Creating specific budget lines for nutrition programmes in national budgets can help with tracking financial resources. However, the creation of a budget line for nutrition depends very much on the national budget structure. For some countries, it is easy to identify nutrition programmes or nutrition specific interventions because of the level of disaggregation of their national budget. The experience in the SUN Movement points to the importance of country-owned budget analysis that engage experts, who have a good understanding of the key sector programmes and their potential nutrition outcomes. More information is available on http://scalingupnutrition.org/resources-archive/financial-tracking-resource-mobilization/budget-analysis
But what does this all mean for advocacy?

Spot on Patrizia! There are many benefits that come with having an independent budget line for Nutrition spending but what exactly is Nutrition spending? Its true that the argument on what constitutes Nutrition specific and sensitive budget lines is a lengthy one usually ending a stalemate. I would suggest, as we hope to embark on, to create general consensus on what is to be considered nutrition spending. This requires the involvement of key stakeholders and validation by sector ministries. Once a clear set of guidelines is developed and validated, an argument can be made to segregate these under one budget stream.

Thanks Patrizia and Eneya for your responses. Will read documents relevant to the topic. Kenya's SUN CSA is advocating for increase in nutrition budgets. Some county governments have created nutrition budget lines, though with minimal funds.