The Ministry of Health of Ethiopia, with support from the Seqota Declaration Secretariat, UNICEF, and the Finance Capacity Development Platform (FCDP) for Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) countries, convened a two-day Validation Workshop for the National Food and Nutrition Financing Framework on 9–10 June 2026 in Addis Ababa.

The workshop brought together key government sectors- Health, Agriculture, Water and Energy, Women and Social Affairs, Finance, and Education, alongside development partners and other key stakeholders to review, refine, and formally endorse the National Food and Nutrition Financing Framework. The Framework was developed through an iterative, participatory process involving technical working group consultations and sector reviews, and provides a common understanding of the full resource need to end malnutrition in Ethiopia, alongside a set of priority actions to help the government meet the financing and governance commitments it made at the 2025 Paris Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit.

Key outcomes of the workshop

• Validation and endorsement of the National Food and Nutrition Financing Framework by all key government sectors and partners.
• Confirmation of a prioritized set of actions to sustainably finance food and nutrition, aligned with both government N4G commitments and the Food and Nutrition Strategy.
• Sector-specific action plans developed, identifying next steps, responsible parties, and timelines for implementation.
• Agreement on an approach for developing Regional Food and Nutrition Financing Plans.
• Early direction-setting for nutrition financing beyond 2030, including institutionalizing dedicated nutrition budget lines and strengthening data systems.

Key reflections from participants

• Nutrition financing cannot be siloed within a single sector. Broader ownership, clearer roles, and stronger accountability are needed across government.
• Domestic financing remains insufficient and requires sustained advocacy.
• Donor funding should be better aligned with sector priorities, with improved visibility of partners and resources to reduce duplication.
• The Framework should be embedded in existing government planning and budgeting cycles, including NBTT and regional planning processes
• Regional rollout will require early orientation, engagement of federal sectors from the outset, and use of existing technical committees.

With the Framework validated, the next phase of work will focus on cascading national guidance to the regional level through the development of costed Regional Food and Nutrition Investment Plans, building on the momentum, cross-sector ownership, and lessons generated during the workshop.

FCDP is a SUN Movement resource available to all 67 SUN Countries. The platform aims to transform the nutrition financing landscape by inspiring and igniting government leaders to elevate nutrition financing as a priority and accelerate impact across sectors.

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The National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) of Ghana, with technical and financial support from the Finance Capacity Development Platform (FCDP) for Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) countries, the World Bank, and UNICEF, organized a four-day Training of Trainers (ToT) and Pilot Planning Workshop on Food Systems Transformation and Nutrition Security from April 13th – 16th 2026 at Aqua Safari Resort, Ada.

The program was implemented in two linked phases:

• Phase I (13th–14th April): Training of selected national-level sector officers as Master Trainers to facilitate district-level FSNS planning.
• Phase II (15th–16th April): Pilot district workshop with Ada East, Ningo-Prampram, and South Tongu to test the practicality and user-friendliness of the FSNS planning tools & facilitation model.

The workshop was convened to strengthen national and sub-national capacity for integrating FSNS priorities into district 2026–2029 Medium-Term Development Plans (MTDPs), in line with the MTNDPF and Ghana’s Nutrition for Growth commitments. The full program validated and refined the FSNS Planning Tools, strengthened the technical capacity of a national pool of Master Trainers, and demonstrated the feasibility of district-level integration of FSNS interventions into planning and budgeting systems.

Key lessons from the pilot included:

• The Master Trainer model proved effective, with facilitators demonstrating strong competency in transferring technical knowledge and guiding district planning processes.
• District Planning Officers provided strong institutional leadership, ensuring effective team coordination and quality outputs.
• Districts demonstrated strong responsiveness, adaptability, and innovation, particularly in addressing data availability challenges.
• The FSNS Planning Toolkit was confirmed as practical, functional, and sufficiently robust for broader national application, while also identifying opportunities for further simplification.
• The multi-sectoral structure of district participation proved essential in testing the practicality of the toolkit within real governance and service delivery systems.

5 key outputs of the workshop:

• Validation and refinement of the FSNS Planning Toolkit and planning tools.
• Establishment of a pool of trained Master Trainers for rollout across the regions.
• Development of draft district-level costed FSNS action plans for three pilot districts.
• Development of an action plan to validate and seek approvals for the finalization of the FSNS plans for three pilot districts, and plans for incorporation into the budget process.
• Improved multi-sectoral coordination and planning for food systems and nutrition.

Overall, the initiative provides a credible pathway for translating national nutrition commitments into costed district-level programs. With sustained support and a phased rollout approach, the FSNS Planning Toolkit and Master Trainer model position NDPC to lead a more coordinated and results-oriented FSNS planning process nationwide. With the FSNS cascade training planned for a national roll-out, the stage is now set to translate this foundational work into nationwide impact.

FCDP is a SUN Movement resource available to all 66 SUN Countries. The platform aims to transform the nutrition financing landscape by inspiring and igniting government leaders to elevate nutrition financing as a priority and accelerate impact across sectors.

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Established in 2023 with seed investment from the Gates Foundation, FCDP is a SUN Movement resource available to all 66 SUN countries. The platform aims to reshape the nutrition financing landscape by inspiring and igniting government leaders to elevate nutrition financing as a priority and accelerate impact across sectors.

In the first phase of the platform, FCDP established itself as a key resource for SUN countries working closely with the SUN Movement Secretariat. FCDP supported several countries with technical assistance and capacity strengthening (including Nigeria, Ethiopia, Senegal, Somalia, Pakistan), worked with partners to host regional convenings in Africa and Asia, and generated key learnings including new lessons on nutrition budget tagging and tracking in the Asia region with Capacity for Nutrition (C4N).

This new phase of the platform is managed by R4D UK and guided by FCDP’s Roadmap and Results Framework 2026–2028.

“FCDP has proven to be an invaluable resource to SUN countries and R4D UK is pleased to host the platform in its new phase and moving forward. Our expertise in innovations and systems learning together with nutrition financing means that the support we provide countries is always fit for purposes and of the highest quality” said R4D UK Director, Tom Feeny.

FCDP’s vision of success to support SUN countries includes the following long-term goals:

1. Greater sustainability of funding to ensure programs that offer important nutrition actions are uninterrupted and government owned.
2. Increased funding for nutrition-aligned country priorities across sectors and all sources — public and external.
3. More strategic use of funding that ensures government-owned policies and programs enhance the achievement of food and nutrition targets.

Working closely with the SUN Movement Secretariat (SMS) and our collaborators including the World Bank, UNICEF, C4N and others, FCDP is helping to shape a new agenda for sustainable nutrition financing with country governments leading the way.

Learn more about the Finance Capacity Development Platform for Scaling Up Nutrition countries here.

For inquiries please contact the FCDP Project Manager, Abbe McCarter.

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The workshop was an opportunity for capacity strengthening and peer learning across countries on nutrition-responsive PFM actions for the region. Across the 4-day workshop, three important themes on what drives country progress emerged:

1. Making the case for investing in nutrition remains the foundation of sustainable nutrition financing. Communicating a clear rationale for why investing in nutrition is important to a country’s broader socioeconomic goals is essential for decision makers to unlock funding.
2. Having the right policy levers that enable sustainable nutrition financing is important as they incentivize budget and planning officers to embed nutrition actions into annual plans and be held accountable.
3. All of this must be executed with government financing mechanisms and tools within PFM systems that enable effective and efficient usage of funds that encourage multi-year investment in activities that work best to achieve country goals.

Each of these thematic areas are explored in depth in the workshop summary report, along with the major challenges and bottlenecks countries reported encountering under each theme, as well as lessons learned and best practices countries shared during the workshop.

In addition to the key themes on driving country progress, clear set of priority activities were identified by workshop participants for the region to take forward:

1. Review and align on a new narrative for sustainable nutrition financing in the context of public financial management to support making the case for nutrition and ensure alignment of all relevant stakeholders in this collaborative effort. This includes a review of existing guidance on:
   • Nutrition budget tracking based on country experience.
   • Prioritization of underfunded nutrition actions across sectors [e.g. nutrition investment taxonomy across sectors based on latest evidence.]
   • Costing of multisectoral nutrition plans with a financing strategy, ensuring they are aligned to and inform sector strategies
2. Establish a regional community of practice on sustainable nutrition financing including routine virtual calls for country guidance and update sharing, and a regular annual convening of the regional capacity strengthening workshop.

Each country developed their own first draft country action plan which they are taking forward to action. This regional guidance will help accelerate and enhance what countries are able to achieve.

FCDP is a SUN Movement resource available to all 66 SUN Countries. The platform aims to transform the nutrition financing landscape by inspiring and igniting government leaders to elevate nutrition financing as a priority and accelerate impact across sectors.

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The learnings and experience sharing provided through this study presents countries with a practical frame of reference and a set of diagnostic elements that they can take forward to consider their own nutrition budget tracking approaches. The challenges and considerations highlighted by this study indicate that work must continue to update guidance to countries on nutrition budget tracking with ample dialogue across countries and technical partners to build consensus. This was validated by SUN countries at the recent SUN Asia Hub workshop where country delegations put forth a strong request to partners to come together to update the SUN guidance on budget analysis for nutrition. This updated guidance should assist countries to articulate their use case, provide a common definition of nutrition and taxonomy of investments and review and update guidelines on weighting of nutrition expenditure.

FCDP is a SUN Movement resource available to all 66 SUN Countries. The platform aims to transform the nutrition financing landscape by inspiring and igniting government leaders to elevate nutrition financing as a priority and accelerate impact across sectors.

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Access to essential medicines and other health products is fundamental to achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and improving population health. But recent shifts in global financing — including the reduction of donor support — have exposed the fragility of many domestic systems, resulting in stockpiling, shortages, and inequitable access to life-saving commodities.

Results for Development’s (R4D) recent analytic work revealed that these challenges stem not only from insufficient funding, but from deep systemic disconnects. Without addressing these underlying system weaknesses, simply allocating more funds or trying to ringfence funds with budget lines will not ensure that essential medicines reach those who need them.

Ensuring sustainable, equitable access to essential health commodities requires governments to act across multiple, interconnected domains. They must:

• Set priorities for which services and products to fund
• Forecast needs based on population health and demand
• Shape markets to ensure high quality products are available at affordable prices
• Allocate resources effectively within budgets
• Align payment and pricing systems so that financial flows support reliable supply
• Ensure funds flow smoothly through financing arrangements to reach product suppliers and health care providers
• Procure and distribute products efficiently to the point of care

When any one of these links breaks down, it can cause cascading effects across the system — resulting in stockouts, inefficiencies, and high out-of-pocket costs.

R4D’s Integrated Approach: Bridging Health Financing, Market Shaping and Supply Chain

R4D has long been a leader in both health financing and market shaping, two fields that have often evolved separately. Recognizing the need for a new, integrated perspective, R4D has brought these areas together to understand how their interactions and linkages to supply chains can make or break access to essential commodities.

This intersectional approach was at the heart of R4D’s multi-country rapid assessment, conducted in Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria and Tanzania with support from the Gates Foundation. The assessments mapped the critical connections between health financing, market shaping, and supply chain functions and policies — and highlighted where critical misalignments lead to inefficiencies and gaps that undermine access, but also where there are promising practices that can be built on and shared.

Four country-specific briefs, one overview brief and a full report, can be found below:

• Overview Brief — Building Integrated Systems for Financing Essential Medicines and Other Health Products: From Silos to Systems (4 Pages)
• Full Report — A mapping of domestic systems for financing essential medicines and other health products (33 Pages)
• Ethiopia Brief — Opportunities to align supply chain, market shaping and health financing functions and policies (16 Pages)
• Ghana Brief — Opportunities to align supply chain, market shaping and health financing functions and policies (15 Pages)
• Nigeria Brief — Opportunities to align supply chain, market shaping and health financing functions and policies (17 Pages)
• Tanzania Brief — Opportunities to align supply chain, market shaping and health financing functions and policies (16 Pages)

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Achieving the nutrition goals set forth in these guiding strategic documents will require sustainable financing for nutrition and coordinated efforts across national and international stakeholders. The Government of the Federal Republic of Somalia, with the support of the SUN Movement’s Finance Capacity Development Platform (FCDP), therefore undertook a nutrition financing landscape assessment in order to identify priority areas for support in order to achieve the country’s national nutrition goals. The assessment reviewed current sources of nutrition funding, trends in government budget allocations and expenditures, and identified several of the challenges faced by sectoral ministries in financing nutrition interventions. The report sets out clear policy actions recommended to achieve sustainable financing for food and nutrition in Somalia.

FCDP is a SUN Movement resource available to all 66 SUN Countries. The platform aims to transform the nutrition financing landscape by inspiring and igniting government leaders to elevate nutrition financing as a priority and accelerate impact across sectors.

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