"programme_id","programme_title","programme_language","programme_type","other_program","iso3code","country_name","program_location","area","status","start_date","end_date","brief_description","references","related_policy","new_policy","partner_gov","partner_government_details","partner_un","partner_un_details","partner_ngo","partner_ngo_details","partner_donors","partner_donors_details","partner_intergov","partner_intgov_details","partner_national_ngo","partner_nat_ngo_details","partner_research","partner_research_details","partner_private","partner_private_details","partner_other","partner_other_details","cost","fsector_0","fpartner_0","fdetails_0","fsector_1","fpartner_1","fdetails_1","fsector_2","fpartner_2","fdetails_2","fsector_3","fpartner_3","fdetails_3","fsector_4","fpartner_4","fdetails_4","fsector_5","fpartner_5","fdetails_5","fsector_6","fpartner_6","fdetails_6","fsector_7","fpartner_7","fdetails_7","fsector_8","fpartner_8","fdetails_8","fsector_9","fpartner_9","fdetails_9","fsector_10","fpartner_10","fdetails_10","fsector_11","fpartner_11","fdetails_11","fsector_12","fpartner_12","fdetails_12","fsector_13","fpartner_13","fdetails_13","fsector_14","fpartner_14","fdetails_14","fsector_15","fpartner_15","fdetails_15","fsector_16","fpartner_16","fdetails_16","fsector_17","fpartner_17","fdetails_17","fsector_18","fpartner_18","fdetails_18","fsector_19","fpartner_19","fdetails_19","fsector_20","fpartner_20","fdetails_20","fsector_21","fpartner_21","fdetails_21","fsector_22","fpartner_22","fdetails_22","fsector_23","fpartner_23","fdetails_23","fsector_24","fpartner_24","fdetails_24","fsector_25","fpartner_25","fdetails_25","fsector_26","fpartner_26","fdetails_26","fsector_27","fpartner_27","fdetails_27","fsector_28","fpartner_28","fdetails_28","fsector_29","fpartner_29","fdetails_29","fsector_30","fpartner_30","fdetails_30","fsector_31","fpartner_31","fdetails_31","fsector_32","fpartner_32","fdetails_32","fsector_33","fpartner_33","fdetails_33","fsector_34","fpartner_34","fdetails_34","fsector_35","fpartner_35","fdetails_35","fsector_36","fpartner_36","fdetails_36","fsector_37","fpartner_37","fdetails_37","fsector_38","fpartner_38","fdetails_38","fsector_39","fpartner_39","fdetails_39","fsector_40","fpartner_40","fdetails_40","fsector_41","fpartner_41","fdetails_41","fsector_42","fpartner_42","fdetails_42","fsector_43","fpartner_43","fdetails_43","fsector_44","fpartner_44","fdetails_44","fsector_45","fpartner_45","fdetails_45","fsector_46","fpartner_46","fdetails_46","fsector_47","fpartner_47","fdetails_47","fsector_48","fpartner_48","fdetails_48","fsector_49","fpartner_49","fdetails_49","action_id","theme","topic","new_topic","micronutrient","micronutrient_compound","target_group","age_group","place","delivery","other_delivery","dose_frequency","impact_indicators","me_system","target_pop","coverage_percent","coverage_type","baseline","post_intervention","social_det","social_other","elena_link","problem_0","solution_0","problem_1","solution_1","problem_2","solution_2","problem_3","solution_3","problem_4","solution_4","problem_5","solution_5","problem_6","solution_6","problem_7","solution_7","problem_8","solution_8","problem_9","solution_9","other_problems","other_lessons","personal_story","language" "11483","The MOST Project","English","Multi-national","","ETH|GHA|ZAF|UGA|ZMB","Ethiopia|Ghana|South Africa|Uganda|Zambia","Ethiopia|Ghana|South Africa|Uganda|Zambia","Urban|Rural|Peri-urban","completed","01-1997","01-2001","
Background
Micronutrient deficiency adversely affects the health and economic and social development of individuals, communities, and nations. Given their high prevalence in developing regions, deficiencies in vitamin A, iron, and iodine have great public health significance.
Vitamin A deficiency weakens the immune system and, hence, increases the severity of infections. It is also the most common cause of blindness among children in developing countries. Iron deficiency anemia impairs immunity and reduces physical and mental capacities of populations. Iodine deficiency is the leading cause of mental and physical retardation in infants and children worldwide. As with vitamin A and iron, iodine deficiency increases the risk of death in newborns.
Programs that promote improved micronutrient status can alleviate the disability, morbidity, and mortality—particularly among young children and women—that are the consequences of micronutrient deficiency.
The MOST Mission
The MOST mission is to 1) maintain and enhance USAID's global leadership position in addressing micronutrient malnutrition, particularly vitamin A deficiency; 2) implement and evaluate state-of-the-art interventions to alleviate micronutrient deficiencies; and 3) provide technical guidance and coordination to other USAID projects with micronutrient-related components.
The MOST Strategy
The MOST strategy is built upon a framework of global and country-level results:
The global agenda focuses on 1) promoting a revised global agenda in collaboration with other organizations worldwide committed to reducing micronutrient malnutrition; 2) translating scientific knowledge into policy and program action; and 3) maximizing lessons learned through USAID’s extensive field program experience.
Country-level results address deficiencies in vitamin A, iron, and iodine: 1) vitamin A coverage of at least 80 percent of deficient children under 6 years of age; 2) moderate to severe anemia decreased by 30 percent in pregnant women and children 6–24 months of age; and 3) percentage of the population with symptoms of iodine deficiency reduced by 30 percent.
Country Activities
For micronutrient delivery at the country level, MOST’s role is to provide technical support to countries to guide the use of not only USAID funds, but also the full range of financial and human resources needed to eliminate micronutrient deficiencies from the list of public health problems.
In the design of country activities, MOST seeks the appropriate balance between supplementation, food fortification, and other food-based approaches to deliver micronutrients to at-risk populations in an effective, yet affordable way. Country activities are based upon analyses of a variety of relevant information:
—Prevalence and severity of micronutrient deficiencies
—Awareness of effects of micronutrient deficiencies
—Nutrition policies and programs
—Providers’ motivation, knowledge, and practices
—Food consumption data
—Production, distribution, and marketing of staple foods
—Estimates of the costs of alternative interventions
Key Areas of Activity
—Application of behavior change techniques to create demand for micronutrient programs and services
—Enhancement of the effectiveness and sustainability of supplementation programs
—Sound planning, implementation, and quality control of fortification programs
—Inclusion of other food-based approaches in programs
—Application of appropriate economic analysis to guide the evolution of country programs
—Use of monitoring and evaluation to improve program operations
—Development of public and private sector alliances to enhance the effectiveness of interventions
Target Groups
MOST focuses on the improvement of the micronutrient status of children under 6 years of age and women of childbearing age. Several intervention options available to address micronutrient deficiency, such as food fortification, will benefit not only those target groups, but also school-age children and adult males.
The MOST Team
The MOST team consists of five organizations led by the International Science and Technology Institute, Inc. (ISTI) as the primary contractor. ISTI's partners are the Academy for Educational Development, Helen Keller International, the International Food Policy Research Institute, and Johns Hopkins University.
In addition, five resource institutions have joined MOST for in-country implementation and technical tasks: CARE, International Executive Service Corps, Population Services International, Program for Appropriate Technology in Health, and Save the Children.
","Twice a year, at designated times, the three programs distribute capsules to children aged six months to five years. Each program follows a campaign model based upon intensified social mobilization and service delivery over two to seven days. The twice-yearly events have created a cadre of field-tested personnel in the three countries, who are skilled at working with the local communities and at promoting their support and active participation. All three programs have been associated with National Immunization Days (NIDs), a WHO global program to eradicate polio. Since NIDs were held annually, however, they provided an opportunity for only one dose of vitamin A each year. Because children with vitamin A deficiency should receive a supplement at least twice a year (every four to six months), another mechanism was needed for the second dose. Relying exclusively upon facility-based distribution to deliver the second dose was not a viable option for several reasons, but in particular because healthfacility attendance for older children was not high enough to ensure adequate coverage in the one-to-five-year age group.
In Zambia, the first non-NIDs vitamin A supplementation program was launched in August 1999, and later renamed Child Health Week (CHW) to make the focus on the child more explicit. It was also felt that, instead of limiting activities to a vertical vitamin A supplementation program, the opportunity should be seized to deliver an integrated service that included not only vitamin A capsules but also other health services such as de-worming, health education, immunization, family planning, prenatal care, and growth monitoring. Districts were encouraged to provide an integrated package of services commensurate with their local capacity and need — as long as vitamin A supplementation remained the core activity during that week. In Zambia, the first NIDs campaign took place in 1997, and was a nationwide undertaking. The program was scaled down to about half the districts in recent years. Since 1999, the focus has shifted to priority districts, where communities have been at a constant risk of cross-border polio infections due to civil-war-related migrations from neighboring countries. This narrower focus is referred to in Zambia as sub-NIDS.
The first round of vitamin A supplementation in Ghana was integrated into NIDs in 1996. By 1999, a detailed plan was developed to implement a nationwide stand-alone supplementation program for the second round. In 2000, the Ministry of Health (MOH) carried out the first vitamin A standalone capsule distribution in the country’s ten regions. Since that date, the program has become a two- to three-day stand-alone event used to deliver a second dose of vitamin A to all children 6 to 59 months of age. Volunteers from the Ghana Education Service, along with personnel from other decentralized departments, assist with the supervision and capsule-distribution effort. Community-based volunteers are in direct contact with caregivers and children and also work very closely with health workers, assemblymen, chiefs, opinion leaders, gong-gong beaters, and other community leaders to mobilize beneficiaries, administer vitamin A, and maintain distribution records.
In contrast to Zambia and Ghana, Nepal followed a phased approach to program implementation. Integration of vitamin A into NIDs in Nepal was initiated in 1997,
four years after a supplementation program was established in 8 of the country’s 75 districts. The second distribution campaign has since been phased in at a rate of eight to ten districts per year. By 2001, the program covered all but three politically unstable districts. Under the program, high-dose vitamin A capsules are distributed to all children aged 6 to 59 months during a twoday event.
","
Ghana
A monitoring team consisting of national, regional, and district supervisors carries out organized and random spot checks. Where necessary, vitamin A capsule administrators are assisted in performing their tasks. Capsule-distribution teams use all means of transportation available within the region and district, whether these be 4x4 vehicles, 2x4 pickups, motorcycles, or bicycles. MOH, district assemblies, decentralized departments, and local and international NGOs provide fuel and contribute to vehicle maintenance. At the end of each day, tally sheets are counted and summary sheets completed. Data are compiled by sub-district and district health management teams. After all figures are checked for accuracy, district coverage is calculated. District coverage data are sent to the regional nutrition officers and senior medical officers of public health, who compile regional coverage figures before sending them to the Nutrition Unit in Accra. Using regional figures, the Nutrition Unit estimates national coverage.
Zambia
Monitoring teams consisting of national, provincial, and district staff carry out systematic or random observations, depending on what they are monitoring. Where necessary, vitamin A capsule administrators are assisted in performing their tasks. At the end of each day, tally sheets are counted, summary sheets completed, and data compiled. District figures are then checked for accuracy, after which district coverage is calculated and the results forwarded to NFNC.
","Ghana: 3.5 million children ","Ghana: Exceeded target in May 2001; Zambia: 28 percent in 1999, 88 in Febraury 2002","","serum retinol levels of &lt;20 ug/dl,night-blindness prevalence,vitamin A supplementation coverage for children,subclinical vitamin A deficiency,","serum retinol levels of <20 ug/dl,night-blindness prevalence,vitamin A supplementation coverage for children,subclinical vitamin A deficiency,","Vulnerable groups","","Vitamin A supplementation in neonates>>>Vitamin A supplementation in neonates>>http://www.who.int/elena/titles/vitamina_neonatal","Insufficient staff","In Zambia and Ghana, it has been somewhat more difficult to generate a consistent cadre of volunteers for the vitamin A distribution. In each country, districts mobilize health post and sub-health post staff, identify extended outreach sites (including clinics, schools, and community centers),and then recruit community members to assist them with their activities. In Ghana, this has been relatively successful since there have been adequate clinic staff and a manageable number of outreach sites. In spite of this, many districts have continued to do some house-to-house visits to ensure high coverage. In Zambia, it has been more difficult to recruit community volunteers, and the clinic staff have been stretched to cover outreach sites.","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","Robin Houston (2003). Why They Work: An analysis of three successful public health interventions - Vitamin A supplementation programs in Ghana, Nepal, and Zambia
Background
Micronutrient deficiency adversely affects the health and economic and social development of individuals, communities, and nations. Given their high prevalence in developing regions, deficiencies in vitamin A, iron, and iodine have great public health significance.
Vitamin A deficiency weakens the immune system and, hence, increases the severity of infections. It is also the most common cause of blindness among children in developing countries. Iron deficiency anemia impairs immunity and reduces physical and mental capacities of populations. Iodine deficiency is the leading cause of mental and physical retardation in infants and children worldwide. As with vitamin A and iron, iodine deficiency increases the risk of death in newborns.
Programs that promote improved micronutrient status can alleviate the disability, morbidity, and mortality—particularly among young children and women—that are the consequences of micronutrient deficiency.
The MOST Mission
The MOST mission is to 1) maintain and enhance USAID's global leadership position in addressing micronutrient malnutrition, particularly vitamin A deficiency; 2) implement and evaluate state-of-the-art interventions to alleviate micronutrient deficiencies; and 3) provide technical guidance and coordination to other USAID projects with micronutrient-related components.
The MOST Strategy
The MOST strategy is built upon a framework of global and country-level results:
The global agenda focuses on 1) promoting a revised global agenda in collaboration with other organizations worldwide committed to reducing micronutrient malnutrition; 2) translating scientific knowledge into policy and program action; and 3) maximizing lessons learned through USAID’s extensive field program experience.
Country-level results address deficiencies in vitamin A, iron, and iodine: 1) vitamin A coverage of at least 80 percent of deficient children under 6 years of age; 2) moderate to severe anemia decreased by 30 percent in pregnant women and children 6–24 months of age; and 3) percentage of the population with symptoms of iodine deficiency reduced by 30 percent.
Country Activities
For micronutrient delivery at the country level, MOST’s role is to provide technical support to countries to guide the use of not only USAID funds, but also the full range of financial and human resources needed to eliminate micronutrient deficiencies from the list of public health problems.
In the design of country activities, MOST seeks the appropriate balance between supplementation, food fortification, and other food-based approaches to deliver micronutrients to at-risk populations in an effective, yet affordable way. Country activities are based upon analyses of a variety of relevant information:
—Prevalence and severity of micronutrient deficiencies
—Awareness of effects of micronutrient deficiencies
—Nutrition policies and programs
—Providers’ motivation, knowledge, and practices
—Food consumption data
—Production, distribution, and marketing of staple foods
—Estimates of the costs of alternative interventions
Key Areas of Activity
—Application of behavior change techniques to create demand for micronutrient programs and services
—Enhancement of the effectiveness and sustainability of supplementation programs
—Sound planning, implementation, and quality control of fortification programs
—Inclusion of other food-based approaches in programs
—Application of appropriate economic analysis to guide the evolution of country programs
—Use of monitoring and evaluation to improve program operations
—Development of public and private sector alliances to enhance the effectiveness of interventions
Target Groups
MOST focuses on the improvement of the micronutrient status of children under 6 years of age and women of childbearing age. Several intervention options available to address micronutrient deficiency, such as food fortification, will benefit not only those target groups, but also school-age children and adult males.
The MOST Team
The MOST team consists of five organizations led by the International Science and Technology Institute, Inc. (ISTI) as the primary contractor. ISTI's partners are the Academy for Educational Development, Helen Keller International, the International Food Policy Research Institute, and Johns Hopkins University.
In addition, five resource institutions have joined MOST for in-country implementation and technical tasks: CARE, International Executive Service Corps, Population Services International, Program for Appropriate Technology in Health, and Save the Children.
","Five data collection methods were used:
During the fieldwork, the enumerators worked in pairs. The enumerators were not allowed to use the instruments in the facilities where they worked. Each pair spent a full day at a health facility. Field supervisors supported the enumerators during the data collection and checked the questionnaires for consistency and completeness. This was to ensure that the data collected was accurate as possible.
","""""Many pregnant mothers do not come to ANC because they had several normal pregnancies and think all will continue to go on well always.”
- Health worker, Apac
“ The health worker at the health centre is very rude, she has no time for us; so we fear even asking questions or discussing any issue about our health. So I go all the way to Naguru health clinic and only here if I have no money for transport.”
- A pregnant woman, Kojja, Mukono
“ I think these tablets for blood should be given only to pregnant women who have no blood. It may cause a high blood level and lead to high blood pressure.”
- TBAs, Kyampisi
“ Women with increased blood should not take these tablets (iron and folic acids) because their heartbeats will increase and they will sweat very much.”
- TBAs, Seeta Nazigo
“ Some mothers say it smells and they throw away the tablets soon after the clinic.”
- Pregnant mothers, Kojja
“ Some mothers do not like taking tablets when they are pregnant.”
- Pregnant mothers, Seeta Nazigo
Background
Micronutrient deficiency adversely affects the health and economic and social development of individuals, communities, and nations. Given their high prevalence in developing regions, deficiencies in vitamin A, iron, and iodine have great public health significance.
Vitamin A deficiency weakens the immune system and, hence, increases the severity of infections. It is also the most common cause of blindness among children in developing countries. Iron deficiency anemia impairs immunity and reduces physical and mental capacities of populations. Iodine deficiency is the leading cause of mental and physical retardation in infants and children worldwide. As with vitamin A and iron, iodine deficiency increases the risk of death in newborns.
Programs that promote improved micronutrient status can alleviate the disability, morbidity, and mortality—particularly among young children and women—that are the consequences of micronutrient deficiency.
The MOST Mission
The MOST mission is to 1) maintain and enhance USAID's global leadership position in addressing micronutrient malnutrition, particularly vitamin A deficiency; 2) implement and evaluate state-of-the-art interventions to alleviate micronutrient deficiencies; and 3) provide technical guidance and coordination to other USAID projects with micronutrient-related components.
The MOST Strategy
The MOST strategy is built upon a framework of global and country-level results:
The global agenda focuses on 1) promoting a revised global agenda in collaboration with other organizations worldwide committed to reducing micronutrient malnutrition; 2) translating scientific knowledge into policy and program action; and 3) maximizing lessons learned through USAID’s extensive field program experience.
Country-level results address deficiencies in vitamin A, iron, and iodine: 1) vitamin A coverage of at least 80 percent of deficient children under 6 years of age; 2) moderate to severe anemia decreased by 30 percent in pregnant women and children 6–24 months of age; and 3) percentage of the population with symptoms of iodine deficiency reduced by 30 percent.
Country Activities
For micronutrient delivery at the country level, MOST’s role is to provide technical support to countries to guide the use of not only USAID funds, but also the full range of financial and human resources needed to eliminate micronutrient deficiencies from the list of public health problems.
In the design of country activities, MOST seeks the appropriate balance between supplementation, food fortification, and other food-based approaches to deliver micronutrients to at-risk populations in an effective, yet affordable way. Country activities are based upon analyses of a variety of relevant information:
—Prevalence and severity of micronutrient deficiencies
—Awareness of effects of micronutrient deficiencies
—Nutrition policies and programs
—Providers’ motivation, knowledge, and practices
—Food consumption data
—Production, distribution, and marketing of staple foods
—Estimates of the costs of alternative interventions
Key Areas of Activity
—Application of behavior change techniques to create demand for micronutrient programs and services
—Enhancement of the effectiveness and sustainability of supplementation programs
—Sound planning, implementation, and quality control of fortification programs
—Inclusion of other food-based approaches in programs
—Application of appropriate economic analysis to guide the evolution of country programs
—Use of monitoring and evaluation to improve program operations
—Development of public and private sector alliances to enhance the effectiveness of interventions
Target Groups
MOST focuses on the improvement of the micronutrient status of children under 6 years of age and women of childbearing age. Several intervention options available to address micronutrient deficiency, such as food fortification, will benefit not only those target groups, but also school-age children and adult males.
The MOST Team
The MOST team consists of five organizations led by the International Science and Technology Institute, Inc. (ISTI) as the primary contractor. ISTI's partners are the Academy for Educational Development, Helen Keller International, the International Food Policy Research Institute, and Johns Hopkins University.
In addition, five resource institutions have joined MOST for in-country implementation and technical tasks: CARE, International Executive Service Corps, Population Services International, Program for Appropriate Technology in Health, and Save the Children.
","Ethiopia
MOST is providing technical and implementation support to the Ministry of Health in the development of a national micronutrient program. The program is a cooperative effort between the MOH, USAID/Ethiopia, MOST, and UNICEF. Program components include strengthening of the newly formed nutrition division at the MOH and the micronutrient committee; development of a locally designed vitamin A supplementation strategy and its pilot test; support for initial trials of vitamin A sugar fortification in one of the country's four sugar factories; and support for information, education, and communication activities.
South Africa
MOST is working with counterparts at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) to support and strengthen a new vitamin A supplementation program being started by the Department of Health in Eastern Cape province. MOST is also supporting a pilot initiative by UWC that aims to incorporate micronutrient interventions into the Eastern Cape Integrated Nutrition Program.
.
","","","","","","","Vulnerable groups","","Vitamin A supplementation in neonates>>>Vitamin A supplementation in neonates>>http://www.who.int/elena/titles/vitamina_neonatal","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","English" "11483","The MOST Project","English","Multi-national","","ETH|GHA|ZAF|UGA|ZMB","Ethiopia|Ghana|South Africa|Uganda|Zambia","Ethiopia|Ghana|South Africa|Uganda|Zambia","Urban|Rural|Peri-urban","completed","01-1997","01-2001","Background
Micronutrient deficiency adversely affects the health and economic and social development of individuals, communities, and nations. Given their high prevalence in developing regions, deficiencies in vitamin A, iron, and iodine have great public health significance.
Vitamin A deficiency weakens the immune system and, hence, increases the severity of infections. It is also the most common cause of blindness among children in developing countries. Iron deficiency anemia impairs immunity and reduces physical and mental capacities of populations. Iodine deficiency is the leading cause of mental and physical retardation in infants and children worldwide. As with vitamin A and iron, iodine deficiency increases the risk of death in newborns.
Programs that promote improved micronutrient status can alleviate the disability, morbidity, and mortality—particularly among young children and women—that are the consequences of micronutrient deficiency.
The MOST Mission
The MOST mission is to 1) maintain and enhance USAID's global leadership position in addressing micronutrient malnutrition, particularly vitamin A deficiency; 2) implement and evaluate state-of-the-art interventions to alleviate micronutrient deficiencies; and 3) provide technical guidance and coordination to other USAID projects with micronutrient-related components.
The MOST Strategy
The MOST strategy is built upon a framework of global and country-level results:
The global agenda focuses on 1) promoting a revised global agenda in collaboration with other organizations worldwide committed to reducing micronutrient malnutrition; 2) translating scientific knowledge into policy and program action; and 3) maximizing lessons learned through USAID’s extensive field program experience.
Country-level results address deficiencies in vitamin A, iron, and iodine: 1) vitamin A coverage of at least 80 percent of deficient children under 6 years of age; 2) moderate to severe anemia decreased by 30 percent in pregnant women and children 6–24 months of age; and 3) percentage of the population with symptoms of iodine deficiency reduced by 30 percent.
Country Activities
For micronutrient delivery at the country level, MOST’s role is to provide technical support to countries to guide the use of not only USAID funds, but also the full range of financial and human resources needed to eliminate micronutrient deficiencies from the list of public health problems.
In the design of country activities, MOST seeks the appropriate balance between supplementation, food fortification, and other food-based approaches to deliver micronutrients to at-risk populations in an effective, yet affordable way. Country activities are based upon analyses of a variety of relevant information:
—Prevalence and severity of micronutrient deficiencies
—Awareness of effects of micronutrient deficiencies
—Nutrition policies and programs
—Providers’ motivation, knowledge, and practices
—Food consumption data
—Production, distribution, and marketing of staple foods
—Estimates of the costs of alternative interventions
Key Areas of Activity
—Application of behavior change techniques to create demand for micronutrient programs and services
—Enhancement of the effectiveness and sustainability of supplementation programs
—Sound planning, implementation, and quality control of fortification programs
—Inclusion of other food-based approaches in programs
—Application of appropriate economic analysis to guide the evolution of country programs
—Use of monitoring and evaluation to improve program operations
—Development of public and private sector alliances to enhance the effectiveness of interventions
Target Groups
MOST focuses on the improvement of the micronutrient status of children under 6 years of age and women of childbearing age. Several intervention options available to address micronutrient deficiency, such as food fortification, will benefit not only those target groups, but also school-age children and adult males.
The MOST Team
The MOST team consists of five organizations led by the International Science and Technology Institute, Inc. (ISTI) as the primary contractor. ISTI's partners are the Academy for Educational Development, Helen Keller International, the International Food Policy Research Institute, and Johns Hopkins University.
In addition, five resource institutions have joined MOST for in-country implementation and technical tasks: CARE, International Executive Service Corps, Population Services International, Program for Appropriate Technology in Health, and Save the Children.
","Government agencies encouraged the initial development of fortification: NFNC promoted initial research, sponsored meetings, and coordinated activities related to fortification; MOH researched the legal framework; the National Institute for Scientific and Industrial Research (NISIR) provided technical guidance; the Food and Drug Control Laboratory (FDCL) conducted monitoring and evaluation; and the Zambian Revenue Authority (ZRA) examined the tax structure. Industry acceptance allowed planning to begin, but donor support was critical to the development of the program: the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) was the lead financer of the project and provided technical assistance, UNICEF provided spare parts, and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) provided spectrophotometers for Zambia Sugar and the FDCL.
While legislation was still being developed, Zambia Sugar went ahead with the launch of fortified Whitespoon Sugar on May 15, 1998. Zambia Sugar began its fortification program at 15 mg/kg, but cost considerations led the company to reduce the level to 10 mg/kg within three months. In May 1997, one year before fortification began, a consultant estimated the cost of fortifying 100,000 metric tons of sugar at 16 mg/kg to be around $1 million U.S., while fortifying at 20 mg/kg would cost almost $1.25 million.24 Reducing the level from 16 to 10 mg/kg could thus have reduced costs by approximately $375,000 a year.
","Modified Relative Dose Response Test (MRDR) in children
","The first outside tests of fortificant levels in sugar were controversial. Four months after the launch of fortified sugar, a team consisting of representatives from the MOH, the NFNC, and NISIR visited the Zambia Sugar mill. The team tested samples from the mill at the FDCL; these tests showed far lower levels of vitamin A than those shown in tests by Zambia Sugar. The government’s tests indicated a range of 0–13.6 mg/kg, while Zambia Sugar’s tests indicated a range of 9–21 mg/kg for the same samples. Zambia Sugar believes that the samples suffered sedimentation in the transport to the government laboratory and that this explains the different results.
MOST, the USAID micronutrient program, sponsored the creation of training manuals for health inspectors and Food and Drug enforcement officers, as well as a national training workshop from September 24 to October 7, 2000. The workshop focused on inspection procedures and methods, provided laboratory training where appropriate, and included a trip to the Zambia Sugar plant. Since the implementation of that program, Zambia Sugar has expressed satisfaction with law enforcement efforts. UNICEF subsequently funded workshops at the district level, using reproductions of the training manuals that had been produced with MOST funding.
","nationwide","..","","","","Vulnerable groups","","","Financial resources","","Communication","","Financial resources","","Adherence","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","English" "11545","Feed the Future: The U.S. Government’s Global Hunger and Food Security Initiative","English","Multi-national","","ZMB","Zambia"," Eastern Province, Zambia|Lusaka-Eastern Province, Zambia|Lusaka-Central Province, Zambia","Rural|Peri-urban","on-going","01-2011","01-2015","Feed the Future, the U.S. Government’s global hunger and food security initiative, is establishing a foundation for lasting progress against global hunger. With a focus on smallholder farmers, particularly women, Feed the Future supports partner countries in developing their agriculture sectors to spur economic growth that increases incomes and reduces hunger, poverty, and undernutrition. Feed the Future efforts are driven by country-led priorities and rooted in partnership with governments, donor organizations, the private sector, and civil society to enable long-term success. Feed the Future aims to assist millions of vulnerable women, children, and family members to escape hunger and poverty, while reaching significant numbers of children with highly effective nutrition interventions to prevent stunting and child mortality.
Over the next five years in Zambia, Feed the future aims to help an estimated 263,000 vulnerable Zambian women, children and family members—mostly smallholder farmers—escape hunger and poverty. More than 173,000 children will be reached with services to improve their nutrition and prevent stunting and child mortality. Significant numbers of additional rural populations will achieve improved income and nutritional status from strategic policy engagement and institutional investments.
To meet its objectives, Feed the Future Zambia is making core investments in four key areas:
1. Oilseeds, legumes, maize and horticulture value chains
2. Enabling Environment
3. Economic Resilience
4. Nutrition
Target Regions
Feed the Future is focusing its efforts in two areas: the Eastern Province, with a value chain focus on oilseeds, legumes and maize; and selected peri-urban districts near Lusaka, connecting to Eastern Province, with a particular focus on horticulture.
Highlights
Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) process. Zambia’s CAADP Compact was signed in January 2011, and development of the Zambia CAADP Country Investment Plan has begun. Through this Compact the Government of the Republic of Zambia is committed to the following:
Diversification of staple crop production. Diversification of selected staple value chains will:
Gender. The Zambia strategy strives to maximize the positive impact on female farmers and ensure equitable benefits for men and women by:
CORE INVESTMENT AREA 1: DIVERSIFICATION OF PRODUCTION AND INCOME – UPGRADE VALUE CHAINS
The first set of core investments in the Zambia FTF strategy contributes to systems transformation, with a primary focus on oilseeds and legumes and targeted interventions in the maize value chain, and a secondary focus on horticulture.
Feed the Future Value Chain Investments
USAID/Zambia will have several programs that contribute significantly to upgrading the oilseeds, legumes and maize value chains. This will be accomplished through several planned mechanisms, including: 1) the Production, Finance and Improved Technology Plus program, which is designed to increase food security and decrease hunger through agriculture-led growth and inclusive market access by smallholder farmers; and 2) public-private partnerships including Global Development Alliances (GDAs) to leverage private sector activity and promote market sustainability through private sector models. These efforts will stimulate agricultural growth and significantly contribute to the Millennium Development Goal 1 of halving the proportion of people living in extreme poverty and suffering from hunger by 2015. The programs will build on previous USAID-funded activities by closely linking efforts to enhance input supply with output markets, promoting value-added rural enterprises linked to selected value chains, and ensuring that women fully benefit from value chain development. One of the challenges of the previous program, given its focus on private sector sustainability, was to ensure female participation. Lessons learned from the successful Production, Finance and Improved Technologies (PROFIT) program, which closes in 2011, will be incorporated into new programs.
Programs will focus specifically on maize and oilseed/legume (particularly, groundnut, soya and sunflower) value chains in Eastern province and horticulture value chains in peri-urban Lusaka. Through this geographic focus, USAID-funded FTF activities will reach up to 25 percent of Zambian men and women smallholder farmers. Maize value chain work will focus on increasing productivity in order to meet food security. Smallholders will be benefit from an integrated approach that provides for maize food security and enables smallholders to diversify into commercial crops.
Illustrative Examples of Value Chain Activities
In-depth analysis of selected value chains. The program will conduct in-depth economic value chain analysis including market (both domestic and export) assessments, competition/profitability analyses, gender analyses, and strategies for Zambian value chains to improve competitiveness in light of market opportunities and constraints.
Value chain finance. Both the demand and supply side of value chain finance will be addressed to increase the competitiveness of selected value chains. Options to increase access to production and processing credit may include insurance, operating leases and expansion of e-banking. Activities to expand access to credit and financial services to both men and women will be assessed and implemented through a variety of mechanisms, partners and tools, including intermediary businesses, credit guarantees, microfinance and commercial banking products oriented to benefit smallholder farmers.
Provide local trade information and services. Local provider(s) of trade information and services will be supported to aid producers’ entry into local, regional and international markets, including sanitary and phytosanitary protocols, import requirements, customs and borders procedures, and contact points. The program will take extra effort to ensure equal access to information for women. The Zambia Agricultural Commodity Exchange (ZAMACE) will require support that will be gradually phased out, with the goal of achieving sustainability through self-sufficient funding of operations within three years.
Target regional export markets. The program will develop a strategy for targeting profitable export markets for Zambian products initially in the maize, legume and horticulture sectors. USAID/Zambia’s experience thus far has shown that in many cases regional markets provide more opportunities for exporters (particularly smallholders) than more distant international markets. Efforts will be made to ensure both men and women producers can access export markets.
Promote rural enterprise and cooperative development, particularly in value-added processing of selected value chains. Activities will also address marketing constraints faced by smallholder farmers, in particular women. The project will identify key agents that can create rural employment and opportunities for value addition, including cooperatives, traders, processors and agribusinesses that warehouse commodities. Governance, operations and capacity of Zambian organizations and firms that link farmers to value-added markets, including animal feed, high protein products, cooking oil and canned vegetables, will be strengthened. In particular, women-based producer and marketing associations will be organized around selected value chains.
",".
","USAID/Zambia will monitor and evaluate programs and activities throughout the strategy period to ensure that those investments are achieving objectives and maximizing returns to investments. Though many of the investments will be managed and monitored primarily by USAID, some investments will originate from other USG agencies and by government, donors, or the private sector. The Zambia CAADP Country Investment Plan will provide a framework for the development of a more comprehensive national effort in agriculture and poverty reduction that will be supported through the USG FTF effort. CAADP monitoring is addressed below. The M&E framework for the USG FTF strategy outlined in this section will be inclusive and involve all government agencies investing in FTF areas, particularly in the FTF priority geographic area, Eastern province.
The geographic focus, co-location of investments, and the timing of the initiation of new investments provide the opportunity to establish a solid impact assessment framework as well. USAID/Zambia’s approach to monitoring and evaluation will be comprised of three components: 1) project-level reporting; 2) performance management/monitoring and evaluation; and, 3) external impact assessment to capture the aggregate impact of all investments and the relative contribution of different interventions to the extent feasible.
The FTF strategy will be implemented primarily through two of the USAID/Zambia CDCS Development Objectives (DO) and will meet the requirements of CDCS Development Objectives: (1) engage in """"rigorous"""" impact evaluations; and (2) build local capacity for monitoring and evaluation. The USAID/Zambia Mission has committed to implementing the operational research, managing for results, evaluation and local capacity-building model in its CDCS, and this will apply as well to FTF.
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
The FTF Performance Monitoring Plan will include indicators measuring progress towards achieving results at all levels. For each indicator, the data source and methodology, baseline, targets, and a calendar of performance management tasks, including a schedule for data collection, will be included. The selection of indicators to include in the PMP will be driven by ongoing and planned activities, the availability of baseline, and provisions made to ensure availability of data for the reference reporting period.
To monitor performance, the Mission will establish baselines and collect data for standard and customized indicators to track whether desired results are occurring and whether performance is on target. All programs receiving FTF resources will be expected to develop monitoring and evaluation strategies that are consistent with the USG Zambia’s FTF framework.
Initial stakeholder workshops will be held for the purposes of
Given that FTF has the intention to work with a broader range of partners, including local organizations, it is expected that some partners will have more limited reporting capacity. These organizations will need greater assistance, and it may be necessary to delegate the responsibility for some monitoring and reporting to external entities.
For higher level objectives, tracking performance will be beyond the manageable interest of individual projects. In particular, changes in incomes, nutritional status, and some community-level variables among others will be more appropriately measured across the program areas. The FTF Team is developing a consortium of stakeholders to assess existing data sources, and intends to identify an external entity to coordinate baseline and periodic data collection for specific indicators.
An FTF M&E plan will be finalized by the end of Fiscal Year 2011, outlining all indicators and the reporting responsibilities by all USAID/Zambia’s partners. Key FTF required indicators to be tracked and reported are listed in Annex B. Additional project-specific and other relevant indicators not included in the FTF required indicators will be added. It is important to note that all appropriate indicators will be sex-disaggregated.
EVALUATION
In line with the new evaluation policy, the FTF program intends to conduct a number of performance evaluations and impact evaluations. Evaluations of two programs closing in 2011, PROFIT and C-FAARM, will be useful for the FTF learning agenda. The USG FTF has a unique opportunity with a defined geographic focus and the initiation of new activities to establish an impact assessment framework to assess high level impact, as well as to identify the relative contribution of different intervention, such as value chain upgrading versus household level management skills. USAID/Zambia will work with partners and other agencies to develop an impact assessment methodology that is consistent with and contributes to the project performance monitoring framework, but will also test several development hypotheses.
An initial baseline survey will be conducted in Eastern province to establish current levels of key variables including incomes, nutritional status, household production and asset patterns, and agriculture technology levels. This baseline will draw from the latest survey methodologies, particularly recent work on gender and asset control24. An appropriate sampling framework will be established to assess impact, most likely on a biannual basis. A randomized approach will be considered for a sub-sample to maintain the integrity of the impact assessment; however, flexibility will be needed to consider mid-term correction in order to ensure the greatest impact over the period of the strategy.
In the context of the development challenges and opportunities identified in Zambia and outlined in Section 1.1, several development hypotheses are of interest for the impact assessment. In particular, the relative contribution will be assessed of community-level versus household-level interventions to reducing poverty and undernutrition, as well as the additional value of the co-location of interventions. Another hypothesis of interest to be tested is: By increasing productivity, improving household food security and linking smallholders to markets for agriculture commodities, FTF interventions will reduce the incentives for exploiting the natural resource base.
Performance Evaluation
The FTF program will schedule performance evaluations to focus on descriptive and normative questions including: project or program achievements (either at an intermediate point in execution or at the conclusion of an implementation period); program implementation; program perception and value; and other questions pertinent to program design, management and operational decision-making. These performance evaluations will incorporate before-after comparisons whenever feasible.
Impact Evaluation
The FTF program will conduct impact evaluations to measure the change in development outcomes attributable to FTF interventions. Impact evaluations will be based on cause-effect models and will require a credible and rigorously-defined counterfactual control. Impact evaluations with treatment and control groups help provide the strongest evidence of a relationship between interventions and measured outcomes. One hypothesis to be explored includes identifying increased benefits from combined interventions, particularly income-augmenting and nutrition-related activities. In the nutrition portfolio, the differential effect of geographically co-locating health programs active in nutrition with agriculture programs working on the productivity and diversity side of the nutrition equation can be tested.
LINK TO GOVERNMENT MONITORING SYSTEMS
USAID/Zambia has provided extensive support to the Government of Zambia in monitoring the agricultural sector, and in analyzing government data through the Food Security Research Project (FSRP). This support will continue and can be drawn upon to monitor agricultural trends. In addition, FSRP has expertise in analyzing surveys such as the biannual Living Conditions Monitoring Survey (LCMS) which tracks poverty levels, and the Supplemental Surveys, which provide quality agricultural data. This expertise can be leveraged for improved performance monitoring by the GRZ, as well as for FTF performance.
The CAADP framework focuses largely on performance in the agricultural sector. For national performance toward other MDGs, particularly those related to nutrition and gender impacts, the FTF team will work with additional partners to identify appropriate data sources and performance monitoring modalities. For example, the Nutrition Cooperating Partners sub-group may be instrumental in the creation of a data monitoring platform according to the SUN Movement principles. However, the Zambia FTF framework will focus its efforts largely on performance for the targeted FTF areas and the contribution of these changes to national levels.
","Overall, an estimated 263,000 vulnerable Zambian women, children, and family members—mostly smallholder farmers—will receive targeted assistance to escape hunger and poverty","","","Increased productivity and income from selected value chains (gross margin per unit of land or animal of selected product); Number of farmers, processors, and others who have applied new technologies or management practices as a result of USG assistance (disaggregated by sex); Value of incremental sales (collected at farm/firm level) attributed to FTF implementation (disaggregated by targeted commodity) (disaggregated by sex of household head); Value of new private sector investment in the agriculture sector or food chain leveraged by FTF implementation (Change in value – investments local and international); Increase in employment in value-added processing enterprises linked to selected commodities.","Increased productivity and income from selected value chains (gross margin per unit of land or animal of selected product); Number of farmers, processors, and others who have applied new technologies or management practices as a result of USG assistance (disaggregated by sex); Value of incremental sales (collected at farm/firm level) attributed to FTF implementation (disaggregated by targeted commodity) (disaggregated by sex of household head); Value of new private sector investment in the agriculture sector or food chain leveraged by FTF implementation (Change in value – investments local and international); Increase in employment in value-added processing enterprises linked to selected commodities.","Vulnerable groups","","Biofortification of staple crops>>>Biofortification of staple crops>>http://www.who.int/elena/titles/biofortification","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","English" "11545","Feed the Future: The U.S. Government’s Global Hunger and Food Security Initiative","English","Multi-national","","ZMB","Zambia"," Eastern Province, Zambia|Lusaka-Eastern Province, Zambia|Lusaka-Central Province, Zambia","Rural|Peri-urban","on-going","01-2011","01-2015","Feed the Future, the U.S. Government’s global hunger and food security initiative, is establishing a foundation for lasting progress against global hunger. With a focus on smallholder farmers, particularly women, Feed the Future supports partner countries in developing their agriculture sectors to spur economic growth that increases incomes and reduces hunger, poverty, and undernutrition. Feed the Future efforts are driven by country-led priorities and rooted in partnership with governments, donor organizations, the private sector, and civil society to enable long-term success. Feed the Future aims to assist millions of vulnerable women, children, and family members to escape hunger and poverty, while reaching significant numbers of children with highly effective nutrition interventions to prevent stunting and child mortality.
Over the next five years in Zambia, Feed the future aims to help an estimated 263,000 vulnerable Zambian women, children and family members—mostly smallholder farmers—escape hunger and poverty. More than 173,000 children will be reached with services to improve their nutrition and prevent stunting and child mortality. Significant numbers of additional rural populations will achieve improved income and nutritional status from strategic policy engagement and institutional investments.
To meet its objectives, Feed the Future Zambia is making core investments in four key areas:
1. Oilseeds, legumes, maize and horticulture value chains
2. Enabling Environment
3. Economic Resilience
4. Nutrition
Target Regions
Feed the Future is focusing its efforts in two areas: the Eastern Province, with a value chain focus on oilseeds, legumes and maize; and selected peri-urban districts near Lusaka, connecting to Eastern Province, with a particular focus on horticulture.
Highlights
Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) process. Zambia’s CAADP Compact was signed in January 2011, and development of the Zambia CAADP Country Investment Plan has begun. Through this Compact the Government of the Republic of Zambia is committed to the following:
Diversification of staple crop production. Diversification of selected staple value chains will:
Gender. The Zambia strategy strives to maximize the positive impact on female farmers and ensure equitable benefits for men and women by:
Feed the Future Value Chain Research & Development Program
Research features prominently in the Feed the Future Initiative. The FTF research strategy has three objectives: advancing the productivity frontier, transforming production systems and enhancing dietary quality and food safety. The sustainable use of natural resources and adaptation to global climate changes are additional objectives. R&D investments will include several sub-components, through collaboration between international agriculture research centers, GRZ research institutes and public universities, private sector and other partners. The project will also incorporate a competitive grants program to promote public-private research and technology adoption. A key objective of the program is to enable these entities to directly implement activities within the life of the program. All programs will outline the steps, process and timeline to enable Zambian Government, NGO and other entities to be able to directly implement selected project activities within two years after the project has begun field implementation. Finally, to be effective, the programs must also actively involve both men and women in research design and trials to ensure appropriateness to their relative needs.
Some of the key issues that the agricultural research program in Zambia will address are outlined below.
The approach should include preliminary analysis to identify high pay-off interventions with the greatest potential to increase incomes and improve nutrition for a large number of smallholder maize-based farm households, with particular attention to gender-based constraints. These interventions may include varieties, management, alternative farm resource allocation and post-harvest approaches.
Possible components of a program include:
Low Productivity and Limited Production of Groundnuts--Limiting Their Contribution to Household Nutrition, Incomes and Women’s Empowerment
Illustrative activities include:
Widespread Aflatoxin Contamination--Reducing Food Quality and Limiting Exports
Responses to the aflatoxin problem in Zambia may include:
Role of Zambian Women in Science
The FTF strategy will also invest in the development of Zambian women scientists. The African Women in Research and Development (AWARD) program has successfully supported the career of up to nine Zambian women scientists in private and public research organizations as well as civil society organizations. The AWARD Fellows are paired with a leading scientist mentor in their field who supports the development of professional skills. Training in leadership and other professional skills such as writing and communication is provided. A current AWARD Fellow recently conducted a workshop on gender in the aquaculture sector, highlighting the importance of considering gender constraints in this sector. The AWARD Fellows also become mentors to younger women, thus extending the benefits of the program. The FTF strategy will continue this investment throughout the program and work with these scientists in order to strengthen the participation of women in agricultural research.
","
.
","
USAID/Zambia will monitor and evaluate programs and activities throughout the strategy period to ensure that those investments are achieving objectives and maximizing returns to investments. Though many of the investments will be managed and monitored primarily by USAID, some investments will originate from other USG agencies and by government, donors, or the private sector. The Zambia CAADP Country Investment Plan will provide a framework for the development of a more comprehensive national effort in agriculture and poverty reduction that will be supported through the USG FTF effort. CAADP monitoring is addressed below. The M&E framework for the USG FTF strategy outlined in this section will be inclusive and involve all government agencies investing in FTF areas, particularly in the FTF priority geographic area, Eastern province.
The geographic focus, co-location of investments, and the timing of the initiation of new investments provide the opportunity to establish a solid impact assessment framework as well. USAID/Zambia’s approach to monitoring and evaluation will be comprised of three components:
The FTF strategy will be implemented primarily through two of the USAID/Zambia CDCS Development Objectives (DO) and will meet the requirements of CDCS Development Objectives:
The USAID/Zambia Mission has committed to implementing the operational research, managing for results, evaluation and local capacity-building model in its CDCS, and this will apply as well to FTF.
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
The FTF Performance Monitoring Plan will include indicators measuring progress towards achieving results at all levels. For each indicator, the data source and methodology, baseline, targets, and a calendar of performance management tasks, including a schedule for data collection, will be included. The selection of indicators to include in the PMP will be driven by ongoing and planned activities, the availability of baseline, and provisions made to ensure availability of data for the reference reporting period.
To monitor performance, the Mission will establish baselines and collect data for standard and customized indicators to track whether desired results are occurring and whether performance is on target. All programs receiving FTF resources will be expected to develop monitoring and evaluation strategies that are consistent with the USG Zambia’s FTF framework.
Initial stakeholder workshops will be held for the purposes of
Data quality assessments will be conducted regularly to ensure consistency and completeness. Data collected through monitoring will be used for periodic reports to stakeholders. Given that FTF has the intention to work with a broader range of partners, including local organizations, it is expected that some partners will have more limited reporting capacity. These organizations will need greater assistance, and it may be necessary to delegate the responsibility for some monitoring and reporting to external entities.
For higher level objectives, tracking performance will be beyond the manageable interest of individual projects. In particular, changes in incomes, nutritional status, and some community-level variables among others will be more appropriately measured across the program areas. The FTF Team is developing a consortium of stakeholders to assess existing data sources, and intends to identify an external entity to coordinate baseline and periodic data collection for specific indicators.
An FTF M&E plan will be finalized by the end of Fiscal Year 2011, outlining all indicators and the reporting responsibilities by all USAID/Zambia’s partners. Key FTF required indicators to be tracked and reported are listed in Annex B. Additional project-specific and other relevant indicators not included in the FTF required indicators will be added. It is important to note that all appropriate indicators will be sex-disaggregated.
EVALUATION
In line with the new evaluation policy, the FTF program intends to conduct a number of performance evaluations and impact evaluations. Evaluations of two programs closing in 2011, PROFIT and C-FAARM, will be useful for the FTF learning agenda. The USG FTF has a unique opportunity with a defined geographic focus and the initiation of new activities to establish an impact assessment framework to assess high level impact, as well as to identify the relative contribution of different intervention, such as value chain upgrading versus household level management skills. USAID/Zambia will work with partners and other agencies to develop an impact assessment methodology that is consistent with and contributes to the project performance monitoring framework, but will also test several development hypotheses.
An initial baseline survey will be conducted in Eastern province to establish current levels of key variables including incomes, nutritional status, household production and asset patterns, and agriculture technology levels. This baseline will draw from the latest survey methodologies, particularly recent work on gender and asset control24. An appropriate sampling framework will be established to assess impact, most likely on a biannual basis. A randomized approach will be considered for a sub-sample to maintain the integrity of the impact assessment; however, flexibility will be needed to consider mid-term correction in order to ensure the greatest impact over the period of the strategy.
In the context of the development challenges and opportunities identified in Zambia and outlined in Section 1.1, several development hypotheses are of interest for the impact assessment. In particular, the relative contribution will be assessed of community-level versus household-level interventions to reducing poverty and undernutrition, as well as the additional value of the co-location of interventions. Another hypothesis of interest to be tested is: By increasing productivity, improving household food security and linking smallholders to markets for agriculture commodities, FTF interventions will reduce the incentives for exploiting the natural resource base.
Performance Evaluation
The FTF program will schedule performance evaluations to focus on descriptive and normative questions including: project or program achievements (either at an intermediate point in execution or at the conclusion of an implementation period); program implementation; program perception and value; and other questions pertinent to program design, management and operational decision-making. These performance evaluations will incorporate before-after comparisons whenever feasible.
Impact Evaluation
The FTF program will conduct impact evaluations to measure the change in development outcomes attributable to FTF interventions. Impact evaluations will be based on cause-effect models and will require a credible and rigorously-defined counterfactual control. Impact evaluations with treatment and control groups help provide the strongest evidence of a relationship between interventions and measured outcomes. One hypothesis to be explored includes identifying increased benefits from combined interventions, particularly income-augmenting and nutrition-related activities. In the nutrition portfolio, the differential effect of geographically co-locating health programs active in nutrition with agriculture programs working on the productivity and diversity side of the nutrition equation can be tested.
LINK TO GOVERNMENT MONITORING SYSTEMS
USAID/Zambia has provided extensive support to the Government of Zambia in monitoring the agricultural sector, and in analyzing government data through the Food Security Research Project (FSRP). This support will continue and can be drawn upon to monitor agricultural trends. In addition, FSRP has expertise in analyzing surveys such as the biannual Living Conditions Monitoring Survey (LCMS) which tracks poverty levels, and the Supplemental Surveys, which provide quality agricultural data. This expertise can be leveraged for improved performance monitoring by the GRZ, as well as for FTF performance.
The CAADP framework focuses largely on performance in the agricultural sector. For national performance toward other MDGs, particularly those related to nutrition and gender impacts, the FTF team will work with additional partners to identify appropriate data sources and performance monitoring modalities. For example, the Nutrition Cooperating Partners sub-group may be instrumental in the creation of a data monitoring platform according to the SUN Movement principles. However, the Zambia FTF framework will focus its efforts largely on performance for the targeted FTF areas and the contribution of these changes to national levels.
","Feed the Future aims to help an estimated 834,000 vulnerable Tanzanian women, children and family members—mostly smallholder farmers—escape hunger and poverty","","","","","Vulnerable groups","","Biofortification of staple crops>>>Biofortification of staple crops>>http://www.who.int/elena/titles/biofortification","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","English" "11545","Feed the Future: The U.S. Government’s Global Hunger and Food Security Initiative","English","Multi-national","","ZMB","Zambia"," Eastern Province, Zambia|Lusaka-Eastern Province, Zambia|Lusaka-Central Province, Zambia","Rural|Peri-urban","on-going","01-2011","01-2015","
Feed the Future, the U.S. Government’s global hunger and food security initiative, is establishing a foundation for lasting progress against global hunger. With a focus on smallholder farmers, particularly women, Feed the Future supports partner countries in developing their agriculture sectors to spur economic growth that increases incomes and reduces hunger, poverty, and undernutrition. Feed the Future efforts are driven by country-led priorities and rooted in partnership with governments, donor organizations, the private sector, and civil society to enable long-term success. Feed the Future aims to assist millions of vulnerable women, children, and family members to escape hunger and poverty, while reaching significant numbers of children with highly effective nutrition interventions to prevent stunting and child mortality.
Over the next five years in Zambia, Feed the future aims to help an estimated 263,000 vulnerable Zambian women, children and family members—mostly smallholder farmers—escape hunger and poverty. More than 173,000 children will be reached with services to improve their nutrition and prevent stunting and child mortality. Significant numbers of additional rural populations will achieve improved income and nutritional status from strategic policy engagement and institutional investments.
To meet its objectives, Feed the Future Zambia is making core investments in four key areas:
1. Oilseeds, legumes, maize and horticulture value chains
2. Enabling Environment
3. Economic Resilience
4. Nutrition
Target Regions
Feed the Future is focusing its efforts in two areas: the Eastern Province, with a value chain focus on oilseeds, legumes and maize; and selected peri-urban districts near Lusaka, connecting to Eastern Province, with a particular focus on horticulture.
Highlights
Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) process. Zambia’s CAADP Compact was signed in January 2011, and development of the Zambia CAADP Country Investment Plan has begun. Through this Compact the Government of the Republic of Zambia is committed to the following:
Diversification of staple crop production. Diversification of selected staple value chains will:
Gender. The Zambia strategy strives to maximize the positive impact on female farmers and ensure equitable benefits for men and women by:
CORE INVESTMENT AREA 2: ENABLING ENVIRONMENT AND POLICY DEVELOPMENT
As an additional key strategy component, FTF Zambia will support the development of favorable agriculture policy through policy research and advocacy for reform. For example, continued policy reform is needed for maize to be competitive in regional markets, including a consistent and open border policy; small government strategic reserve; price-band management; and, use of the e-voucher system in input provision. Another critical investment is support to the GRZ to advance and complete the CAADP process, i.e., by helping the government develop a realistic but ambitious Country Investment Plan.
Several important policy objectives will be supported by the USG toward creating an enabling environment to achieve FTF objectives. These include:
USAID/Zambia has awarded a five-year project (2010-2015) that will assist stakeholders through a program of research, policy analysis, outreach, and training. Assistance provided will also support key agricultural policy stakeholders throughout the development and implementation of the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Program (CAADP). The project, the Food Security Research Project (FSRP), will work closely with the Agricultural Consultative Forum (ACF), a Zambian NGO that provides a forum for policy dialogue, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MACO), the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development (MLFD), the Central Statistical Office (CSO), and other selected Zambian organizations.
The FSRP and ACF will take center stage in carrying out independent research to form the basis for developing and promoting supportive agricultural policy in Zambia. The ACF will also remain flexible to build capacity of other Zambian institutions that support the goal of improving fact-based agricultural and economic policy formulation in Zambia to nurture local capacity and local dissemination of knowledge to the public through commissioning and mentoring of local groups to undertake policy analysis. ACF and FSRP efforts in the past have addressed sound market-based principles through institutional capacity building and empirically-based policy research. Those efforts will be intensified to better support the GRZ’s implementation of its CAADP Investment Plan, which is a critical component of the FTF.
New USG funding in the project will be directed to three general activities – capacity building, more active outreach within and beyond the agricultural sector, and improvements in the quality of basic agricultural data emerging from CSO and MACO. This work will be undertaken in collaboration with other efforts to improvements overall data collection management of the CSO, particularly that being spearheaded by the U.K. Department for International Development (DFID). FTF will also fund training to support public and civil society leaders engaged in the CAADP process, as well as training of women scientists.
Key Enabling Environment Program Areas
Analytical Capacity for Improved Agricultural Policy in Zambia. Weak human and institutional capacity to analyze agricultural policy contributes to the politicization of agriculture in Zambia and a weak business climate for agricultural investment. FTF assistance will improve the analytical capacity of Zambian stakeholders. Stronger ―home-grown‖ analytical capacity and greater public outreach will lead to a greater understanding of key issues affecting agriculture by both the public at large and policy makers within the government. Informed technocrats within the government, backed by a supportive public opinion, should be able to convince political leaders to make sound decisions in agricultural policy.
New Project Directions. Emphasis will be on ―Zambianizing‖ the research capacity, which previously was not deep enough, due to limited finances and limited scope of local institutions. Increased high-level USG attention to food security issues demands a more thorough understanding of GRZ priorities and donor commitments in the sector. FSRP and ACF activities will provide the analytical basis for future US and other donor investments in the agricultural sector to combat hunger and poverty, which are aligned with the GRZ’s CAADP Compact.
Thematic And Operational Support of the CAADP Agenda. FSRP has supported the CAADP Compact process, ensuring that critical agricultural policy issues are, and will be, reflected in future policy planning and programming. FSRP support has ensured Zambian ownership of the CAADP framework, including its policies, programs, and targets. FSRP will work with policy makers and stakeholders as before, but with the added mandate of contributing to the peer review process that is part of the CAADP framework, focusing specifically on public resource allocation, investments and the implementation of policies that are the backbone of the CAADP process. FSRP will advocate that the CAADP process include a wide range of stakeholders with broad food security objectives across all four CAADP Pillars, and not result in a concentrated focus on agricultural productivity.
Political Will and Technical Capacity Building. For civil society, the press, government technocrats, and other groups to effectively influence policy, they need fact-based positions and up-to-date information from credible entities. It is therefore important, and an explicit objective of FSRP, to put fact-based information in front of the body politic. Political will shifts when confronted by an aware and informed electorate.
On-going Research Areas
New Potential Research Areas
","
.
","
USAID/Zambia will monitor and evaluate programs and activities throughout the strategy period to ensure that those investments are achieving objectives and maximizing returns to investments. Though many of the investments will be managed and monitored primarily by USAID, some investments will originate from other USG agencies and by government, donors, or the private sector. The Zambia CAADP Country Investment Plan will provide a framework for the development of a more comprehensive national effort in agriculture and poverty reduction that will be supported through the USG FTF effort. CAADP monitoring is addressed below. The M&E framework for the USG FTF strategy outlined in this section will be inclusive and involve all government agencies investing in FTF areas, particularly in the FTF priority geographic area, Eastern province.
The geographic focus, co-location of investments, and the timing of the initiation of new investments provide the opportunity to establish a solid impact assessment framework as well. USAID/Zambia’s approach to monitoring and evaluation will be comprised of three components:
The FTF strategy will be implemented primarily through two of the USAID/Zambia CDCS Development Objectives (DO) and will meet the requirements of CDCS Development Objectives:
The USAID/Zambia Mission has committed to implementing the operational research, managing for results, evaluation and local capacity-building model in its CDCS, and this will apply as well to FTF.
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
The FTF Performance Monitoring Plan will include indicators measuring progress towards achieving results at all levels. For each indicator, the data source and methodology, baseline, targets, and a calendar of performance management tasks, including a schedule for data collection, will be included. The selection of indicators to include in the PMP will be driven by ongoing and planned activities, the availability of baseline, and provisions made to ensure availability of data for the reference reporting period.
To monitor performance, the Mission will establish baselines and collect data for standard and customized indicators to track whether desired results are occurring and whether performance is on target. All programs receiving FTF resources will be expected to develop monitoring and evaluation strategies that are consistent with the USG Zambia’s FTF framework.
Initial stakeholder workshops will be held for the purposes of
Given that FTF has the intention to work with a broader range of partners, including local organizations, it is expected that some partners will have more limited reporting capacity. These organizations will need greater assistance, and it may be necessary to delegate the responsibility for some monitoring and reporting to external entities.
For higher level objectives, tracking performance will be beyond the manageable interest of individual projects. In particular, changes in incomes, nutritional status, and some community-level variables among others will be more appropriately measured across the program areas. The FTF Team is developing a consortium of stakeholders to assess existing data sources, and intends to identify an external entity to coordinate baseline and periodic data collection for specific indicators.
An FTF M&E plan will be finalized by the end of Fiscal Year 2011, outlining all indicators and the reporting responsibilities by all USAID/Zambia’s partners. Key FTF required indicators to be tracked and reported are listed in Annex B. Additional project-specific and other relevant indicators not included in the FTF required indicators will be added. It is important to note that all appropriate indicators will be sex-disaggregated.
EVALUATION
In line with the new evaluation policy, the FTF program intends to conduct a number of performance evaluations and impact evaluations. Evaluations of two programs closing in 2011, PROFIT and C-FAARM, will be useful for the FTF learning agenda. The USG FTF has a unique opportunity with a defined geographic focus and the initiation of new activities to establish an impact assessment framework to assess high level impact, as well as to identify the relative contribution of different intervention, such as value chain upgrading versus household level management skills. USAID/Zambia will work with partners and other agencies to develop an impact assessment methodology that is consistent with and contributes to the project performance monitoring framework, but will also test several development hypotheses.
An initial baseline survey will be conducted in Eastern province to establish current levels of key variables including incomes, nutritional status, household production and asset patterns, and agriculture technology levels. This baseline will draw from the latest survey methodologies, particularly recent work on gender and asset control24. An appropriate sampling framework will be established to assess impact, most likely on a biannual basis. A randomized approach will be considered for a sub-sample to maintain the integrity of the impact assessment; however, flexibility will be needed to consider mid-term correction in order to ensure the greatest impact over the period of the strategy.
In the context of the development challenges and opportunities identified in Zambia and outlined in Section 1.1, several development hypotheses are of interest for the impact assessment. In particular, the relative contribution will be assessed of community-level versus household-level interventions to reducing poverty and undernutrition, as well as the additional value of the co-location of interventions. Another hypothesis of interest to be tested is: By increasing productivity, improving household food security and linking smallholders to markets for agriculture commodities, FTF interventions will reduce the incentives for exploiting the natural resource base.
Performance Evaluation
The FTF program will schedule performance evaluations to focus on descriptive and normative questions including: project or program achievements (either at an intermediate point in execution or at the conclusion of an implementation period); program implementation; program perception and value; and other questions pertinent to program design, management and operational decision-making. These performance evaluations will incorporate before-after comparisons whenever feasible.
Impact Evaluation
The FTF program will conduct impact evaluations to measure the change in development outcomes attributable to FTF interventions. Impact evaluations will be based on cause-effect models and will require a credible and rigorously-defined counterfactual control. Impact evaluations with treatment and control groups help provide the strongest evidence of a relationship between interventions and measured outcomes. One hypothesis to be explored includes identifying increased benefits from combined interventions, particularly income-augmenting and nutrition-related activities. In the nutrition portfolio, the differential effect of geographically co-locating health programs active in nutrition with agriculture programs working on the productivity and diversity side of the nutrition equation can be tested.
LINK TO GOVERNMENT MONITORING SYSTEMS
USAID/Zambia has provided extensive support to the Government of Zambia in monitoring the agricultural sector, and in analyzing government data through the Food Security Research Project (FSRP). This support will continue and can be drawn upon to monitor agricultural trends. In addition, FSRP has expertise in analyzing surveys such as the biannual Living Conditions Monitoring Survey (LCMS) which tracks poverty levels, and the Supplemental Surveys, which provide quality agricultural data. This expertise can be leveraged for improved performance monitoring by the GRZ, as well as for FTF performance.
The CAADP framework focuses largely on performance in the agricultural sector. For national performance toward other MDGs, particularly those related to nutrition and gender impacts, the FTF team will work with additional partners to identify appropriate data sources and performance monitoring modalities. For example, the Nutrition Cooperating Partners sub-group may be instrumental in the creation of a data monitoring platform according to the SUN Movement principles. However, the Zambia FTF framework will focus its efforts largely on performance for the targeted FTF areas and the contribution of these changes to national levels.
","","","","","","Vulnerable groups","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","English" "11545","Feed the Future: The U.S. Government’s Global Hunger and Food Security Initiative","English","Multi-national","","ZMB","Zambia"," Eastern Province, Zambia|Lusaka-Eastern Province, Zambia|Lusaka-Central Province, Zambia","Rural|Peri-urban","on-going","01-2011","01-2015","
Feed the Future, the U.S. Government’s global hunger and food security initiative, is establishing a foundation for lasting progress against global hunger. With a focus on smallholder farmers, particularly women, Feed the Future supports partner countries in developing their agriculture sectors to spur economic growth that increases incomes and reduces hunger, poverty, and undernutrition. Feed the Future efforts are driven by country-led priorities and rooted in partnership with governments, donor organizations, the private sector, and civil society to enable long-term success. Feed the Future aims to assist millions of vulnerable women, children, and family members to escape hunger and poverty, while reaching significant numbers of children with highly effective nutrition interventions to prevent stunting and child mortality.
Over the next five years in Zambia, Feed the future aims to help an estimated 263,000 vulnerable Zambian women, children and family members—mostly smallholder farmers—escape hunger and poverty. More than 173,000 children will be reached with services to improve their nutrition and prevent stunting and child mortality. Significant numbers of additional rural populations will achieve improved income and nutritional status from strategic policy engagement and institutional investments.
To meet its objectives, Feed the Future Zambia is making core investments in four key areas:
1. Oilseeds, legumes, maize and horticulture value chains
2. Enabling Environment
3. Economic Resilience
4. Nutrition
Target Regions
Feed the Future is focusing its efforts in two areas: the Eastern Province, with a value chain focus on oilseeds, legumes and maize; and selected peri-urban districts near Lusaka, connecting to Eastern Province, with a particular focus on horticulture.
Highlights
Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) process. Zambia’s CAADP Compact was signed in January 2011, and development of the Zambia CAADP Country Investment Plan has begun. Through this Compact the Government of the Republic of Zambia is committed to the following:
Diversification of staple crop production. Diversification of selected staple value chains will:
Gender. The Zambia strategy strives to maximize the positive impact on female farmers and ensure equitable benefits for men and women by:
CORE INVESTMENT AREA 3: ECONOMIC RESILIENCE
FTF investments in agricultural value chains will increase agricultural productivity and incomes. FTF investments in health and nutrition infrastructure will improve access to health and nutrition services and information at the district and community level. However, not all households will be able to benefit in the medium term from these investments. In addition, intra-household resource management, even in better-off agricultural households, can be a barrier to the translation of systemic investments in the agricultural and health infrastructure into improvements in benefits for women and children. The Zambia FTF strategy proposes a set of investments to address these two challenges. The investments will target households that are more vulnerable to food insecurity due to composition, illness, or other factors.
Economic Resilience Programming
FTF investments will focus on an integrated approach to building assets and risk reduction, and call for innovative models to link vulnerable households to value chain interventions and investments in community, district and provincial health systems. These programs will engage new partners and will be structured to ensure both small businesses and local partners have the capacity to participate. The program will enhance coping skills, build assets and increase rural incomes for vulnerable households in targeted areas, thereby significantly contributing to Millennium Development Goal 1 of halving the proportion of Zambians living in extreme poverty and suffering from hunger by 2015.
The vulnerable and very poor have some minimum set of assets but have been unable to move towards longer-term economic well-being and health. Frequently donor and government assistance to these households has been in the form of humanitarian relief, economic transfers or subsidies (e.g., of staple foods). USAID/Zambia seeks to support innovative ideas, concepts and programs to increase the economic resilience of the very vulnerable Zambian rural population in targeted areas.
Investments under this core investment area aim to increase the food security of vulnerable and very poor rural households in targeted areas through interventions that reduce the number of hunger months, improve nutrition and health practices, and increase the value of household assets and the ability of households to productively use those assets. These achievements are expected to contribute significantly to reducing stunting and underweight levels in the targeted households over a five-year period.
Activities will target vulnerable groups in rural areas with a minimum set of assets (land and/or labor) and fall below the poverty line of $1.25/day. These attributes characterize a majority of smallholder agricultural producers in Eastern province. To identify more vulnerable households it will be necessary to include households according to additional characteristics such as: female-headed - widowed or divorced; household with person living with AIDS (PLWA) or other chronic and debilitating diseases; household caring for or headed by orphan or vulnerable child (OVC); or disabled household head or member.
Potential Activities
Investments will build upon USAID-funded activities that work in agricultural growth, nutrition and economic resilience efforts, such as the Title II program, the Consortium for Food Security, Agriculture and Nutrition, AIDS, Resiliency and Markets (C-FAARM), closing out in 2011. The programs will implement innovative strategies and approaches to enable vulnerable rural households, including those affected by HIV/AIDS and other diseases, orphan and vulnerable child-headed households, and female-headed households, by improving food security through strengthened economic resilience. Special attention will be given to enabling very poor women to participate in expanding opportunities as producers, service providers and entrepreneurs.
Programs will take an integrated approach to improved food security – addressing availability, access and utilization components, as well as linkages to nutrition and health, and gender relations. Programs as diverse as micro-savings and lending, conditional cash transfers, ―farming as a family business‖ have all shown some potential to reduce vulnerability of poor households under specific conditions. Proposals will be expected to demonstrate scalability.
Recent evidence of preventive approaches to undernutrition in other countries provides direction for successful components of nutrition interventions. The promotion of Essential Nutrition Actions will be a fundamental component of all interventions. Other approaches will be considered. For example, a positive deviance model demonstrated that three-quarters of children under age five treated for undernutrition made significant weight gains when their diets included legumes and other high protein supplements, combined with improved health and sanitary practices, and access to clean water.18 Some microfinance schemes follow a positive deviance model in which seed capital is not injected into communities, but revolving loan funds are created based on the capital available within communities, and members increase their ability to borrow based on the amount of shares they are able (and willing) to invest in the loan fund. Savings-led financial services have been demonstrated to serve an important role in consumption smoothing. Small livestock may actually serve as savings accounts, easily converted into cash when needed. Approaches that target all farm household members, both men and women, have been shown to be effective in improving the use of resources and changing household food security. A recent gender assessment of the SIDA-funded agricultural support program reported that better internal management of household resources was a significant factor contributing to greater household food security for project participants, as measured by months of household food security19. Given strong evidence of the significance of women’s income to child nutrition, approaches that build better household management of resources and strengthen women’s effective control may have a high payoff.
Lessons learned from GCC/SL pilots on community and household use of forest resources will be incorporated into the FTF economic resilience activities. Many vulnerable households are dependent on communal resources for sources of wild foods and medicinal crops that supplement nutritional and income needs. Household use of agriculture and non-agricultural land, such as forests, for additional income will be examined to determine strategies that build resilience and improve land use, without increasing the pressure on non-agricultural lands.
","
It is envisaged that these activities will result in tangible benefits to households such as increased food availability, better management, and improved intra-household food allocation, with improved child food intake and greater diet diversity for vulnerable members. Some expected achievements leading to household level benefits include increased access of poor and very poor farming households to commercial sources of inputs and non-financial supporting services, including extension and agronomic services; increased productivity by poor and very poor farming households; application by very poor farming households of improved crop production and post-harvest practices; and increased access of poor and very poor farming households to financial services.
","
USAID/Zambia will monitor and evaluate programs and activities throughout the strategy period to ensure that those investments are achieving objectives and maximizing returns to investments. Though many of the investments will be managed and monitored primarily by USAID, some investments will originate from other USG agencies and by government, donors, or the private sector. The Zambia CAADP Country Investment Plan will provide a framework for the development of a more comprehensive national effort in agriculture and poverty reduction that will be supported through the USG FTF effort. CAADP monitoring is addressed below. The M&E framework for the USG FTF strategy outlined in this section will be inclusive and involve all government agencies investing in FTF areas, particularly in the FTF priority geographic area, Eastern province.
The geographic focus, co-location of investments, and the timing of the initiation of new investments provide the opportunity to establish a solid impact assessment framework as well. USAID/Zambia’s approach to monitoring and evaluation will be comprised of three components:
The FTF strategy will be implemented primarily through two of the USAID/Zambia CDCS Development Objectives (DO) and will meet the requirements of CDCS Development Objectives:
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
The FTF Performance Monitoring Plan will include indicators measuring progress towards achieving results at all levels. For each indicator, the data source and methodology, baseline, targets, and a calendar of performance management tasks, including a schedule for data collection, will be included. The selection of indicators to include in the PMP will be driven by ongoing and planned activities, the availability of baseline, and provisions made to ensure availability of data for the reference reporting period.
To monitor performance, the Mission will establish baselines and collect data for standard and customized indicators to track whether desired results are occurring and whether performance is on target. All programs receiving FTF resources will be expected to develop monitoring and evaluation strategies that are consistent with the USG Zambia’s FTF framework.
Initial stakeholder workshops will be held for the purposes of:
Data collected through monitoring will be used for periodic reports to stakeholders.
Given that FTF has the intention to work with a broader range of partners, including local organizations, it is expected that some partners will have more limited reporting capacity. These organizations will need greater assistance, and it may be necessary to delegate the responsibility for some monitoring and reporting to external entities.
For higher level objectives, tracking performance will be beyond the manageable interest of individual projects. In particular, changes in incomes, nutritional status, and some community-level variables among others will be more appropriately measured across the program areas. The FTF Team is developing a consortium of stakeholders to assess existing data sources, and intends to identify an external entity to coordinate baseline and periodic data collection for specific indicators.
An FTF M&E plan will be finalized by the end of Fiscal Year 2011, outlining all indicators and the reporting responsibilities by all USAID/Zambia’s partners. Key FTF required indicators to be tracked and reported are listed in Annex B. Additional project-specific and other relevant indicators not included in the FTF required indicators will be added. It is important to note that all appropriate indicators will be sex-disaggregated.
EVALUATION
In line with the new evaluation policy, the FTF program intends to conduct a number of performance evaluations and impact evaluations. Evaluations of two programs closing in 2011, PROFIT and C-FAARM, will be useful for the FTF learning agenda. The USG FTF has a unique opportunity with a defined geographic focus and the initiation of new activities to establish an impact assessment framework to assess high level impact, as well as to identify the relative contribution of different intervention, such as value chain upgrading versus household level management skills. USAID/Zambia will work with partners and other agencies to develop an impact assessment methodology that is consistent with and contributes to the project performance monitoring framework, but will also test several development hypotheses.
An initial baseline survey will be conducted in Eastern province to establish current levels of key variables including incomes, nutritional status, household production and asset patterns, and agriculture technology levels. This baseline will draw from the latest survey methodologies, particularly recent work on gender and asset control24. An appropriate sampling framework will be established to assess impact, most likely on a biannual basis. A randomized approach will be considered for a sub-sample to maintain the integrity of the impact assessment; however, flexibility will be needed to consider mid-term correction in order to ensure the greatest impact over the period of the strategy.
In the context of the development challenges and opportunities identified in Zambia and outlined in Section 1.1, several development hypotheses are of interest for the impact assessment. In particular, the relative contribution will be assessed of community-level versus household-level interventions to reducing poverty and undernutrition, as well as the additional value of the co-location of interventions. Another hypothesis of interest to be tested is: By increasing productivity, improving household food security and linking smallholders to markets for agriculture commodities, FTF interventions will reduce the incentives for exploiting the natural resource base.
Performance Evaluation
The FTF program will schedule performance evaluations to focus on descriptive and normative questions including: project or program achievements (either at an intermediate point in execution or at the conclusion of an implementation period); program implementation; program perception and value; and other questions pertinent to program design, management and operational decision-making. These performance evaluations will incorporate before-after comparisons whenever feasible.
Impact Evaluation
The FTF program will conduct impact evaluations to measure the change in development outcomes attributable to FTF interventions. Impact evaluations will be based on cause-effect models and will require a credible and rigorously-defined counterfactual control. Impact evaluations with treatment and control groups help provide the strongest evidence of a relationship between interventions and measured outcomes. One hypothesis to be explored includes identifying increased benefits from combined interventions, particularly income-augmenting and nutrition-related activities. In the nutrition portfolio, the differential effect of geographically co-locating health programs active in nutrition with agriculture programs working on the productivity and diversity side of the nutrition equation can be tested.
LINK TO GOVERNMENT MONITORING SYSTEMS
USAID/Zambia has provided extensive support to the Government of Zambia in monitoring the agricultural sector, and in analyzing government data through the Food Security Research Project (FSRP). This support will continue and can be drawn upon to monitor agricultural trends. In addition, FSRP has expertise in analyzing surveys such as the biannual Living Conditions Monitoring Survey (LCMS) which tracks poverty levels, and the Supplemental Surveys, which provide quality agricultural data. This expertise can be leveraged for improved performance monitoring by the GRZ, as well as for FTF performance.
The CAADP framework focuses largely on performance in the agricultural sector. For national performance toward other MDGs, particularly those related to nutrition and gender impacts, the FTF team will work with additional partners to identify appropriate data sources and performance monitoring modalities. For example, the Nutrition Cooperating Partners sub-group may be instrumental in the creation of a data monitoring platform according to the SUN Movement principles. However, the Zambia FTF framework will focus its efforts largely on performance for the targeted FTF areas and the contribution of these changes to national levels.
","Feed the Future aims to help an estimated 834,000 vulnerable Tanzanian women, children and family members—mostly smallholder farmers—escape hunger and poverty","","","Increased productivity and income from selected value chains (gross margin per unit of land or animal of selected product) (disaggregated by sex); Increased expenditures (proxy for income) of rural households, including female-headed households; Prevalence of households with moderate or severe hunger (disaggregated by sex of household head); Per cent of children 6-23 months that receive a Minimum Acceptable Diet (disaggregated by sex); Number of vulnerable households benefiting from program activities through increased economic resilience (disaggregated by sex of household head); Women’s Dietary Diversity: Mean number of food groups consumed by women of reproductive age; Prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding of children under 6 months; Number of people with a savings account or insurance policy as a result of USG assistance (disaggregated by sex).","Increased productivity and income from selected value chains (gross margin per unit of land or animal of selected product) (disaggregated by sex); Increased expenditures (proxy for income) of rural households, including female-headed households; Prevalence of households with moderate or severe hunger (disaggregated by sex of household head); Per cent of children 6-23 months that receive a Minimum Acceptable Diet (disaggregated by sex); Number of vulnerable households benefiting from program activities through increased economic resilience (disaggregated by sex of household head); Women’s Dietary Diversity: Mean number of food groups consumed by women of reproductive age; Prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding of children under 6 months; Number of people with a savings account or insurance policy as a result of USG assistance (disaggregated by sex).","Vulnerable groups","","Breastfeeding – exclusive breastfeeding>>>Breastfeeding – exclusive breastfeeding>>http://www.who.int/elena/titles/exclusive_breastfeeding","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","English" "11545","Feed the Future: The U.S. Government’s Global Hunger and Food Security Initiative","English","Multi-national","","ZMB","Zambia"," Eastern Province, Zambia|Lusaka-Eastern Province, Zambia|Lusaka-Central Province, Zambia","Rural|Peri-urban","on-going","01-2011","01-2015","
Feed the Future, the U.S. Government’s global hunger and food security initiative, is establishing a foundation for lasting progress against global hunger. With a focus on smallholder farmers, particularly women, Feed the Future supports partner countries in developing their agriculture sectors to spur economic growth that increases incomes and reduces hunger, poverty, and undernutrition. Feed the Future efforts are driven by country-led priorities and rooted in partnership with governments, donor organizations, the private sector, and civil society to enable long-term success. Feed the Future aims to assist millions of vulnerable women, children, and family members to escape hunger and poverty, while reaching significant numbers of children with highly effective nutrition interventions to prevent stunting and child mortality.
Over the next five years in Zambia, Feed the future aims to help an estimated 263,000 vulnerable Zambian women, children and family members—mostly smallholder farmers—escape hunger and poverty. More than 173,000 children will be reached with services to improve their nutrition and prevent stunting and child mortality. Significant numbers of additional rural populations will achieve improved income and nutritional status from strategic policy engagement and institutional investments.
To meet its objectives, Feed the Future Zambia is making core investments in four key areas:
1. Oilseeds, legumes, maize and horticulture value chains
2. Enabling Environment
3. Economic Resilience
4. Nutrition
Target Regions
Feed the Future is focusing its efforts in two areas: the Eastern Province, with a value chain focus on oilseeds, legumes and maize; and selected peri-urban districts near Lusaka, connecting to Eastern Province, with a particular focus on horticulture.
Highlights
Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) process. Zambia’s CAADP Compact was signed in January 2011, and development of the Zambia CAADP Country Investment Plan has begun. Through this Compact the Government of the Republic of Zambia is committed to the following:
Diversification of staple crop production. Diversification of selected staple value chains will:
Gender. The Zambia strategy strives to maximize the positive impact on female farmers and ensure equitable benefits for men and women by:
FTF Zambia is investing in capacity-building and training of health workers to improve nutrition services and nutrition education. The nutrition program will include a national mass media campaign around the Essential Nutrition Actions that will be linked to community-level behavioral and social change communications. Additionally, the program will build strong linkages to rural health services and nutrition interventions. The nutrition program is largely managed by USAID/Zambia’s Health and HIV Offices, but activities by the USAID Economic Growth Team and Centers for Disease Control will also contribute.
The Government of Zambia has recently refocused on the poor national nutrition levels by developing a National Nutrition Strategy and holding a National Nutrition Consultative Forum to discuss the strategy. Zambia has also been selected as an Early Riser under the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Initiative promoted by the U.S. and a wide range of other donors. The USG participates in a recently formed Nutrition Donor Convener Group, chaired by DFID and UNICEF, under the Health Sector Working Group. The USG can play an important role in raising concern over nutrition levels within the country, coordinating USG and other donor investments, and supporting government efforts to intensify efforts to address undernutrition.
Nutrition Programming
FTF Agriculture and Food-based Nutrition Programming. FTF agriculture investments will contribute to improved nutritional outcomes through several approaches. Improved incomes for poor households as a result of improved agricultural practices and better market access can translate into improved household food availability, although this is usually not sufficient for changes in child nutritional status. FTF agricultural investments will also improve the quantity and quality of staple foods in Eastern province, resulting in reduced prices for poor households, most of which purchase food for several months of the year. In addition, FTF food-based strategies will result in more nutritious foods through strategies such as bio-fortification and breeding, particularly through increasing dissemination and production of beta-carotene-rich ―orange‖ maize and orange-fleshed sweet potatoes. Household-based approaches through the Economic Resilience programs, described in greater detail in Section 4.3 above, will focus on more equitable food distribution/income control and on communicating behavioral change messages on essential nutrition actions at the household level. These programs will also ensure that all nutrition-related activities are consistent with and support other nutrition programming, for example in nutrition training of agricultural workers and extension staff, or capacity-building of community workers other than community-based health workers. Other potential food based strategies include school feeding linkages with organizations such as the World Food Program, with the introduction of nutritious products such as soy-based products or orange-fleshed sweet potatoes.
FTF Nutrition-related Programming through the Health Sector. USG investments in the health sector are extensive and broad and make a major contribution to the status of Zambians’ health. Many of these programs have components that directly address nutrition through improving health outcomes, reducing incidence of diseases such as malaria, vaccine preventable diseases, intestinal worm infestation, etc., providing food to PLWA, and supporting orphans and vulnerable children, among others.
The USAID Health Office invests in four programs supporting systemic change in health services. These programs include support for:
The logistics program focuses on improvements in commodities and supply chains for a wide array of critical inputs such as antiretroviral drugs, family planning inputs, and bed nets. Social marketing is conducted for all important areas, including family planning, HIV prevention and inputs, and malaria. Broad spectrum media campaigns are conducted under the integrated behavior change communication investments. These campaigns are conducted at national, provincial and community levels to elicit change in a wide range of health-related behaviors.
The following national-level interventions will be considered:
Recommendations for rural areas include the following:
In addition to interventions that strengthen the health system and refocus efforts on nutrition behavior change, the FTF strategy proposes to link health, nutrition, economic resilience, and economic growth activities at the household-level, to the extent this is feasible and cost-effective. Two approaches will be adopted:
FTF Nutrition-related Investments through HIV/AIDS Programming. Another significant contributor to child malnutrition is the high rate of pediatric HIV/AIDS. Based on a 2010 technical update on WHO guidelines, for infants and young children known to be HIV-infected, mothers are strongly encouraged to breastfeed exclusively for the first 6 months and to continue breastfeeding, with adequate supplementary feeding, up to 2 years and beyond. Therefore all infants 6 months of age and older need additional, developmentally and nutritionally appropriate food sources, as breast milk is no longer sufficient. Hence, nutrition-related HIV/AIDS interventions are also under development by the USG in Zambia, and these investments will have an impact on the reduction of undernutrition in children below age 2.
High prevalence of Vitamin A deficiency in rural Zambia. Vitamin A deficiency is a long-standing public health problem in Zambia due to inadequate dietary intake. The Ministry of Health distributes vitamin A supplements during the twice-yearly child health weeks and sugar is fortified with Vitamin A. Nonetheless, according to the 2007 Zambia Demographic and Health Survey vitamin A deficiency (VAD) continues to affect 54 percent of Zambian children under 5 and women of reproductive age. These high levels of VAD may be attributed to the high prevalence of asymptomatic infections in the Zambian population. Increasing the intake of Vitamin A through a wider range of sources, combined with health interventions, including those to prevent and treat infectious disease, will decrease defiency in many vulnerable groups. Biofortified crops have a high potential to increase Vitamin A content in diets, particularly of rural households that produce their own food and have limited consumption of fortified products.
Potential agriculture activities include:
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USAID/Zambia will monitor and evaluate programs and activities throughout the strategy period to ensure that those investments are achieving objectives and maximizing returns to investments. Though many of the investments will be managed and monitored primarily by USAID, some investments will originate from other USG agencies and by government, donors, or the private sector. The Zambia CAADP Country Investment Plan will provide a framework for the development of a more comprehensive national effort in agriculture and poverty reduction that will be supported through the USG FTF effort. CAADP monitoring is addressed below. The M&E framework for the USG FTF strategy outlined in this section will be inclusive and involve all government agencies investing in FTF areas, particularly in the FTF priority geographic area, Eastern province.
The geographic focus, co-location of investments, and the timing of the initiation of new investments provide the opportunity to establish a solid impact assessment framework as well. USAID/Zambia’s approach to monitoring and evaluation will be comprised of three components: 1) project-level reporting; 2) performance management/monitoring and evaluation; and, 3) external impact assessment to capture the aggregate impact of all investments and the relative contribution of different interventions to the extent feasible.
The FTF strategy will be implemented primarily through two of the USAID/Zambia CDCS Development Objectives (DO) and will meet the requirements of CDCS Development Objectives:
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
The FTF Performance Monitoring Plan will include indicators measuring progress towards achieving results at all levels. For each indicator, the data source and methodology, baseline, targets, and a calendar of performance management tasks, including a schedule for data collection, will be included. The selection of indicators to include in the PMP will be driven by ongoing and planned activities, the availability of baseline, and provisions made to ensure availability of data for the reference reporting period.
To monitor performance, the Mission will establish baselines and collect data for standard and customized indicators to track whether desired results are occurring and whether performance is on target. All programs receiving FTF resources will be expected to develop monitoring and evaluation strategies that are consistent with the USG Zambia’s FTF framework.
Initial stakeholder workshops will be held for the purposes of:
Given that FTF has the intention to work with a broader range of partners, including local organizations, it is expected that some partners will have more limited reporting capacity. These organizations will need greater assistance, and it may be necessary to delegate the responsibility for some monitoring and reporting to external entities.
For higher level objectives, tracking performance will be beyond the manageable interest of individual projects. In particular, changes in incomes, nutritional status, and some community-level variables among others will be more appropriately measured across the program areas. The FTF Team is developing a consortium of stakeholders to assess existing data sources, and intends to identify an external entity to coordinate baseline and periodic data collection for specific indicators.
An FTF M&E plan will be finalized by the end of Fiscal Year 2011, outlining all indicators and the reporting responsibilities by all USAID/Zambia’s partners. Key FTF required indicators to be tracked and reported are listed in Annex B. Additional project-specific and other relevant indicators not included in the FTF required indicators will be added. It is important to note that all appropriate indicators will be sex-disaggregated.
EVALUATION
In line with the new evaluation policy, the FTF program intends to conduct a number of performance evaluations and impact evaluations. Evaluations of two programs closing in 2011, PROFIT and C-FAARM, will be useful for the FTF learning agenda. The USG FTF has a unique opportunity with a defined geographic focus and the initiation of new activities to establish an impact assessment framework to assess high level impact, as well as to identify the relative contribution of different intervention, such as value chain upgrading versus household level management skills. USAID/Zambia will work with partners and other agencies to develop an impact assessment methodology that is consistent with and contributes to the project performance monitoring framework, but will also test several development hypotheses.
An initial baseline survey will be conducted in Eastern province to establish current levels of key variables including incomes, nutritional status, household production and asset patterns, and agriculture technology levels. This baseline will draw from the latest survey methodologies, particularly recent work on gender and asset control24. An appropriate sampling framework will be established to assess impact, most likely on a biannual basis. A randomized approach will be considered for a sub-sample to maintain the integrity of the impact assessment; however, flexibility will be needed to consider mid-term correction in order to ensure the greatest impact over the period of the strategy.
In the context of the development challenges and opportunities identified in Zambia and outlined in Section 1.1, several development hypotheses are of interest for the impact assessment. In particular, the relative contribution will be assessed of community-level versus household-level interventions to reducing poverty and undernutrition, as well as the additional value of the co-location of interventions. Another hypothesis of interest to be tested is: By increasing productivity, improving household food security and linking smallholders to markets for agriculture commodities, FTF interventions will reduce the incentives for exploiting the natural resource base.
Performance Evaluation
The FTF program will schedule performance evaluations to focus on descriptive and normative questions including: project or program achievements (either at an intermediate point in execution or at the conclusion of an implementation period); program implementation; program perception and value; and other questions pertinent to program design, management and operational decision-making. These performance evaluations will incorporate before-after comparisons whenever feasible.
Impact Evaluation
The FTF program will conduct impact evaluations to measure the change in development outcomes attributable to FTF interventions. Impact evaluations will be based on cause-effect models and will require a credible and rigorously-defined counterfactual control. Impact evaluations with treatment and control groups help provide the strongest evidence of a relationship between interventions and measured outcomes. One hypothesis to be explored includes identifying increased benefits from combined interventions, particularly income-augmenting and nutrition-related activities. In the nutrition portfolio, the differential effect of geographically co-locating health programs active in nutrition with agriculture programs working on the productivity and diversity side of the nutrition equation can be tested.
LINK TO GOVERNMENT MONITORING SYSTEMS
USAID/Zambia has provided extensive support to the Government of Zambia in monitoring the agricultural sector, and in analyzing government data through the Food Security Research Project (FSRP). This support will continue and can be drawn upon to monitor agricultural trends. In addition, FSRP has expertise in analyzing surveys such as the biannual Living Conditions Monitoring Survey (LCMS) which tracks poverty levels, and the Supplemental Surveys, which provide quality agricultural data. This expertise can be leveraged for improved performance monitoring by the GRZ, as well as for FTF performance.
The CAADP framework focuses largely on performance in the agricultural sector. For national performance toward other MDGs, particularly those related to nutrition and gender impacts, the FTF team will work with additional partners to identify appropriate data sources and performance monitoring modalities. For example, the Nutrition Cooperating Partners sub-group may be instrumental in the creation of a data monitoring platform according to the SUN Movement principles. However, the Zambia FTF framework will focus its efforts largely on performance for the targeted FTF areas and the contribution of these changes to national levels.
","Feed the future aims to help an estimated 263,000 vulnerable Zambian women, children and family members—mostly smallholder farmers—escape hunger and poverty. More than 173,000 children will be reached with services to improve their nutrition and prevent s","","","Number of people trained in child health and nutrition through USG-supported programs; Anemia among women of reproductive age (%); Number of health facilities with established capacity to manage acute undernutrition; Prevalence of anemia among children 6-59 months; Number of children under five years of age who received Vitamin A from USG-supported programs; Number of children under five reached by USG-supported nutrition programs.","Number of people trained in child health and nutrition through USG-supported programs; Anemia among women of reproductive age (%); Number of health facilities with established capacity to manage acute undernutrition; Prevalence of anemia among children 6-59 months; Number of children under five years of age who received Vitamin A from USG-supported programs; Number of children under five reached by USG-supported nutrition programs.","Vulnerable groups","","Breastfeeding – exclusive breastfeeding>>>Breastfeeding – exclusive breastfeeding>>http://www.who.int/elena/titles/exclusive_breastfeeding","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","English"