Nutrition governance at the sub-national level in Tanzania: a case of Morogoro municipality and district councils.

Abstract

Introduction: Nutrition governance has been proven to be a relevant approach to improving nutrition services in developing countries. Tanzania has adopted it since 2011, but limited studies have been done. This study examines nutrition governance through government commitment to nutrition budget and nutrition coordination.

Methods: The study was cross-sectional, and conducted in two councils of Morogoro district. It involved the review of documents and interviews with 140 respondents, and a semi-structured questionnaire and checklist tools were used. Content analysis and the Excel database were used for the analysis.

Results: From this study, it was revealed that nutrition budget planning and spending based on own sources are not matched and spending has been low in rural councils. For the nutrition coordination, at the council level, the meetings were held as required but still faced the problem of attendance of core members and follow-up of the standard agendas. At the sub-council level inclusion of nutrition as a standing agenda in the ward and village/street development committee meetings quarterly has been less than 50%.

Conclusion: Therefore, nutrition budget provisions such as subsidies, especially to the rural council, committee member sensitization, capacity building, and investment in the ward/village/street development committees could accelerate nutrition governance thus improving nutrition intervention.