Scaling Up Nutrition in the Democratic Republic of Congo : What Will It Cost?
This paper builds on global experience and the DRC’s specific context to identify an effective nutrition approach along with costs and benefits of key nutrition interventions. It is intended to help guide the selection of the most cost-effective in...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2017
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/510801506583879408/Scaling-up-the-nutrition-in-the-Democratic-Republic-of-Congo-what-will-it-cost http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28529 |
| Summary: | This paper builds on global experience
and the DRC’s specific context to identify an effective
nutrition approach along with costs and benefits of key
nutrition interventions. It is intended to help guide the
selection of the most cost-effective interventions as well
as strategies for scaling these up. The paper considers both
relevant ‘nutrition-specific’ interventions, largely
delivered through the health sector, and multisectoral
‘nutrition-sensitive’ interventions, delivered through other
sectors such as agriculture, education, and water and
sanitation. The authors estimate that the costs and benefits
of implementing 10 nutrition-specific interventions in all
provinces of the DRC would require a yearly public
investment of $371 million. The expected benefits are
enormous: annually over 5.4 million DALYs and over 76,000
lives would be saved, while at least 1 million cases of
stunting among children under five would be averted.
Economic productivity could potentially increase by $591
million annually over the productive lives of the
beneficiaries, with an impressive internal rate of return of
13.6 percent. However, because it is unlikely that the
Government of the DRC or its partners will find the $371
million necessary to reach full coverage, authors also
consider scale-up scenarios based on considerations of their
potential for impact, burden of stunting, resource
requirements, and implementation capacity. The most
cost-effective scenario considered would provide a subset of
key interventions in provinces with the highest rates of
stunting and will cost between $97 and $185 million
depending on how many provinces are covered. The authors
then identify and cost six nutrition-sensitive interventions
relevant to the DRC and for which there are both evidence of
positive impact on nutrition outcomes and some cost
information. These findings point to a powerful set of
nutrition-specific interventions and a candidate list of
nutrition-sensitive approaches that represent a highly
cost-effective approach to reducing child malnutrition in
the DRC. |
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