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Towards a data users’ framework to advance Sustainable Development Goal 2

As a result of these analyses, four challenges were identified. First, a key difficulty in conducting
a budget analysis that seeks to account for nutrition-related expenditures is how to identify and as-
sess personnel costs such as salaries, benefits, and overheads. Second, there is often misalignment or
variance between plans and budgets which inhibits the development of a comprehensive framework
for financial tracking. Third, the fact that addressing malnutrition requires multi-sectoral and mul-
ti-stakeholder actions (SUN, 2015b) effectively blurs the boundaries of what and what not to include
for nutrition relevant budget-line items. Fourth, and following from the third challenge, it is crucial
for financial tracking to identify the levels of government in order to be clear on who is responsible
for public spending. Allocation and spending data at lower government levels are normally not in-
cluded in the national budget. If transfers from the national government are in the form of block
grants or similar, the budget data will not provide details on sector or program spending. This is es-
pecially troubling given that many countries are undergoing a process of devolution where service
delivery is being transferred to regional and/or local governments.
Similar analyses were undertaken by Save the Children. The challenges encountered throughout
the process included access to data and data alignment. Access to digital data can be particularly dif-
ficult and hence manual data entry is often required, which tends to be a resource intensive exercise.
Organisation of the data across countries is also a challenge in terms of alignment and comparability.
For example, Niger’s budget proposal (Plan d’Action Annuel) is structured differently to Zam-
bia’s budget.
2.4 Tracking ODA to Nutrition Using OECD DAC Data

The principal and most comprehensive source of nutrition official development assistance (ODA)
data is the Development Assistance Committee’s Creditor Reporting System (DAC CRS). This re-
porting is compulsory for DAC members. Donors report each project under the purpose code
that best represents the main objective or sector of their initiative. This approach avoids
double-counting, but limits the ability to further breakdown projects with multiple objectives. Only a
sub-set of development assistance is reported to the CRS as only DAC members have obligation to
report. Countries that report voluntarily do not necessarily provide enough details. Other countries
do not report to the DAC CRS at all. In addition, ODA is an essential resource available to develop-
ing countries, but the development finance landscape has become more complex and varied, includ-
ing other resources, national and international, public and private. How these resources contribute to
improved nutrition and how ODA works in complementarity with them is difficult to ascertain as
data on this wider landscape are scant or difficult to access.
More detailed analysis based on project descriptions in the CRS and on project documents can
provide a clear picture on nutrition ODA. Development Initiatives (DI) used this approach to track
nutrition spending using the SUN Donors Network methodology and to assess the reach, coordina-
tion and coherence of DFID`s nutrition portfolio. The study found that, while some assessment was
possible, future exercises would benefit by better data quality and coverage in the CRS and in
project documents. The report presented some sub-national data on the location of DFID’s activities
using data published by the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) registry (IATI, 2015).
IATI data provided insights on projects location, proximity, and reach. But coverage was limited to a
sub-set of projects and quality of information reported to the IATI standard was quite varied.
Similar challenges have been identified in the work carried out by Thousand Days. The main is-
sues are pertaining to lack of easy access and standardisation. For example, when analysing DAC
data for nutrition commitments and disbursements (code 12240), users found that the webpage was
not user friendly, difficult to find and locating information on nutrition investments was challenging.
Lack of standardisation is related to how such DAC data are produced. Reporting periods are not
always the same for all donors, so what is reported might not be the actual amount disbursed. The
United States Agency for International Development (USAID), for example, has very different re-

70 International Journal of Population Studies | 2016, Volume 2, Issue 1