Nutrition governance
Nutrition governance was one of our independent variable.
It describes the strengths and weaknesses of various
aspects of nutrition activities in a given country [25]. This
scale was made of ten elements: existence of an intersectoral
mechanism to address nutrition; existence of a nutrition
strategic plan; whether the strategy is adopted;
whether the strategy is part of the national development
plan; existence of a national nutritional policy; whether
the policy is adopted; existence of dietary guidelines; allocation
of the budget for implementation of the national
nutrition plan, strategy, or policy; regular monitoring and
surveillance; and existence of a nutrition component in
the health budget [25]. Having a nutrition policy is one of
the components to make strong nutrition governance, but
it is not enough, and cannot act alone. Nutrition governance
is scored as strong, medium, or weak. The nutrition