Better nutrition is a necessary component of a country’s capacity to achieve development goals such as economic growth and improved public health.

USAID’s Multi-Sectoral Nutrition Strategy (MSNS) provides a roadmap to elevate and integrate nutrition as a priority for all of the agency’s work to support countries to achieve these goals.

While having the Strategy in place has elevated the profile of maternal and child nutrition at USAID and brought high-level action on nutrition, USAID must build on and strengthen its multisector nutrition efforts to accelerate progress on nutrition.

USAID should:

• Ensure sufficient, equitable, and well-targeted funding for global nutrition
• Set and monitor SMART targets for nutrition across the agency
• Provide analysis and guidance on programmatic strategies to maximize nutrition outcomes
• Establish permanent positions for nutrition focal points at headquarters and in missions

This briefing paper is intended to complement USAID’s assessment of the MSNS. It highlights both successes and challenges identified in our interviews and field research, and it offers recommendations for sustaining and strengthening the impact of the Strategy on progress toward the 2025 global nutrition targets and the 2030 goal to end malnutrition in all its forms. Download a summary of the paper.

"Optimal nutrition is fundamental to achieving USAID's wider mission."