A joint UN project implemented by all UN agencies to fight chronic malnutrition in two rural municipalities of Malanville and Karimama: the Projet de lutte contre la malnutrition chronique dans les communes rurales de Malanville et Karimama was launched in 2015 and officially ended in 2018.
In 2015 the Civil Society Alliance for Scaling Up Nutrition in Benin (ASCINB) was launched after two years of consultations among civil society organisations. ASCINB implements advocacy and communication projects aiming to build capacity, promote improved IYCF practises and nutrition campaigns through mass and social media. A misalignment between the civil society network and the has impeded participation of the ASCINB in the CAN (where the 2 civil society representatives nominally identified by the decree represented consumers and an implementing NGO) until 2018. This also led to missed opportunities as the SUN civil society network could not benefit from catalytic financial support (MTPF) due to the lack of support from the SUN FP. In 2018, the ASCINB proposal to a SUN pooled funds call was accepted, which should explicitly allow the ASCINB to build effective an d representative participation in the CAN, and participate to the implementation of a number of communication and advocacy activities at decentralized level. A National Food Fortification Commission (CBFA) was set up in 2014 through ministeriel arrêté, along with the fortification norms to gather mulitstakeholders involved in oil and wheat fortification and Salt iodation.
An Academia Network was formed in 2017. It was initiated to build on a pre-existing relationship between actors from academia and CAN with an initial focus on integrating nutrition in various learning curricula and promoting applied research.
Network of parliamentarians
Engaging Parliamentarians has been mentioned as a priority by the CAN and joint collaboration has been reported in legislative work, advocacy and communication, and to some extent, budget advocacy. A network was launched in 2015, though initiative remain scarce. Following a Regional seminar on promoting
8 The donors present in country are: European Commission, Japan International Cooperation Agency, The Netherlands, United States Agency for International Development, USAID and the World Bank. There are also International NGOs including Catholic Relief Services, CARE, OXFAM and PLAN.
5 child nutrition organized by the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Burkina Faso in 2017, a network of women MP was reportedly launched in 2018.
Journalists have been engaged in MSP efforts of promote nutrition awareness and behavioural change communication campaigns. In 2016 the National Association of Municipalities of Benin (ANCB) organized a competition among local radios on ‘the best nutrition promoter’. The CAN, the Civil Society Network and the ANCB have developed trainings for journalists and the CAN and civil society is working closely with community radios and journalists to form a media network.
At the national level, there is a Communication Task Force since 2015 composed by different government and non-government stakeholders (UN Agencies, Donors, and Civil Society) that collaborates to defining strategies for behavioural change communication and harmonization of the communication strategy for nutrition
New partnerships and strategic alliances have also been sought by the government of Benin with AGIR and the G8 Food Security and Nutrition Alliance. In 2013 the G8 set up a Cooperation Framework to support the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition in Benin. It was mandated to support an increase in private sector investment in the agricultural sector, encourage innovation, increase agricultural productivity and incomes and deliver sustainable food security and nutrition outcomes and end hunger in the country.
Finally, an issue of note is that while Benin does not officially recognize the existence of champions advocating for nutrition, several individuals and groups are heavily involved in championing nutrition issues in the country and progress in mobilising champions are reported within the MEAL dashboard. A prefect in the country, M. MEGBEDJI Christophe, Prefect of the Couffo Departement, was nominated as a candidate to receive the prize of SUN nutrition champion in 2017.
Since 2014 the SUN Movement MSP in Benin has met on an annual basis at least (thought meetings should have been more frequent) and have assessed annually their progress in each of the SUN Movement Processes. Stakeholders have registered a five percent improvement from 2014 (56 percent) to 2018 (61 percent) on the average total weight of progress across the four SUN Movement processes with major advancements seen in ensuring a coherent policy and legal framework but a decline in ensuring financial tracking and resource mobilization. Subnational level: actions to improve nutrition The National Strategy (PSDAN) has a strong focus on implementing actions at a decentralised level with communities’ direct involvement. “The PSDAN represents a new participatory and accountability approach”9. Towards this end, in 2011 Benin established, through the PANAR/Community Nutrition Project (PNC), decentralised nutrition multi stakeholder platforms called Communal Concertation Framework (CCC) in 10 municipalities. When the PNC Project was completed, the Multisectoral Food, Health and Nutrition Project (PMSAN) continued these decentralisation efforts. Currently, there is are CCCs in place in the 40 Communes where the PMASN is implemented out of the 77 Communes in Benin. The most vulnerable municipalities were prioritised for PMASN implementation. The selection criteria were: prevalence of chronic malnutrition; percentage of the population below the poverty line; and prevalence of food insecurity. Both the PNC which operated from 2011 to 2015 and the PMASN operational from 2015 – 2019 were and are implemented with the support of national implementing NGOs, though roles and responsibilities are shared among the CCC participants. The Implementing NGO in each municipality has the responsibility to provide training support when required and to report to the CCC and the SP-CAN. According to one of the
9 République du Bénin, ‘Plan Stratégique de Développement de L’Alimentation et de La Nutrition’, 2009.
6 implementing NGOs interviewed 'The logic of PMSAN is quite different from the logic of any other project. It is an institutional project (…) having the municipality on board enables people to understand that it’s not the project of the NGO but it’s the project of the municipality”10 The CCCs are created by a local government decree and convened by the Mayor. They comprise locally elected representatives and the decentralized services from Education, Social Affairs, Health, and Agriculture sectors, as well as a representative of community associations (women groups), and the non- government organization that implements the PMASN project in the municipality11. The CCCs are in charge of monitoring implementation of the PSDAN and PANAR/PNC, coordinating the efforts of different sectors and stakeholders to turn them into nutrition-sensitive interventions, liaising with the SP-CAN and village level nutrition structures The CCC meets and reports to the SP-CAN on a quarterly basis. CCCs are responsible for their own fundraising and Prefets made the approval of municipality development plans conditional to them including a specific budget line for nutrition activities. In parallel to establishing a CCC, municipalities are required by the Nutrition strategy 2009-2019, to include nutrition relevant actions within their Development Plans (PDC) with a dedicated budget of at least 5 percent, which shows a significant level of interest and commitment from the local authorities. They must also appoint a nutrition focal point person, called SEDAFO, paid by the commune who after receiving training would be responsible for liaising with the SP-CAN and the National System for Evaluation and Learning (SEDA).
Three important success factors have facilitated the establishment of the CCCs: Firstly, the involvement of the National Association for Local Government in Benin (ANCB) in CAN has provided an interface between national government and local authorities and has been a strong advocacy channel. Second, the commitment of high-level decentralized actors (such as the Prefets) with authority over the Mayors and Communes was essential to ensure that newly formed CCC activities are supported with a separate nutrition budget line. This regional, involvement is sustained through the setting up of regional SP-CAN focal points, with direct access to Prefets. Third, the advocacy efforts and capacity development by SP-CAN targeting local authorities proved, in some municipalities, a determining success-factor to spark local authorities’ commitment. In Adja Ouere, for instance, the role of the Mayor has been an important determinant in driving progress.
“At the end of the PNC (Community Nutrition Programme), the Mayor of Adja Ouere has taken the initiative to fund 6 villages to implement nutrition activities. To do so, the mayor and municipal council committed the municipality’s own funds to bridge the gap between the PNC and the upcoming PMASN; the mayor used employees of the PNC implementing NGO to train community workers and actively involved local leaders, as an effort to sustain the effects of the PMASN project beyond its end”12
In the commune adjacent to Malanville, Karimama, the mayor himself reportedly played a key role in addressing the cultural determinants of malnutrition by publishing an administrative decree
10 Implementing NGOs group discussion, Benin Subnational level interviews 11 Health (Chief doctor or Nurse, sanitation officer), Agriculture (ATDA, responsible for rural development; MAEP, Head of division of food security and nutrition of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries), Social promotion (Social Promotion Center), Education (Chief of School District / Head of the pedagogical region); Note that the decree did not include water per se. WASH activities are conducted and funded separately, as part of the national WASH strategy. Strong engagement: Health, social promotion, agriculture (control), water. Weak engagement from the education sector, agriculture (production side). 12 Nutrition Focal Point of Adja Ouere Commune, Benin Subnational level interview 7 threatening all families who oppose the treatment of their severely malnourished children in recuperation centers or by enforcing legislation against early child marriage.
The CCC functions as a space for sharing information and knowledge and strategic discussion. Each sector and non-government stakeholders report on their activities, then recommendations are made and followed up at subsequent meetings. Learning is also facilitated as members share difficulties they have faced in the delivery of their programs for advice and discuss lessons learned. Moreover, the CCC also helps participants to work together implementing actions collectively. For example, “in cases of families refusing the referral of their severally acute malnourished children to hospitals, a delegation of the CCC was organised to conduct follow up visits to the family to encourage service uptake”13
Respondents from the CCC felt they had seen increasing commitments from all members. “The change of agenda of the CCC is an evolution in itself. At first, members felt the implementing NGO was the only accountable member of the group but more engagement came when each member and every sector started to report on their own activities and the gradual organization of the CCC under the leadership of the Mayor”14. A turning point was reportedly the organization by the SP-CAN of regional capacity building workshops for members of CCCs around the development of local common results frameworks, laying out clearly roles and responsibilities for each member of the CCC as well as costing activities and identifying gaps. It was found that in the CCCs where the Mayor convenes, there is a greater sense of engagement from the different sectors. “
The leadership demonstrated by the engagement of the Mayor have effects in the fight against malnutrition. The mayor reached out to heads of municipality districts (chefs d'arrondissement`) and village chiefs directly to discuss the importance of nutrition, which turned these community leaders into engaged actors and communicators for nutrition”15.
In order to improve the linkages between the CAN and local authorities (through the CCCs) and between the CAN and devolved administration, Regional SP-CAN Representatives were assigned per every two departments. One of the main tasks of the Regional SP- CAN is to facilitate the collaboration and coordination between municipalities and prefectures (departmental level) and also from departmental to national level. Moreover, since 2017 the departmental Prefectures have nominated a nutrition focal point in order to support and carry out all interventions related to the promotion or nutrition. Together, the Regional SP-CAN and the Prefecture support CCCs efforts and can participate in their quarterly meetings when necessary.
13 CCC Adja, Benin Subnational level interview. 14 Nutrition Focal Point of Adja Ouere Commune 15 Nutrition Focal Point of Adja Ouere Commune 8 Prefectures hold monthly meetings at departmental level to discuss issues with relevant sectors including health, education, agriculture, social protection, and others to report on progress and difficulties encountered. During these meetings, the PMASN project has served as entry point to discuss nutrition issues and when there are serious problems that the commune alone cannot manage it is raised. As a result, concrete action has been taken, and the prefecture has been mobilized to the community.
“Seeing the prefect reaching out to the communities to discuss screening for malnutrition has given importance to nutrition. Communities realise the importance of this theme and are stimulated to embrace the activity” 16
Three key enabling factors can help to explain progress in efforts to improve nutrition outcomes in the country. Firstly, the strong emphasis on capacity building and strengthening processes at all governance levels (local councils and devolved administration). Secondly, the significant financial means that major projects like the PNC and PMASN have provided. This has enabled institution strengthening at the community level. Lastly, is the integration of nutrition services into health and social village centres. In June 2018, the Regional SP-CAN organized trainings at the Municipal level, to develop Communal Common Results Frameworks with all the municipalities. While training were originally targeting PMASN beneficiary municipalities, these are now open to all municipalities and actors have initiated talks about twinning of municipalities. Based on the training, the CCCs are expected to conclude their municipal level Common Results Framework and Monitoring Dashboard by the end of 2018. An intensive course organised by the Nutrition Department of a National University17 (“FINSA”) and promoted through the academia and research representatives in the CAN, seems to have helped build the capacity of a number of nutrition actors throughout the country, at national, regional, departmental or municipality level). At the municipal and village level, the PMASN project was key in building local capacity18. The PMASN mobilises communities through the establishment of Food and Nutrition Surveillance Committees (CSAN) in beneficiary villages, usually headed by the village chiefs; and by Nutrition Assistance Groups (GAN) of volunteers chosen by communities who track and refer cases of malnutrition and provide education and behaviour change messages. In the villages, training has become one of the major incentives for community leaders to participate in the wider project activities. In the municipality of Malanville alone (58 villages), there are 21 CSAN installed with key village players, and 583 GAN, each with the responsibility of 10 households. The PMASN implementation has also started to increase demand for services from communities. The project currently only involves selected villages; however, others have started to ask for nutrition services to be provided too. Given the strong role which negative socio-cultural norms appear to play in malnutrition in Benin, this is an encouraging development.
16 The Departmental Framework for Food Security and Nutrition (CDSAN) is made up of representatives of Prefecture (2 including the Focal Nutrition Point of the Prefecture), Regional Coordination of the Food and Nutrition Council (1), Departmental Directorate of Planning and Development (1), of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries (1), Territorial Agency for Agricultural Development (3), Departmental Direction of Health (1), of Social Affairs and Microfinance (1), of Water and Mines (1), of Maternal and Primary Education (1) of Secondary Education and Vocational Training (1) Commerce (1), Economy and Finance (1) Environment and Environment Framework (1) Association of Communes and representatives of each Projects and Programs involved in FSN 17 Faculty of Agricultural Sciences of the University of Abomey-Calavi. 18 Nutrition Focal Point of Adja Ouere Commune 9 Finally, nutrition has been integrated within the Village Health Committees. These committees are composed of 7 well-known members of the community19, and seek to communicate on essential family practices in relation to health and social issues20. With the promotion of the right to adequate food and of children’s rights as entry points, nutrition has also been integrated within the Social Protection Centers' activities, which conduct weekly nutrition monitoring of children to refer the children with moderate malnutrition for treatment and provide nutrition education to its visiting members. Social protection workers refer cases to the Therapeutic Nutrition Center when they exist, or to Health Centers and Hospitals. They also liaise with the CCC members and the implementing PMASN NGOs for comprehensive follow-up21. This is possible thanks to the existence of a budget line for nutrition within the social protection scheme. A nutrition line is included within the ministry of social affairs' budget and therefore in the Annual Work Plan of the devolved administration. “It [the budget line dedicated to nutrition to support nutrition-sensitive activities by decentralized social promotion workers] may be small but it is there, so finances can be effectively tracked and monitored.”22
Despite advancements, significant challenges remain. The country has limited human and financial resources to fulfil activities from the devolved sectoral services, and the main challenge is the sustainability of funding. Currently all coordination actions are implemented thanks to the financial support of the World Bank loan project, however more government funding allocation is needed in order to maintain efforts after the projects ends. Moreover, the narrative on the link between nutrition and sustainable development in its economic, social and environmental dimensions, is not well understood by all local and national governments. In some parts of Benin, there is still an understanding of development being continent on economic development and related physical infrastructure rather than human development and an inclusive multisectorial approach to addressing malnutrition. Finally, another significant challenge are the still very common harmful social practices and beliefs common in many communities. For some communities, malnutrition is perceived as a “normal state in which all have been”23. To tackle this, several frontline practitioners have emphasised on a rights-based approach stressing on the impacts of malnutrition and the right of every child to life, health and good nutrition. Similarly, gender norms are a major challenge and early and/or forced marriages are strongly anchored in the (polygamous) culture of some villages24.
Key factors from the country pathway and the value add of the SUN Movement Enablers and challenges The main identified factors that helped or hindered the country performance in terms of enabling environment, legislations, interventions and finance are the following.
19 Head of village, religious leader, representative of women, youth representative, and the community relay, who has the role of secretary of the Village Health Committee 20 Responsable projet PMASN – Malanville, Benin Subnational level interview. 21 Responsable projet PMASN – Malanville. 22 Comment by Social Promotion worked in Malanville CCC 23 SP CAN Regional Coordinator, Benin Subnational level interview. 24 SP CAN Regional Coordinator 10 Enabling environment • Strong, comprehensive and sustainable nutrition institutional frameworks at central and decentralised levels are crucial to ensure continuation of nutrition actions. Although the new government in 2016 has decreased government funding and have not presided over or assigned a representative to lead the CNN since, the institution was maintained while other similar Councils were closed. The action of the SP-CAN and nutrition institutions at subnational level were key to give some level of continuity to multisectorial nutrition action in the country. • The institutional anchorage of the multisectoral and multistakeholder platform (CAN) to the President Office is an enabling factor. Providing strong executive power support has helped in building credibility and authority to secure commitments into actions from the highest sectorial political authorities and decentralized administrative levels; as well as facilitating access to financial commitments from donors and development partners that require national government counterparts. • On the other hand, the absence of the person formaly filling this anchorage position to the presidency has hindered the MSP’s capacity to maintain progress and mainstream nutrition across sectors (and sectorial budgets), leaving the decentralized implementation in CCCs largely underfunded of the lack of high political guidance, support and authority from the CAN president has resulted in the SP-CAN gradually reorienting its role to mostly that of an implementing agency rather than a facilitator of coordination across sectors, which may have negatively impacted the level of coordination between and within national multistakeholder networks and resulted in a loss of dynamism of the MSP. The dual role of the SP-CAN as coordinating institution and implementer has indeed apparently led to disengagement from sectorial ministries and some donors and United Nations agencies. • The creation of nutrition coordination committees in municipalities (CCC) has facilitated inter- sectoral and stakeholder alignment for more efficient implementation at local level. The key factors facilitating their formation were: strong collaboration of the SP CAN with both the National Association of municipalities of Benin and the Ministry of decentralization and local governance that have contributed to engage local institutions in nutrition matters; the personal engagement, advocacy and leadership of regional and local executive authorities (through prefets and mayors) to ensure involvement of all relevant sectors and stakeholders, consistent capacity building through a partnership between local and regional/national institutions, and academia and government officials. This has provided a sense of ownership that increases co-responsibility and maintains commitments during changes in the wider political landscape. • The continued technical and financial support from the World Bank and United Nations Agencies in Benin during the past decades has contributed to a great extent to equip government institutions both at national and subnational level.
• The lack of reported involvement of private sector actors is a permanent feature of nutrition efforts in Benin, which has deprived it from a striving force/mass to address malnutrition.
Legislation and policies:
• In spite of a very effective “domestication” of the SDGs by Benin at all levels of governance, he insufficient prioritization of nutrition as a condition for sustainable development in its economic, social and environmental dimensions, in spite impacts local and national governments prioritisation 11 of actions, where nutrition competes with other pressing issues (for instance infrastructure needs among others). • The limited existence of communication material on the prevailing legislation for nutrition aimed at mid-level management and, in some cases, awareness among key civil servants has hindered sub-national dissemination and enforcement of policies and laws. Enforcing nutrition through a “rights’ lens” as opposed to an advocacy or educational one, reportedly increased effective impact.
• However, harmful social norms and cultural practices continue to prevail, and not all elected officials are willing to go against these by enforcing legislation or codes, given existing social and cultural or religious pressure. For example, despite existence of legislation, early marriage is an accepted practice in some areas, and the Peul culture present in the North tends to place relatively little focus on child health and good nutrition. The traditional nomadism of population near the Niger and Nigeria borders is also an important factor, where parents leave for several days or weeks to harvest lands in Nigeria, often bringing back to Benin or finding acutely malnourished children upon their return.
• Language and literacy are limiting factors to vulgarise legislation. Certain communities, particularly in remote areas with high rates of undernutrition do not speak or read the official language in which the communication campaigns are addressed.
Interventions • The continuity and coherence of the support to community level nutrition through consecutive WB grants, has allowed for the progressive scale up of intervention coverage. The focus on implementation at community level through social and health centres and nutrition committees (Social Protection Centres, Village Health Committees, CSAN and GANs), including strong local leaders and community mobilisation, has been an important factor in improving coverage and quality of preventative and curative interventions. This would not have been possible without the continued financial support by different donors through the World Bank: 2011-2015 - PNC (JICA); the 2014-2019 - PMASN: (World Bank Loan) and 2019-2024 Early Childhood Nutrition and Development Project - PNDPE (World Bank financing).
• The fact that local authorities were identified as central actors and enablers in the nutrition strategy, and are properly empowered by the country’s decentralization structure, is an important enabling factor for intervention effectiveness and accountability.
• Interventions throughout the years have focused on involving and building the capacities of municipality councils in nutrition programming, putting them ‘in the drivers' seats of nutrition coordination and involving them in the delivery of major nutrition programs as well as the reporting and accountability processes.
• The National Strategy (PSDAN) has a strong focus on building and strengthening capacity of stakeholders at all government levels and within communities. The PNC and PMASN projects included trainings for departmental and communal level authorities to ensure nutrition-sensitive planning and implementation, and smooth reporting to the national level. The delivery of services through community member volunteers (CSAN and GAN) required implementing NGOs to train communities which has increased communities’ own capacities. 12 • The use of competitions between communes constitutes an incentive for effective implementation that contributed to local level authorities buying in nutrition sensitive initiatives and also encouraged effective reporting to national level. “The interest of the various sectors to participate to the CCC has been fuelled by a sense of general progress and in light of new nutrition results which report positive impact on the rates on malnutrition in the municipality. There is a feeling of competition on the ground between the municipalities to be the best”25.
• The lack of integration of relevant socio-economic and cultural elements during planning hinders the achievement of results. For example, UN representatives referred to a community where despite the technical and financial efforts made for more than 5 years, nutrition indicators remain unchanged. This demonstrates that a sociological and anthropological analysis of the communities should be considered, and a long-term sustainability lens adopted during project programming to make sure that interventions will effectively show results.
• The data collected while monitoring implementation by the municipality nutrition focal point in charge of reporting to the CAN does not reach the CCC but rather the national level. Similarly, sectorial actors tend to monitor sectorial interventions and report directly to their line ministry instead of also feeding the data to the CCC to strengthen follow-up and review discussions and strategic programming. This has posed difficulties during the strategic design of the common results frameworks.
Finance
• One of the major challenges in the country is to ensure adequate and sustainable funds to meet requirements for financial, physical and human resource. Donor support has been significant in advancing nutrition governance in the country, however the limited government funds allocated to nutrition and a continued dependency on donors’ support threatens the sustainability of interventions currently implemented. Though CCC are tasked with raising their own funds, this area is where they perform the poorest.
• The strength of policy commitments is contingent upon being backed up by specific budget allocations/lines both in domestic and international budgets. For example, the existence of a nutrition budget line in the Ministry of Social Affairs has facilitated the effective implementation of devolved administrations through their social centers. By contrast, the lack of integration of nutrition within the “Commune Development Support Fund”, initiative of the UN Capital Development Fund26 and managed through the Ministry of Agriculture in Benin, limits the impact of this potentially key determinant for further sectorial collaboration for improved nutrition.
National perceptions of the SUN Movement Value Add
The In-Depth Study mission in Benin did not carry out a sufficient number of interviews at the national level, due to a clash with other SUN Movement study that was taking place in country. Hence, the perceptions registered here stem from a single focus group discussion gathering with UN representatives.
25 CCC Adja- Ouere. 26 Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility (LoCAL) of the United Nations Capital Development Fund to integrate climate change adaption into local governments’ planning and budgeting systems. 13 • The teleconferences organized by the Movement since 2013 remain a very important exchange framework: they make it possible to analyse in which direction the country is going and what is happening in other countries, to get inspiration. They could be improved by introducing new technologies so that everyone can follow them from his own office: webinars or skype.
• The Joint Annual Assessment is an opportunity to revive the SUN MSP in country, and to reflect on progress.
• Some interviewees seemed to find out on the occasion of the focus group that they were a member of the SUN Movement and SUN support system. They indicated that their UNICEF Regional nutrition advisors were there main informants on SUN related topics.
• The misalignment between donors or donor and UN in the approach to implementation support strategies (for instance, the World Bank's PMSAN channelled through the SP-CAN effectively making it an implementing agency and partner rather than a high-level coordination space), demonstrates that the SUN approach and principles (coordination between networks and stakeholders) are valid and could be strengthened in country.
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