[{"bbox": [96, 121, 1134, 307], "category": "Text", "text": "A much stronger sense of national ownership with MSNP-III is evident as compared to previous plans and there is greater clarity regarding the identity of MSNP as a national policy commitment with implications across different sectors, rather than a discrete donor driven programme. Growing national ownership of the MSNP-III is also reflected by the reported increase in the share of domestic financing. This readiness to finance has been further demonstrated following the end of the previous EU Budget Support programme, whereby government budget was nevertheless allocated for example to ensure continuity of payment for MSNP Volunteers at the level of local government."}, {"bbox": [96, 319, 1134, 585], "category": "Text", "text": "The estimated cost of implementing MSNP-III 2023 – 2030 is NPR 189,454 million (approximately EUR 1.35 billion) implying an average annual budget of EUR 169 million. It is a 100% increase of the yearly average compared to the MSNP II. This increase will be progressive (EUR 145 million for the first year to EUR 197 million in the last year) This funding effort would be required to implement prioritised interventions by six ministries in the key sectors of health (35% of total cost), agriculture (20%), education (14%), WASH (7%) together with gender and social protection (14%) and governance (10%). Activities are nutrition specific (13%), nutrition sensitive (77%) or related to governance (10%). Allocations towards the MSNP-III will be distributed to local governments based on predetermined criteria³¹ with the National Planning Commission responsible for evaluating the effectiveness of implementation, together with issuing guidance and directives for changes where required. 60% of the cost are expected to take place at local level, 10% at provincial level and 30% at federal level."}, {"bbox": [96, 597, 1134, 833], "category": "Text", "text": "The MSNP III is expected to be financed at 70% by the government budget, as stated in the financial management chapter of MSNP-III. This represents about 0.4% of GDP, and 5 to 6 euro per capita per year, both considered to be affordable by the government. MSNP 3 being a multi-sector plan, this includes resources allocated to 6 different ministries (Ministries of Health, of Education, of Water, of Women, senior Citizens and Children, of Agriculture and of Federal Affairs and General Administration). Increased efforts to track multi-sector resources devoted to nutrition sensitive are planned. In addition to federal government's allocations, Local governments' financial contribution to MSNP-III is expected to steadily increase (by 5% in the first years to 10% in the last). Local governments can use the grants received from the federal government, such as equalization grants, or their own revenue."}, {"bbox": [96, 847, 1134, 1008], "category": "Text", "text": "In addition to increasing tracking of government spending on nutrition for an effective costing and budgeting of the policy, a programming and financial planning framework has been included in the MSNP-III document, in coordination with the Ministry of Finance to clarify budget implications and to strengthen mechanisms for tracking off-budget grants received from development partners³². In common with other countries' experience with national multi-sectoral nutrition plans, a key challenge has been effectively embedding such an approach to nutrition across multiple sectors³³ in public financial planning and management systems³⁴."}, {"bbox": [96, 1019, 1134, 1232], "category": "Text", "text": "In terms of institutional capacities, the government-led 2021-2022 mid-term review of the MSNP-II indicated that complexity of coordination (both horizontally across sectors and vertically between different levels of government), fragmentation of programmes, high staff turnover and gaps relating to both human resources and core capacities needed to be addressed. An immediate strategic priority is the clarification of roles and responsibilities together with strengthening of corresponding capacities at provincial level³⁵. A comprehensive capacity gap assessment initiative has recently been undertaken³⁶ and is expected to provide an important framework for the identification of priorities within a Capacity Development Plan including capacities related to the decentralisation of knowledge management for nutrition³⁷."}, {"bbox": [85, 1323, 1143, 1396], "category": "Footnote", "text": "³¹ The MSNP-III document indicates that criteria being considered to determine allocations to local governments includes the burden of malnutrition, food security status, remoteness, population density, HDI and availability of local resources, while performance-based budgeting will also be adopted."}, {"bbox": [85, 1396, 1143, 1444], "category": "Footnote", "text": "³² The Government has stated that all funding for MSNP-III implementation (including government, foreign grants and private sector contributions) will be entered into the national Budget and Financial Management Information Systems."}, {"bbox": [85, 1444, 1143, 1492], "category": "Footnote", "text": "³³ As reported in the Nutrition Budget Brief (UNICEF, 2021) an immediate priority is ‘developing a robust set of codes that is synchronised within different levels of government and across different accounting platforms’."}, {"bbox": [85, 1492, 1143, 1540], "category": "Footnote", "text": "³⁴ However, here there may be valuable opportunities to explore lessons learned in the context of methods and tools applied in the context of gender responsive budgeting, both in and beyond the context of Nepal."}, {"bbox": [85, 1540, 702, 1564], "category": "Footnote", "text": "³⁵ World Bank (2022) Report on organising multisectoral nutrition actions"}, {"bbox": [85, 1564, 925, 1588], "category": "Footnote", "text": "³⁶ This initiative is implemented by UNICEF as part of the EU funded technical support to MSNP-II."}, {"bbox": [85, 1588, 1143, 1662], "category": "Footnote", "text": "³⁷ The National Nutrition and Food Security Portal launched in 2015 and maintained by the NPC is a one stop, open-source repository for policy, program and results of nutrition and food security initiatives undertaken in Nepal. Currently, it is in the process of being upgraded to function as a dynamic knowledge management portal for all stakeholders."}, {"bbox": [1038, 1682, 1143, 1706], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 8 of 27"}]