top of page
National donor coordination
​

This page provides guidance on the establishment and/or strengthening and functioning of national donor coordination mechanisms for nutrition. There is no expectation that SUN-specific mechanisms are established. Where donor coordination mechanisms on nutrition already exist this guidance can be used to help enhance their functioning if it is considered to be useful.

​

The guidance in this section is informed by: 

 

The guidance can be used to inform the development or revision of Terms of Reference for national donor coordination mechanisms and donor convenors, joint donor work plans and the monitoring of progress and results of joint work. A template for Terms of Reference of national mechanisms is provided here. Example TORs and workplans can be found in the internal Documents section of this platform.

​

​

​

Guiding principles

 

Members of national coordination mechanisms are encouraged to emulate the hallmarks of effective partnerships as described in the Good Nutrition Donor Partnership Principles agreed by global SDN members as well as the SUN Movement Principles of Engagement.

​

​

​

Desired results

 

The global SDN suggests the following main objectives that all mechanisms work on:

​

  • Promotion of an enabling political environment: including high level political commitment and leadership, government coordination capacity, multi-stakeholder platforms, multi-sectoral policies, plans and Common Results Frameworks (CRFs)

​​

  • Improved harmonization between donors: reduced gaps and duplication, establishment of more coherent messaging and support. ​

​

  • Support of effective actions aligned with national plans and Common Results Frameworks: including strengthening of implementation capacity.  

​​

  • Galvanization of more and better financing for nutrition: including facilitating access to regional and global funds, and scaling up of in-country financial assistance. 

​​

  • Promotion of equity, equality and non-discrimination for all, with women and girls at the center of efforts to scale up nutrition: including support of the disaggregation of data and development of nutrition plans and programmes that promote these results.

 

The global SDN strongly encourages national donor coordination mechanisms to integrate these objectives into their Terms of Reference and workplans.

​

​

​

Indicative Activities

​

Indicative activities in relation to the desired results are suggested in the table below. It would be desirable if mechanisms develop indicators and targets in order to monitor progress in implementing activities and working towards results.

Guiding principles
Desired results
Indicative Activities
Screen Shot 2019-03-19 at 15.26.46.png

National Donor Convenors

 

In each SUN country, a donor convener should convene donor agencies and facilitate their collaboration in achieving the objectives set out in the ToRs and workplans of the donor coordination mechanism on nutrition. The donor convenor is also the main point of contact with the global SDN. 

​

It is important to note that in some countries a representative from the UN holds the role of donor convenor.  In these circumstances, it is important to acknowledge that the responsibilities have common objectives, determined by the country context, no matter which network assumes the donor convenor role. Where national donor coordination mechanisms are convened by UN agencies they are encouraged to utilise this guidance as it fits, including using the SDN Functionality Checklist to guide work planning and reviews of progress.

 

Illustrative tasks of donor convenors could include: 

​

  • To broaden membership of the national donor coordination and help with introduction of new donors to the SUN focal point/government.

​​

  • To share information with other donors on national nutrition processes and events, including the work of national multi-stakeholder platforms.

​​

  • To organize and chair meetings of the national donor coordination mechanism on nutrition and to share minutes of the meetings with SUN focal point and global SDN.

​​

  • To work with other donors to develop annual work plan for the national donor coordination mechanism.

​​

  • To act as an enabler and catalyst for other donors by feeding their views into the national multi-stakeholder platform on nutrition, and communicating progress back to the donors in a timely manner.

​​

  • To participate in country-level and regional activities with country-level stakeholders to build capacity and strengthen efforts to achieve nutrition goals.

​​

  • To feedback country perspectives and progress to the global SUN Donor Network including through country updates, participation in SDN monthly calls, retreats and meetings as appropriate. 

​​

  • To link where relevant with other SUN country donor groups to share lessons.

​​

  • To seek guidance from the global SDN, the SUN Movement Secretariat and other sources as required.

​​

  • To collaborate with headquarters’ support as needed to enhance country-level effectiveness.

​​

  • To participate in country delegations in the SUN Movement Global Gathering.

 

The donor convener is not expected to be the primary interlocutor between national actors and the SUN Secretariat, this would be carried out by the appropriate country authority usually the government focal point for nutrition.

 

The donor convenor normally requires 10-20% of the time of one person. In practice the workload can be shared between two people (co-convenors or donor convenor supported by a more junior colleague). The time dedicated to the donor convenor role should be a contribution of their donor agency.

​

The donor convener should be agreed among the donors and the relevant government authorities at the country-level, with the support of the donor’s headquarters. Candidate donors are those actively engaged in the country, with a country presence and involved in financially supporting nutrition specific and/or nutrition sensitive programmes. 

 

Selection criteria for donor convenors could include: 

  • Knowledgeable of the benefits of investing in nutrition, a multi-sectoral approach and the SUN Movement.

  • Committed to the Good Nutrition Partnership Principles and wider aid effectiveness principles. 

  • Excellent facilitation, mobilization and communication skills. 

  • Adequate time available to play role effectively (10-20% of time – could be shared with others).

  • Sufficient seniority to influence government and other decision makers.

 

As well as being accountable to their own agency, donor convenors are accountable to the other members of the donor coordination mechanism and to the global SDN. The country and head offices of the donor convenor's agency are encouraged to fully integrate the role into their job description and performance review processes. Regular communications between donor convenors and their head offices and the global SDN help to ensure mutual support and accountability.

​

​

​

A checklist to guide work planning and monitoring of progress and results

 

The global SDN has developed a Functionality Checklist aligned with the SUN Movement Strategy, Roadmap and the SUN Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) system to guide:

  • the development of country specific work plans of donor networks

  • the monitoring of progress and effectiveness

  • the learning lessons to feed back into planning and implementation of joint activities.

​​

The checklist is divided into three sections and six desired results.

The three sections are:

  • Inputs

  • Coordination

  • Effectiveness.

​

A national donor network for nutrition can utilize the Checklist to guide the development of its own workplan, identifying the results it aims to achieve in relation to national nutrition processes and internal donor coordination, the activities it will implement and the inputs required.

 

The inputs section identifies the materials, participations, resources and support that a national donor network might need as a basis for effective coordination and engagement in national nutrition processes.

 

The coordination and effectiveness sections each identify illustrative actions and results that national networks may wish to implement and work towards. The effectiveness section is structured according to the four strategic objectives of the SUN Movement.

​

The tool suggests that all national donor networks may wish to work towards improved donor coordination and contribute to progress in relation to the four strategic objectives of the SUN Movement. However, the emphasis placed on these objectives will vary between networks according to the stage countries are at in scaling up nutrition.

National Donor Convenors
Work planning and monitoring
Screen Shot 2019-03-19 at 15.34.15.png

Work planning

National donor coordination mechanisms are advised to produce annual workplans describing what will be done in order to enhance progress. It is desirable that workplans show clear linkages to the SUN Movement Strategic Objectives and Theory of Change. Example TORs and workplans can be found in the internal Documents section of this platform.

​

Monitoring of progress and results

The indicative results are changes that donors may contribute to, together with other stakeholders. Monitoring should assess the distinct contributions that donors are making towards these results relative to other factors.

​

​

​

Branding 

 

The term “national donor coordination mechanisms on nutrition” is used rather than “SUN Donor Network” recognizing that many donor coordination structures in SUN countries are not branded as SUN and may consist of other development partners such as UN agencies and NGOs. There is no necessity for national donor coordination mechanisms to be branded as SUN Movement structures. What matters is that there is a space where donors from the range of nutrition relevant sectors can come together and coordinate and harmonize their actions towards common objectives in support of national multi-stakeholder priorities, processes and plans.

​

​

​

Membership and conflicts of interest

 

Donor coordination mechanisms may be open to all actors that are providing, or are interested in providing, financial assistance to support the implementation of national, multi-sectoral nutrition plans. The participation of agencies that are both donors and potential recipients of donor funding (e.g. UN agencies) can be determined on a country-by-country basis. Potential conflicts of interests need to be identified and mitigated accordingly, e.g. potential recipients of funding recusing themselves from relevant discussions.

​

​

​

Interaction with existing coordination mechanisms

 

Donor coordination on nutrition may happen within broader national development partner groups, nutrition focused forums, nutrition clusters or sectoral working groups. It is normally preferable to utilise and build on existing mechanisms wherever possible and to only establish a new mechanism in circumstances where the desired results are unlikely to be achieved through existing mechanisms. 

​

The global SDN strongly suggests that donor coordination mechanisms on nutrition adopt a multi-sectoral approach so as to both respond to malnutrition and to address the multiple underlying causes. If coordination is taking place in a sectoral working group (e.g. health, agriculture etc.), stakeholders from other relevant sectors could be invited to periodic meetings in which there is a specific focus on support to national multi-sectoral nutrition efforts. In countries experiencing humanitarian crises it is desirable to promote coordination between humanitarian and development actors working on nutrition. This may involve including members of nutrition clusters into national development structures or vice versa, depending on the context.

 

 

 

Resources

​

Mechanisms may benefit from a small pot of funds (US$1,000-5,000/year) to support the implementation of the work plan. When donor agencies agree to take on the donor convenor role they could commit to make some funds available to support the activities of the mechanism. Other members of the mechanism are also encouraged to make contributions including in-kind support by hosting events, using implementing partners already funded by them to provide a service, etc.

​

​

​

Monitoring progress and results

​

The Functionality Checklist (see above) can also be used to develop a country specific tool to guide and document in-country reviews of progress in relation to its workplan, lesson learning and revisions of workplans. 

 

Therefore, each section of the Functionality Checklist has columns for documenting good practices and areas requiring improvement as well as a space for scoring satisfaction with progress in relation to the development of inputs and achievement of results. 

 

A self-assessment of the progress and effectiveness of the national donor network could be undertaken annually, prior to the start of the SUN Joint Annual Assessments in SUN countries. The donor convenor could be responsible for facilitating the self-assessment exercises and could compile the results of the assessments done by individual network members. Findings of the exercise could feed into revisions of the network workplan for the coming year. The process for the self-assessment exercises could be as follows: 

 

  1.  Assessment of collective progress & effectiveness by individual network members

​

Each member of the national donor network completes the Checklist

Results: Network members identify the main results of the network over the previous 12 months in relation to the outcomes and outputs in the country specific network workplan, which itself should have been informed by the Theory of Change. 

Good practices and areas requiring improvement: Network members identify specific inputs, ways of working and activities that they consider to be working well and those that they think particularly require improvement.

Branding
Membership and conflicts of interest
Interactions with existig coordination mechanisms
Resources
Monitorig progress and results

  2.  Collective self-assessment and feedback into network work plan 

​​

The donor convenor could compile the feedback from members into a collective assessment of progress for the donor network as a whole and facilitate reflection and discussion on the work plan for the future that would address weaknesses and build on strengths. 

 

  3.  Verification by other stakeholders within Joint Annual Assessments 

​

The results of the Assessment of collective progress & effectiveness could be integrated into the national Joint Annual Assessment process where other stakeholders could feedback on donor coordination and contributions to national nutrition processes.  The feedback of other stakeholders would be a means of cross-checking the self-assessment by donors. As part of the wider Joint Annual Assessment the national multi-stakeholder platform could agree its own joint assessment of the functioning and effectiveness of the donor network and integrate this into the overall JAA report. Ideally, this would be led by the government focal point for nutrition. Donor convenors are encouraged to be proactive in seeking the feedback of other stakeholders during the Joint Annual Assessment process.  

 

  4.  Sharing progress and lessons learnt through the global SDN 

​

The global SDN would value receiving the outputs of the self-assessments by donor coordination mechanisms in order to facilitate cross-country learning between donors and to guide support from global level. Donor convenors are encouraged to send annual reports, ideally verified by other stakeholders during Joint Annual Assessments, to the SDN Facilitator

 

​

Mutual Accountability and Learning

 

National donor coordination mechanisms hold each other to account for their actions as individual donor agencies and in relation to their contributions to the actions defined in the joint work plan. Donor agencies and their national coordination mechanisms are also encouraged to participate actively in national multi-stakeholder platforms for nutrition and in national Joint Annual Assessments as described above where other stakeholders, in particular national government focal points for nutrition, can provide feedback on the contributions of individual agencies and their coordination mechanisms to national nutrition processes and outcomes. Head Offices of donor agencies, represented in the SDN at global level, are encouraged to support their country offices to engage in national donor coordination mechanisms, in multi-stakeholder platforms and align their actions with national priorities and plans. National level donors are encouraged to share their experiences and learning with other countries through the global SDN. 

Mutual Accountability and Learning
bottom of page