How We Work

Generating new funding, building effective partnerships and driving investment in nutrition programmes that deliver at scale

how we work

Our purpose is to raise money and create partnerships to advance the fight against malnutrition in Africa and Asia. Every day, our team works towards our vision of a world where every child has good nutrition to achieve their full potential.

To achieve this, we build partnerships that enable us to co-finance national nutrition programmes in countries with the highest need.

Our unique model enables investors to maximise the impact of their funding by joining larger programmes, carefully designed to deliver scale, sustainability and systemic change.

convening new partnerships

The cycle of malnutrition cannot be broken by governments, businesses, philanthropists or civil society alone. It requires effective partnerships that work towards systemic and sustainable solutions.

The Power of Nutrition is committed to convening new and stronger partnerships that make the most of all the skills, knowledge, experience and resources that exist across private, public and non-governmental sectors.

Working with The Power of Nutrition gives partners access to pooled resources for greater impact. We bring together funders, expert implementing partners and national governments to mobilise more financing to transform global nutrition together.

WE ARE COMMITTED TO CONVENING NEW AND STRONGER PARTNERSHIPS

maximising our impact

OUR INVESTMENTS ARE CAREFULLY DESIGNED TO HELP GOVERNMENTS TO IMPROVE NATIONAL AND LOCAL SYSTEMS THAT DELIVER HIGH IMPACT NUTRITION SERVICES

investing in scale, systemic change and sustainability

The Power of Nutrition invests in countries with the highest burden of malnutrition. Our investments priortise all forms of undernutrition, and partially overweight or obesity in cases where a ‘double burden’ of malnutrition is prevalent.

We work with implementing partners including the World Bank, UNICEF, Save the Children, World Vision, Nutrition International and other NGOs with a strong track record in delivering effective programmes and with the capacity to support governments to prioritise and increase access to nutrition.

We champion a systems-wide approach to tackling malnutrition, working mainly in long-term development sectors. Our investments are carefully designed to help governments improve national and local systems and deliver high impact nutrition services.

Our multisectoral approach enables us to support the development of sustainable solutions to malnutrition.

focusing on high impact interventions

Evidence shows that improving the quality of nutrition at crucial development moments in childhood, adolescence and for women represent the best way to reduce and prevent malnutrition and its lifelong implications.

The Power of Nutrition aims to scale up evidence-based interventions targeting young children – particularly in the crucial first 1,000 days of life – as well as infants, adolescents, and women of reproductive age, especially through pregnancy and motherhood. . These interventions were highlighted in the Lancet Series on Maternal and Child Nutrition as being proven to have the greatest impact reducing malnutrition.

Our programmes adopt a combination of these interventions, depending on needs, to improve nutrition outcomes and reduce levels of stunting, wasting, anaemia, micronutrient deficiencies, and overweight.

due diligence, MOniTorING and EVALUATION

The Power of Nutrition is rigorous in our due diligence procedures. Due diligence is carried out at three stages in the investment process to ensure that we are working with the best possible partners, who share our vision and values, and only investing in programmes that are likely to deliver sustainable improvements to nutrition at scale. Read more about our process below.

We are also committed to continual monitoring, evaluation and learning from our programmes to ensure that our investments are having the greatest possible impact.

Independent evaluators Mathematica Policy Research and Avenir Health are running an evaluation through to 2023 to gather lessons from our experience and assess our contribution. This is providing real-time feedback on the effectiveness of our model and ways of working.

Read the midline assessment.

OUR APPROACH TO DUE DILIGENCE

Due diligence is carried out at three stages in the investment process.

1. ASSESSMENT OF NEW FUNDERS

We want to build strong and enduring partnerships with funders who share our goals and values and who recognise the transformational effect that investing in nutrition can have on people’s lives and on the health of whole economies. Before accepting funding from new donors, we conduct a full due diligence process:

  • Shared values. We ensure that the funders we work with share our values and are committed to working to reduce undernutrition on a long term sustainable basis;
  • Ethical businesses. We will only develop partnerships with organisations whose broader business aims and practices are consistent with our key aims and objectives, and who work in the best interests of the people and communities we seek to support;
  • Financial checks. We collect information from prospective donors and from third parties to allow us to carry out checks for financial risk, fraud risk, and anti-money laundering purposes.

2. ASSESSMENT OF IMPLEMENTING PARTNERS

We seek to co-invest in programmes with the most appropriate implementing partners in each context. All our implementing partners must meet the following criteria:

  • Capacity and experience to deliver successful large-scale nutrition programmes;
  • Direct experience of supporting national governments take to scale evidence-based interventions in a sustainable way;
  • Nutrition expertise to support the design and delivery of nutrition programmes that yield positive results and improve the nutrition of children and women of reproductive age;
  • A history of successfully working with national  partners in government, business and civil society  to deliver  systemic change in the nutrition sector;
  • Commitment to robust monitoring and evaluation of programmes;
  • Commitment to learning and recognise the importance of operational research, flexibility and course-correction throughout a programme life-cycle;
  • Prioritise cost-efficiency and  are committed to delivering maximum value for money and ensuring the best possible return on investment.

3. ASSESSMENT OF INVESTMENTS

Our due diligence on new investments is focused on ensuring they are aligned to the following criteria:

  • Political and Financial Commitment – we only invest in countries where the national government has demonstrated a strong commitment to addressing malnutrition thought its policies and is willing to invest resources into scaling up high-impact nutrition interventions and the systems required to deliver them;
  • High-impact nutrition interventions – our Investments focus on supporting the delivery of high impact nutrition interventions outlined in the Lancet Nutrition Series.  Interventions prioritised must be underpinned by local need and evidence and embedded in an appropriate nutrition system to ensure long term sustainability.;
  • Capacity building – to ensure long term sustainability, all investments should have a capacity building component to support the development of national government systems as appropriate;
  • Demonstrated value add and a clear theory of change. Programmes supported by The Power of Nutrition must have a clear theory of change and demonstrate that the programme is augmenting and not duplicating existing interventions;
  • Cost-effective budgeting – all programmes must have a clear and cost-effective budget for both The Power of Nutrition investment and the implementing partner match.;
  • Results framework. All programmes must include a robust results framework with best practice KPIs and a strong monitoring and evaluation system for tracking progress and learning.