Image by Anna Dubuis/DFID
  • Report
  • 15 June 2017

DFID's aid spending for nutrition: 2015

This report independently analyses DFID’s official development assistance (ODA) spending on nutrition-related projects in the year 2015.

As part of continuing efforts to track and better understand donor financing for nutrition, DI has analysed the latest nutrition aid spending by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID).

This analysis was conducted by Development Initiatives as part of the Maximising the Quality of Scaling up Nutrition Plus (MQSUN + ) programme.

Building on previous reviews , this report independently analyses DFID’s official development assistance (ODA) spending on nutrition-related projects in the year 2015. We used the approach developed by the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Donor Network to identify and quantify DFID’s nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions. The review is based on data submitted to the OECD DAC CRS and DFID project documents.

The report reveals that DFID disbursed a record US$1.0 billion of nutrition-related official development assistance (ODA or aid) to developing countries in 2015.

Key findings

  • Spending increased significantly from 2014 volumes, by US$206 million; nutrition-sensitive spending rose by US$196 million, and nutrition-specific spending rose by US$11 million.
  • The number of DFID-supported nutrition projects continues to rise, and reached a total of 142 nutrition projects in 2015, most of which were nutrition-sensitive partial.
  • Most nutrition-sensitive spending was in the humanitarian sector (accounting for 44% of DFID’s total nutrition-sensitive spending in 2015), and specifically on emergency food aid.
  • Most of DFID’s total nutrition spending continues to concentrate in sub-Saharan Africa, which received more than half of both nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive spending in 2015.
  • DFID spent nutrition-related aid in a greater number of countries than in any previous year; 32 in 2015.
  • Ethiopia was the largest recipient of DFID nutrition ODA in 2015, receiving US$227 million. Both nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive spending were greater in Ethiopia than any other country.

This analysis was carried out as part of Development Initiatives’ work under the MQSUN+ consortium.

MQSUN + is supported by UKaid through the Department of International Development; however, the views expressed do not necessarily reflect the UK Government’s official policies. MQSUN + cannot be held responsible for errors or any consequences arising from the use of information contained in this blog.