Protecting the Ethos of Accountability in a Changing Environment

On Tuesday, 25 March, the eve of the Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Paris 2025 summit, the Global Nutrition Report (GNR) offered an official side event on "Protecting the Ethos of Accountability in a Changing Environment." At the Civil Society Pavilion, the GNR joined Save the Children, Scaling Up Nutrition Ethiopia, and the World Bank to reflect on the evolving challenges and critical importance of accountability mechanisms amidst shifting dynamics in global development. The objectives of the session were to (1) highlight the importance of nutrition accountability, (2) facilitate a multistakeholder dialogue on approaches to accountability and (3) advocate for sustained investment in accountability mechanisms.

The session, which kicked off an afternoon focused on accountability, started with stage setting by Carrie Hubbell Melgarejo, Programme Director of the GNR, followed by Dr Giacomo Zanello, Co-chair of the GNR’s Independent Expert Group (IEG), who provided a historical overview of the GNR and its role as the key accountability mechanism for the N4G summit since its inception in 2014. Dr Zanello also outlined the evolution of the monitoring and tracking systems developed and implemented by the GNR with a particular focus on the Nutrition Accountability Framework (NAF), the independent and comprehensive platform for registering SMART nutrition commitments and monitoring nutrition action that launched at the N4G Tokyo summit in 2021.

The opening was followed by a panel discussion moderated by Dr Shibani Ghosh, Co-chair of the GNR’s IEG, who focused on understanding varying perspectives on the role of accountability in a rapidly changing global landscape. As the discussion aimed to bring together diverse perspectives, invited panellists represented civil society, country government and donor agencies. They reinforced the need for continued investment in frameworks such as the NAF, given their impact on policy and resource allocation and thereby progress towards the global nutrition targets.

A lively discussion ensued, highlighting the importance of being solution-oriented and the need to galvanise support for accountability (Hannah Stephenson), for national and sub-national governments to demonstrate financial and operational accountability (Dr Sisay Sinamo) and the need for mutual accountability to support decision-making, prioritisation and action by governments (Abigail Perry).

Stephenson highlighted the need for renewed and continued support for civil society organisations, which are on the front line of accountability in their unwavering support of commitment makers in making, implementing and tracking the progress of commitments. Dr Sinamo emphasised that in addition to global support, national investment was a cornerstone to accelerate the attainment of country nutrition targets. He also noted the importance of well-articulated and communicated, tangible investment plans to unlock investment for local government through country led processes while mobilizing the development partners to fill the gaps. Perry noted that accountability and action are two halves of the same coin, and it is imperative to engage in quality conversations with governments in the lead, about how resources can be prioritised and who needs to be prioritised.

All three panellists highlighted the importance of global tracking mechanisms and the need for resource allocation for mechanisms like the NAF in supporting actions at country level and in their respective sectors. Stephenson emphasised the importance of the NAF to support actions on the front line at regional and national level. Dr Sinamo highlighted the role of the NAF in supporting Ethiopia in tracking their progress against the national target and sharing their progress and aligning their commitments with regional (African Union) and global (World Health Assembly targets) commitments. Perry noted the importance of linking accountability to action through the NAF. She emphasized that meaningful discussion to support well-articulated plans with clear targets that in turn, allow for appropriate resource allocation is the key for connecting action and accountability and indeed this is reflected in the evolution of the GNR and NAF.

Overall, the session highlighted how nutrition accountability and global tracking mechanisms like the NAF has evolved and have immense potential to be utilised for effective programmatic and policy action. However, there is a need to transcend traditional silos and engage a broader set of stakeholders beyond the nutrition community, in particular non-nutrition and non-health stakeholders that are often responsible for resource decisions and prioritisation.

Watch the full event online, starting at 6 hours, 45 minutes.