Tracking aid for the WHA nutrition targets: Progress toward the global nutrition goals between 2015 to 2020

In 2017, the World Bank, R4D, and 1000 Days created the Investment Framework for Nutrition as a roadmap toward achieving the World Health Assembly (WHA) nutrition targets by 2025. The framework estimates that the world needs to mobilize an annual additional investment of $7 billion per year to scale-up nutrition-specific interventions at the level needed to achieve the global targets, where, of these costs, $2.3 billion per year is needed for a priority package of ready-to-scale interventions.

Since then, R4D has been tracking donor disbursements to priority interventions needed to achieve the WHA nutrition targets to monitor progress toward the financial benchmarks laid out in the Investment Framework. In our latest update, we report donor disbursements from 2015 to 2020 and the financing gap that remains. This is the first look at trends in nutrition aid since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. Disbursements have increased overall but a significant financing gap to meet the WHA nutrition targets remains. While financing for wasting and above-service delivery increased over this period, financing for stunting, exclusive breastfeeding, and anemia have either decreased or plateaued as need grows.

Please contact Caroline Andridge or Mary D’Alimonte for any questions or comments on these materials.

We wish to thank the many partners who participated in the development of the method and review of the findings, including members of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Donor Network who contributed their time and input to this analysis across the years. The authors would like to thank the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for supporting this study.

Additional Resources

• Methods (September 2022)
• Supplementary Material for 2020 Analysis (September 2022)

We are grateful for the support provided by the 2022 research team, including Abbe McCarter, Luka Pauwelyn, Lauryn Cravens, Henrike Schmalfuss, and Rana Iscazai. R4D is also grateful to the core team that helped spearhead this initiative in 2016, including Mary D’Alimonte, Jack Clift, Emily Thatcher, Stephanie Heung, and Augustin Flory, and to integral team members who joined as the analysis evolved into what it is today, including Caroline Andridge, Kyle Borces, Ryan LeMier, Felicity Nelson, Abbe McCarter, and David Christensen.