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Policy and Plan Overview
The Policy and Plan Overview (PPO) takes stock of the policies, strategies and plans that are related to nutrition in order to identify opportunities for better reflecting nutrition in them. Further analysis is conducted on the national nutrition policy, strategy and/or plan to ascertain whether they embody the multi-sectoral approach to nutrition and address cross-cutting issues such as nutrition governance. The PPO also serves as a key sensitization exercise and may even encompass subnational development plans, where feasible. Typically, the exercise is facilitated by in-country facilitators in concert with government actors and UN Member Agencies.
The PPO has been completed in 15 countries and counting. To learn more, consult the Country Examples section below.
Using the PPO tool
Countries use the Policy and Plan Overview in various ways, such as:
To mainstream nutrition in related sector and multi-sectoral policies, strategies and plans so that they become ‘nutrition-smart’ and leverage the power of nutrition to support sustainable development.
To sensitize policymakers and technical government staff on how their sector-specific work is related to nutrition, including how it can support positive nutrition outcomes. It also can be leveraged to increase their awareness of the benefits of good nutrition on health, agricultural productivity, a child’s ability to concentrate at school, an individual’s earning potential, GDP, etc.
To change stakeholder behaviour by fostering multi-sectoral dialogue and policy coherence so that related policies (e.g. agriculture, health, social protection, trade, environmental, sanitation, gender, education) enable the achievement of nutrition gains.
As a safeguard measure to ensure that national nutrition policies, strategies and plans are truly multi-sectoral, and that roles and responsibilities are clearly identified.
To inform budgetary allocations for nutrition, including within other relevant technical sectors.
To help align national and subnational level workstreams.
As entry points for planning discussions with local development authorities.
To enhance nutrition information systems by encouraging the inclusion of nutrition indicators in related policies/strategies/ plans thereby increasing data availability.
As background information for country missions, conducted by UN colleagues and other development partners.
Country examples
Disclaimer: Since some of the above materials were developed prior to the establishment of UN-Nutrition, they reflect previous branding. The Policy and Plan Overview tool is now supported by the UN-Nutrition Secretariat and is available upon request. For further information, please contact info@unnutrition.org.