Seqota Declaration innovation phase: Impact assessment

Abstract

The Seqota Declaration is the government of Ethiopia’s commitment to end stunting among children under two years by 2030. To attain this goal, their Excellencies at federal and regional level and in the inter-ministerial steering committee and regional cabinets have provided leadership and performance management. The government committed to allocate funding for an Innovation Phase (2016-2020), focusing on the implementation of priority intervention packages to generate learnings and evidence to inform the design and implementation of an Expansion Phase (2021-2025). During the Innovation Phase, multi-sectoral nutrition specific, nutrition sensitive and infrastructure interventions were implemented in 40 woredas in Amhara and Tigray regional states covering over 4.7 million people. In the past three years, nine government sector ministries at federal and regional level jointly with development partners have been implementing the Innovation Phase Investment Plan which comprises ten strategic objectives and 50 strategic initiatives. Moreover, six innovations were tested to draw key learning in program management, data revolution, community labs, agriculture, and water technologies, costed woreda based multi-sectoral planning and first 1000 days plus public movement for social and behavior change. Lessons and insights from this phase will allow the government to outline and develop a program to address child stunting in the country during the Expansion Phase.