Approaches for Nutrition Costing and 
              Financial Tracking in SUN Countries 
              MQSUN+ Guidance Note 
               
              24 March 2020 
                                  
                                                                    
                                        
                                                                                                                                                     
                    About MQSUN+ 
                    MQSUN+ aims to provide the UK Department for International Development (DFID) with technical services to 
                    improve the quality of nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive programmes. The project is resourced by a 
                    consortium of five leading nonstate organisations working on nutrition. The consortium is led by PATH. 
                    The group is committed to:  
                    •    Expanding the evidence base on the causes of undernutrition. 
                    •    Enhancing skills and capacity to support scaling up of nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive 
                         programmes. 
                    •    Providing the best guidance available to support programme design, implementation, monitoring and 
                         evaluation. 
                    •    Increasing innovation in nutrition programmes. 
                    •    Knowledge sharing to ensure lessons are learnt across DFID and beyond. 
                                    +
                    MQSUN  partners 
                    Aga Khan University 
                    DAI Global Health 
                    Development Initiatives (DI) 
                    NutritionWorks 
                    PATH 
                    Contact 
                    PATH | 455 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Suite 1000 | Washington, DC 20001 | USA 
                    Tel: +1 (202) 822-0033 
                    Fax: +1 (202) 457-1466 
                    About This Publication 
                    This guidance note was produced by Andrew Mirelman (WHO), Clara Picanyol (OPM), 
                    Barb Koloshuk (independent consultant), Monica Kothari and Carrie Hemminger 
                    (PATH).  We would especially like to thank the expert technical reviewers for their time 
                    and input on this guidance note: Mary D’Alimonte (R4D), Kaia Engesveen (WHO), 
                    Patrizia Fracassi (WFP), William Knetchel (SMS), Ann Levin (independent consultant), 
                    Carol Levin (University of Washington), and Richard Watts (DI). 
                    This document was produced through support provided by UK aid and the UK Government; however, the views 
                    expressed do not necessarily reflect the UK Government’s official policies. 
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         Table of Contents 
         List of Tables ................................................................................................................................................ 4 
         List of Figures ............................................................................................................................................... 4 
         Abbreviations ................................................................................................................................................ 5 
         Executive Summary ..................................................................................................................................... 7 
         Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 8 
         Costing for Nutrition .................................................................................................................................. 10 
          Nutrition costing methodologies .......................................................................................................... 10 
          Costing tools .......................................................................................................................................... 13 
          Costing challenges and recommendations ......................................................................................... 18 
         Financial Tracking for Nutrition ................................................................................................................ 20 
          Nutrition financial-tracking methodologies and tools ......................................................................... 21 
          Nutrition financial-tracking challenges and recommendations ......................................................... 26 
          Nutrition budget-analysis methodologies and approaches ................................................................ 27 
          Budget-analysis challenges and recommendations ........................................................................... 33 
         Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................. 39 
         Annex 1: Glossary of Terms ...................................................................................................................... 40 
         Annex 2: UNICEF Conceptual Framework ................................................................................................ 43 
         References ................................................................................................................................................ 44 
          
                           
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          List of Tables 
          Table 1. Tools for planning and costing with a nutrition component. ................................................... 15 
          Table 2. Financial-tracking tools for nutrition. ........................................................................................ 24 
          Table 3. Percent of subnational financing. ............................................................................................. 27 
          Table 4. Glossary of terms. ....................................................................................................................... 40 
          List of Figures 
          Figure 1. Scaling Up Nutrition planning and implementation cycle. ......................................................... 9 
          Figure 2. Key steps in nutrition costing. .................................................................................................. 12 
          Figure 3. Estimated subnational financing in SUN countries. ............................................................... 27 
          Figure 4. SPRING's budget tool methodology. ........................................................................................ 30 
          Figure 5. Phases of a budget advocacy strategy. ................................................................................... 31 
          Figure 6. SPRING key lessons for budget-analysis exercise. ................................................................. 32 
          Figure 7. UNICEF conceptual framework. ................................................................................................ 43 
                             
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