TRACKING GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURE ON NUTRITION IN SIERRA LEONE – PILOTING THE SUN THREE STEP APPROACH

In May and June 2016, the first budget tracking of government expenditure on nutrition in Sierra Leone was conducted by ACF with an external consultant from Oxford Policy Management (OPM). Implemented through the SUN three step approach, this study enabled an analysis of the trends of government funding between 2012 and 2015, and is a useful tool for further accountability on nutrition funding in Sierra Leone. It describes expenditure on both nutrition specific and nutrition sensitive interventions, and disaggregates it by ministries, including the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Social welfare and Ministry of Water resources.

Main findings:

• Government expenditure for nutrition specific interventions grew from about USD 7,000 – 44,000 between 2012 and 2015;
• Government expenditure for nutrition sensitive interventions grew from about USD 30 – 35 million between 2012 and 2015;
• In 2015, government expenditure for nutrition represented 0.98% of the country’s GDP and 32% of the estimated cost for the implementation of 2015 activities of the Food and Nutrition Security Implementation Plan;
• In 2016 the budget for nutrition planned to triple, but as of August 2016, still no disbursements had been made;
• Recording of nutrition expenditure within the Directorate of Food and Nutrition (Ministry of Health) has improved thanks to the shift from a programme-based recording to an activity-based recording;
• A budget line for nutrition was created in 2014 within the Ministry of Agriculture budget but was never used to record any nutrition intervention;
• Salaries absorb the main part of the expenditure, and we must find a way to weight more efficiently and more realistically salaries, when tracking expenditure on nutrition-sensitive interventions.

This publication was presented to nutrition stakeholders in Sierra Leone (ministries’ representatives, parliamentarians, UN agencies, donors, civil society) during a workshop organised by ACF for the N4G media event in Rio that took place in Rio (Brazil) on 4th August.

You can consult the advocacy report with our analysis and recommendations here. For more information please contact Laetitia Battisti (advocacyexpert@sl.missions-acf.org), advocacy officer for ACF in Sierra Leone.