Supporting Multisectoral Action:Capacity and Nutrition Leadership Challenges

Facing Africa

ATOR 2015; ReSAKSS Conference 201620 October 2016

Namukolo Covic (PhD), IFPRI, Addis Ababan.covic@cigar.org

Acknowledging co-authors of the work being presented

Introduction: why capacity and leadership • 57 Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) movement countries

worldwide, 37 are African countries, demonstrating the commitment of these countries to improving nutrition.

• Despite much positive political will many struggling to move effectively from policy development to implementation;

• In some cases, policy development and adoption take much longer than is warranted.

• Attention to capacity and leadership found to be critical to progress

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Introduction: What Multisectoral Action Means

Addressing nutrition comprehensively requires efforts from different sectors: • Health, agriculture (including postharvest aspects and food

value chains), water and sanitation, social protection, etc. Work together towards a common goal

• Includes all sectors and stakeholders who in one way or another influence consumption patterns, nutrition quality, safety of what is consumed, and related environmental and economic factors that affect nutrition and health outcomes.

• Public & private sectors, NGOs, Civil Society, Consumers• Regional and global actors

Capacity and leadership needs for the dynamic environment of nutrition action

1. Multi-Sectoral Nutrition (MSN) Systems• Vertical and horizontal coordination needs

2. Technical and Managerial Capacity, and Competencies to Support Nutrition Action and to Inform Policies and Programs

• Program staff, researchers & evaluators; frontline staff

3. Transformational leadership skills• Leading change: common vision, commitment to

common goals, relationship management, managing resistance to change

Multisectoral Nutrition Systems:The Africa Nutrition Security Partnership (ANSP), 2011–2015 • Focus countries: Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Mali, and Uganda. • Experiences on setting up of MSN systems in each of the

countries in support of SUN implementation.

The key finding:• There is need for a competent, multifunctional nutrition

workforce to carry out the work within the organized scaffolding of an MSN system.

• It was possible to make/accelerate progress with attention to the various aspects needed.

Multisectoral Nutrition System

Pelletier et al. (2015)

Multisectoral nutrition systems:suggestions for the way forward

• Strengthen human resource capacities in the technical coordination body for strategic oversight & coordination.

• Create a full-time implementation team to support the national coordination and capacity-building mandate; cascading; and ongoing support to subnational levels.

• Engage with high-level decision makers in government and partner organizations to address critical bottlenecks through candid reporting from the technical anchorage, the use of real-time progress markers, and the establishment of clear lines of accountability.

• All this requires adequate numbers; and a well capacitated nutrition and support workforce.

Capacity needs for an adequate nutrition workforce

The categories of the nutrition workforce identified and related capacity needs:• Programmed staff: (programme managers and those reporting to

them). Policy planning, programme development and implementation.

• Frontline staff: Need for quality interactions related to intervention implementation with individuals, households and communities.

• Researchers and evaluators: ability to generate data and evidence, M&E; evidence framing to inform policies and programme decisions, identifying demand.

• Technical, managerial and leadership capabilities were identified to be limiting for all three groups.

Addressing technical and managerial capacities• Limited training facilities and quality of training programmes

• Short term: short courses/workshops to address gaps for existing workforce.

• For the long term: curriculum review and development to adapt to needs taking into account identified weakness; establishment of training programmes.

• Alignment: with country needs.• Academic/training institutions need to keep up with

developments to ensure that training programs are responsive to the dynamic needs of nutrition over time.

• Incorporate managerial and leadership components for all three categories of the workforce.

Leadership was identified as a cross cutting capability

requiring special attention

But there is need to distinguish between

leadership and management, commonly misunderstood to

be the same

Change is a process that is led, not managed

MANAGEMENT• Well-known processes of

planning, budgeting, structuring jobs, staffing, measuring performance, problem-solving .

• Helps an organization to predictably carry out its work.

• Helps produce institutional products and deliver services as promised, with consistent quality, on budget, with required regularity.

LEADERSHIP• Associated with taking an

organization into the future, finding opportunities and successfully exploiting them.

• About vision, people buying in, empowerment.

• Most of all about producing useful change.

• Cross cutting skills independent of hierarchy.

Some elements of transformational leadership that can be developed are

important• Individuals orientation and abilities: strong sense of purpose that goes

beyond self-interest.• Strong moral and ethical values, demonstrating commitment and

trustworthiness. • Self-confidence and courage to confront tough issues; ability to network

and build teams, empower and mentor others. • The ability to create motivating climates; ability to and willingness to

learn, energy to maintain momentum even under difficult circumstances.

• Being in-tune with reality, ability to deal with ambiguity • A high degree of emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and excellent

communication skills critical to manage relationships especially when faced with strong divergence of opinions.

• The ability to manage resistance to change.

It is possible to develop leadership capabilitiesA number of leadership development programmes are currently in place but more effort is needed given the cross cutting nature of the required skills:1. The African Nutrition Leadership Programme (ANLP); Regional

10-day leadership immersion program, NWU, South Africa; National level versions (Kenya, Zambia, Rwanda).

2. Le Programme de Leadership Africain en Nutrition (PLAN), (Morocco).

3. Transform Nutrition (IFPRI &IDS-UK); has a low- and middle-income country focus but main focus is on technical skills with minor leadership development element

4. The Scaling Up Nutrition Leadership in Africa (SUNLEAD) project; train a group of leadership trainers to enable scaling up of nutrition leadership development in Africa.

Concluding remarksTo sustain the progress that has so far been made and accelerate progress on nutrition:• Effective MSN systems are needed for both vertical and horizontal

coordination of nutrition action. These need adequate attention on capacity.

• MSN systems need a well capacitated nutrition workforce to carry out the needed functions involving planning, implementation, M&E of policies and programmes, evidence informed decision making processes.

• We need adequately designed curricula and training programmes for the short and long term. They must be responsive to needs.

• Leadership capacity is critical for all to navigate the highly dynamic nutrition landscape to manage the change process.

Supporting Multisectoral Action:Capacity and Nutrition Leadership

Challenges Facing Africa

ATOR 2015Johann Jerling, David Pelletier, Jessica Fanzo, and Namukolo Covic

n.covic@cigar.org