By Lorraine Anyango

Nutrition-sensitive and nutrition-specific interventions in Kisumu County are growing strong, necessitating the development of an investment case for Multi-Sector Nutrition Advocacy in the same region.

This growth has been marked by the notable contribution of the MSN and the nutrition champions spread across the seven sub-counties with support from ‘Advancing Nutrition’, a USAID-funded project.

The investment case will form the foundation of evidence for advocating for nutrition In 2019, the Cost of Hunger in Africa (COHA) study highlighted the high levels of child

Undernutrition and its lasting health and human capital consequences for the country. The COHA model is essential for developing the Counties’ including Kisumu, Kitui, and Kakamega Investment Cases by customizing their respective nutrition data with estimates of the level of child morbidity, mortality, school repetition, school dropout, and reduced physical capacity.

While COHA provides data on the health, economic, and social impacts of undernutrition, another Modeling is required to increase nutrition advocacy with county decision-makers. Resource allocation for nutrition interventions at the county level. Moreover, the Kenya stepwise

The survey report (2015), a preliminary finding of KDHS 2022, and the KNAP review report (2022) will be useful for providing evidence to strengthen the investment case for nutrition.

Stakeholders held an inception meeting to deliberate on the high-impact nutrition intervention the county will be investing in and the generation of data for key indicators and targets to be included in the county nutrition investment case.

The forum was officially opened by the chief officer of Agriculture and livestock, Dr. Paul Omanga, and was also graced by ‘Advancing Nutrition’ Chief of Party Mr. Peter Milo. The stakeholders are developing the investment with the aid of consultants including Mr. Njuguna David of Futures Health Economics and Metrics (F.H.E.M) and Mr. Daniel Mwai.

The investment case will be used to demonstrate the economic burden of malnutrition as well as to describe the impacts of scaling up investments in nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions.

“This advocacy tool is aimed at policymakers pointing the importance of nutrition-sensitive and nutrition-specific interventions Mr. Njuguna said.

“It’s also for line ministries to show the benefits of investing in nutrition and it’s also a catalyst for resource mobilization.” He added.

The tool will further be used for advocacy for sustained political leadership and the Rapid Development of health financing mechanisms.

The investment case advocacy tool will also be used to increase domestic resource mobilization as well as increase external forms of support.

Already the formation of MSN platforms with TOR and joined work plan was done, MSN score card to gauge performance and trigger action and improved programming was also done as well as the development of an MSN financial tracking tool for managing resources, accountability and resource advocacy.

The MSN plans to the development of the investment case document which is linked to advocacy policy briefs, including MSN indicators in the CIDP, and then present the policy briefs to decision-makers at county and National levels and both state and non-state actors.