NSA CASE Project-Enhancing Leadership, Ownership, and Accountability in Implementing System-Based NSA Projects

Undernutrition remains a challenge in Ethiopia and a strategic barrier to ending poverty. Despite years of food and nutrition security interventions, the rate of undernutrition appeared to worsen. A report from the recent Ethiopian National Food and Nutrition Strategy baseline survey (2023) reported a 2% increase in the rate of stunting from 37% to 39% with an average increment as high as 6% in some regions.
The Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) developed a Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture Strategy (NSAS) in 2016 and has been operationalizing the implementation of the strategy at the national and sub-national levels. The Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture- Capacity Strengthening in Ethiopia (NSA- CASE) project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) (2018-2025) was designed to support the ministry to operationalize the NSA strategy.
The MOA has been spearheading efforts to institutionalize and operationalize the NSAS, along with implementing nutrition-sensitive interventions aimed at bolstering the country’s food and nutrition security and improving the population’s nutritional status. However, the ministry has encountered challenges due to a lack of both technical expertise and financial resources, hindering its ability to effectively lead the food and nutrition agenda and implement the NSAS from the national to local (kebele) levels. This has resulted in limited governance, ownership, and accountability among policymakers, the FNCO, and other relevant directorates.
Several factors contributed to the limited engagement, ownership, and accountability of the Ministry. One of the primary reasons was the traditional funding mechanism, in which partners held most of the funding and took the lead in planning and executing NSA activities.
To address this challenge, NSA CASE created a grant-under-grant (GUG) mechanism as the primary funding mechanism of the NSA-CASE project. This innovative approach aimed to rectify the prevailing issue and build implementation and project management.