Using evidence to lead the advocacy

By Ambarka Youssoufane on 24 October 2016

Ambarka is the Emergency Nutrition Network (ENN) knowledge management specialist in West and Central Africa. He is based in Dakar, Senegal. He has years of experience with roles in governmental and civil society authorities in Niger.

According to International Land Coalition, advocacy is “the strategic use of information to influence a policy, which affects the life of the weakest populations”.

The advocacy of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) movement is based above all on scientific evidence and malnutrition data and indicators to stimulate change in favour of nutrition.

According to a number of participants in the twenty-third round of SUN country teleconferences, held from 9 to 13 May 2016, in which over 300 participants were registered, notable changes were achieved through advocacy based on evidence and persuasive data on the adverse consequences of malnutrition and/or the interest in acting against it.

The most commonly used data is probably still that relating to the prevalence of the different forms of malnutrition. Data on the nutritional situation was notably used in Chad, where the food and nutrition crisis of 2010 served as an argument in advocating for the establishment of a monthly meeting with the President of the Republic on health indicators. Since 2013 and after Chad joined the SUN movement, nutrition indicators were brought into these meetings, thereby enabling nutrition to be discussed at a very high level. Nutrition data was used in numerous other countries including Mozambique, where a 2009 evaluation of the PRPS document revealed stagnation in the nutritional situation and recommended a multisectoral action at national level. This evaluation led the government to define nutrition as one of the priorities of its Development and Intercultural Education (DICE) programme.

The global prevalence or rate of acute malnutrition is regularly cited as a reason for Scaling Up Nutrition. In fact, according to the World Health Organization, a global acute malnutrition rate of 10 per cent or more is an alert situation and at 15 per cent a nutritional emergency situation. These different rates are therefore used to draw the attention of national authorities and international decision makers to implement appropriate nutrition actions.

Severity of malnutrition by prevalence ranges (per cent) WHO

According to the SUN focal point for Niger, the data on the nutritional situation, characterized by high rates of malnutrition was repeatedly used to draw the attention of the authorities to the need to prioritize nutrition in Niger. This led the government to draw up a number of strategy documents, including the national nutrition security policy, and to create a national nutrition directorate.

In addition to data on the prevalence of malnutrition, studies were carried out to evaluate various social and economic implications of malnutrition. One of these was a malnutrition cost analysis. We now effectively have very precise methods for evaluating the loss of earnings resulting from malnutrition. This data also serves as scientific evidence used to advocate in favour of nutrition.