National nutrition planning: lessons of experience

National nutrition planning has failed to fulfill its initial promise because of inadequate consideration of political and administrative obstacles to applying the methodology. The political and operational contexts within which multisectoral nutrition planning has occurred are reviewed in order to draw insights and lessons from the experience of the last 10 years. Considered are the political process, macro and micro planning, the multisectoral approach, integration with agricultural and health planning, nutrition interventions, community participation, cost benefit analyses, and information systems evaluation, management and organization. Emphasis on the multisectoral causation of malnutrition has contributed substantially to nutrition programming and remains indispensable for improving nutrition, but requires more thoughtful response to practical implementation problems. Integrating nutrition concerns more effectively into health and agriculture systems offers a more promising approach than efforts to attack malnutrition by encouraging multisectoral nutrition coordinating agencies and national plans.