Malawi established the National Nutrition Committee to strengthen coordination and networking mechanisms in the national response to Nutrition.   The Committee is an advisory body to the DNHA and also considers reports from DNHA and partners.    

Composition

The National Nutrition Committee is comprised of a cross section of stakeholders including sector ministries, development partners, civil society organizations and academia.  Membership includes, but is not limited, to the following members or representatives:

• Ministry of Health, Department of Nutrition, HIV and AIDS – Chairperson
• Parliamentary Committee on Nutrition, HIV and AIDS
• Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Development
• Ministry of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare
• Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security
• Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development
• Ministry of Education, Science and Technology
• Ministry of Industry and Trade
• Ministry of Information, Tourism and Civic Education
• Council for Non – Governmental Organisations
• Representatives of Civil Society Organisations Nutrition Alliance (CSONA) which includes private sector
• Bilateral donors
• Multilateral donors
• United Nations Agencies

Scope of work

The terms of reference of the committee are:

• Creating a forum for coordination, accountability, alignment and harmonization amongst partners supporting the scaling up nutrition in Malawi.
• Facilitating linkages, dialogue and information sharing amongst national and international stakeholders working in the National Nutrition Programme.
• Providing strategic and technical guidance to the DNHA and other organizations in the implementation of nutrition policy and programmes.
• Facilitating development of policy and programme reviews and other technical papers and documentation in Nutrition.
• Identifying areas for research and emerging issue, agree on priority areas and how to address them.
• Facilitating annual and periodic reviews of the national nutrition programme and propose recommendations for improved implementation of Nutrition in Malawi.
• Organizing nutrition annual reviews and research dissemination conferences.
• Receiving updates from the Nutrition Technical Working Groups

Operational modalities

The National Nutrition Committee meets every quarter.  The DNHA will be the Secretariat and will be responsible for:

1. Planning dates of meetings in liaison with the office of the Chief Secretary to Government, invitations, confirmations, execution producing minutes and write ups/papers, and follow up of issues requiring action.
2. Producing submissions, reports and documents and circulating documents prior to the meeting.  Sector ministries and partners will be expected to share reports on their work.
3. Producing and circulating minutes including action points for follow up by the Chairperson, Secretariat and all members
4. compiling and updating a database of current and potential members

Leadership

The National Nutrition Committee is led by a Chairperson (DNHA) and a Co-Chair who is the chair of the DONUTS.  Both Chair and Co-Chair are responsible for chairing and co-chairing committee meetings and following up on decisions and actions

Accountability and reporting

The Chair will be responsible for submitting reports to Government and other committees whereas the Co-chair will be responsible for submitting reports from the committee to donors through the DONUTS.

Linkages with other coordinating committees

The National Nutrition Committee has linkages with the following committees:

• Principal Secretaries’ committee on Nutrition
• Malawi Partnership Forum on HIV and AIDS
• Parliamentary Committee on Nutrition, HIV and AIDS
• Malawi Civil Society Organisations Nutrition Alliance
• Donor Nutrition Security Group
• Government and Development Partners Committee
• Technical Working Groups on Nutrition