PACFaH

Post author:CS-SUNN
Post published:August 9, 2023
Post category:CS-SUNN Blog / Success Story

The Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health (PACFaH) Project is a social accountability investment implemented through the strategy of coalition building to achieve the goal of catalyzing government’s responsiveness on policies, budgets and administration on the most daunting challenges to Child and Family Health (CFH) at national and state levels in Nigeria. The project is implemented by a coalition of eight indigenous Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) working in Child and Family Health.

CS-SUNN under the PACFaH project is the nutrition issue lead with the mandate to advocate for the adoption and increased implementation of the National Strategic Plan of Action for Nutrition (NSPAN) with a focus on Maternal and Child Nutrition (in Kaduna, Niger and Nasarawa state) and for increase in the 2017 health sector budget (in Niger and Kaduna state). The NSPAN was approved by the National Council on Health in 2014, and targets to reduce stunting by 20%, low birth weight among newborns by 15 percent and increase exclusive breastfeeding rate to 5o percent among other targets.

CS-SUNN under the PACFaH project advocated for the Federal and State governments to:

Increase 2017 health sector budget allocation and ensure timely releases at National and 3 states (Kaduna, Niger and Nasarawa)
Increase implementation of the National Strategic Plan of Action at National and 3 states

The MPTF grant provided the crucial support to the coalition to mobilize Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to take actions that will eﬀectively tackle under-nutrition in Nigeria, in alignment with the Nigeria’s National Strategic Plan of Action for Nutrition (NSPAN, 2014 – 2019).

Through the following approaches:

Increased capacity of key stakeholder groups to advocate for and to track and monitor nutrition funding: CS-SUNN conducted trainings
- Increased awareness of the Plan and commitment to adopt
- Increased political support by key national and state policymakers and program managers for the adoption and implementation of the NSPAN
• Evidence based advocacy engagement with policy makers, legislator’s and key influencers for increased budgetary allocation to the nutrition and health sector at the national and focal states in 2017.
To support existing policy, legal and budgetary frameworks to be more accountable to meet the national needs of Nigerians ·
To enhance experience sharing and learning between and within organizations.

Technical Achievements

Table 1: Summative comparison of expected versus actual outcomes and outputs achieved

Outcomes	Fully Achieved
Increased implementation of the National Strategic Plan of Action for Nutrition at National and 3 states	Adoption and Implementation of the policy in the 3 states (Niger, Nasarawa and Kaduna), budget lines for nutrition with funds allocated in 2017 in the 3 states (Niger, Nasarawa and Kaduna),
Increased 2017 health sector budget allocation and ensure timely releases in Nigeria at National and 7 States	% Health to State allocation in 2017 increased to 11.40% from 7.37% in 2014, capital releases increased to 57% from 29%
Outputs	Fully Achieved
Increased awareness, support and implementation of the policy.Policy document adopted in the state with work plans produced;Increased inter-sectoral coordination among Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs),Nutrition budget lines created in the state in 2015, budget lines were funded in 2017	Domesticated State Specific Strategic Plan of Action for Nutrition and budget document

3.0. Capacity building achievements

This section will examine the key capacity building indicators achievements expected for the NGO in the area of:

M&E; b) Financial management; c) research and data analysis; d) professionalizing the NGO; e) fund-raising and proposal writing; f) human resource management; g) project management

S/N	Indicators	Federal	Kaduna	Nasarawa	Niger	Total	Notes
1	Number of TOT workshops held for nutrition CSOs on advocacy.	1	0	0	0	1	2 Participants from state coalitions where part of the TOT that was conducted at the Federal level
2	Number of trainings held based on needs assessment findings;	2	2	2	2	8	Four trainings held in period one, 2 in period 2 and 2 in period 3
3	Total Number of Participants at the Advocacy Trainings	77	93	88	86	344
4	Total Number of Budget Tracking Trainings held	2	2	2	2	8
5	Total Number of Participants at the Budget Tracking Trainings	37	39	40	37	153
6	Number of CSOs Trained	26	26	22	27	101
7	Number of FBOs Trained	0	22	12	17	51

Lessons learned

Building the capacity of Identified nutrition stakeholders on nutrition advocacy, coalition building and partnerships were fundamental to the success of the project.
Identification, improving the understanding of issues in CFH and providing adequate support to In-Government Champions were also critical to the success of the project.
Supporting inter-sectoral collaborations and partnerships contributed to increased investment in nutrition and promoted the kind of synergy required for improved multi-sectoral approach to nutrition programme design and implementation.
Achieving increase in budget allocation to the health sector in 2017 was made possible by the one strong voice raised by all the PACFaH partners working together.
CS-SUNN measured the success of its advocacy in terms of level of scoring the states on the implementation of the Policy, availability of budget lines and funding and increased awareness and interests of Policymakers and CSOs in nutrition.
Despite the successes of the PACFaH project, there is need to strengthen existing coalitions and provide continuous support to state actors to ensure sustainability of the gains from the PACFaH project.

Sustainability Plans

CS-SUNN will support those trained on the PACFaH project especially; the State CSO Coalitions to continue advocacy for increased funding for nutrition and track and monitor budgets. Best practices will be made available and will enable these nutrition actors to continue the PACFaH initiative.

The Coalition will build on the successes of the PACFaH Project by incorporating key components that will sustain gains from the project in future programming.