Monitoring Activities:
• Quarterly Field Monitoring Visits:
Field monitoring visits will be undertaken to selected sites to check the progress on service delivery and the implementation of the activities. The visits will assist in identifying challenges faced and serve as the basis for dialoguing with service providers and implementers in focusing towards the achievement of the results. The quarterly field monitoring visits will also help in checking compliance to the laid down nutrition implementation procedures and guidelines. Quarterly monitoring visits will be led by the OPC, Department of Nutrition and HIV and AIDS, although multisectoral and multi-agency teams will also be encouraged. A quarterly field monitoring report will be produced by the monitoring team and will include (a) key findings of the visit, (b) main challenges observed in the course of implementing the NNPSP activities, and (c) recommendations on resolving bottlenecks.
• National Integrated Nutrition Surveillance:
National Integrated Nutrition Surveillance System will be used to track the progress on the output and outcome indicators on a Monthly/quarterly basis. The results would be discussed in the quarterly review meetings. Because these will happen throughout the implementation period, the results will also be used for the evaluation at the outcome and impact levels.
• Bi-annual Nutrition Review Meetings:
These will be held to review the implementation of the activities of the NNPSP. It will also review quarterly review reports by the Nutrition and Food Security M&E working group that reports on output as well as outcome indicators. While primarily a coordination activity, the quarterly review meeting will provide a useful forum for stakeholders to appreciate the in loads made towards the NNPSP goals and challenges constraining progress. The outcome of the quarterly
review meetings will be a concise brief outlining the next steps.
• Nutrition Steering Committee Meetings/Government Development Partner Meetings:
These will focus on policy issues and discuss policy implementation, resource mobilization and progress towards policy outcomes. The meetings will discuss issues that have a bearing on the Nutrition policy such as inadequacies in the policy provisions that constrain the implementation and compliance, emerging issues on the ground that need to be addressed at the policy level as well as funding prospects for nutrition activities. The objective will be to ensure that the whole Nutrition Programme as envisaged in the NNPSP is moving towards the achievement of the Planed objectives.
• Develop an operational database and Coordination of Information:
The OPCDepartment of Nutrition and HIV and AIDS will ensure the establishment of a coordinated management information system to be able to collect data, store them, and make them easily accessible to facilitate analysis and reporting on the NNPSP. In this regard, an inventory of all agencies implementing nutrition activities will be created. The data base would include- names of nutrition projects/service providers, type of activity, budget, output and outcome indicator targets, geographical location of services/project, target group and achievements for a particular period among others.
Evaluation activities:
• Construction of Baselines and Targets:
This will be a key activity as the ability of the nutrition response via the NNPSP to monitor the performance will depend on it, focusing on those targets without the baselines. In particular, baselines on the key outcome indicators in the NNPSP will be useful for determining the impact of the response at the end of the implementation period. Performance targets at annual, mid-term and end of the implementation of the plan will be critical in undertaking performance monitoring.
• Annual Nutrition Sector Reviews:
These will be undertaken to review the implementation progress, challenges and the status of the outcome indicators. While focusing also on coordination and the extent to which nutrition activities are being implemented in accordance with the agreed frameworks, the sector reviews will be foras where knowledge on the implementation experiences, good practice and challenges will be shared. An outcome of the meetings will be the identification of the implementation bottlenecks and recommendations to improve the performance towards the achievement of the results.
• Periodic Nutrition Surveys:
These will be used to track among others (a) the effectiveness of the interventions; and (b) impact on malnutrition levels. They will include the existing sector surveys on nutrition, Malawi Vulnerability Assessment and Mapping (VAM) work, National Statistical Office Surveys such as MICS and MDHS, Micronutrient Surveys, and National Nutrition Surveys. Impact studies focusing on specific interventions will also form part of the tracking studies. These will be population-based surveys and will be used to identify and understand the core factors and patterns fuelling chronic malnutrition, and influencing the demand for and supply of various nutrition services.
• Mid-Term Evaluation:
The Nutrition National Strategic Plan will be evaluated mid-way through the implementation with the aim of gauging implementation progress at midstream, and devise ways of improving the performance at post mid-term of the plan. The mid term evaluation will either be conducted by an independent assessor or internally by stakeholders but led by the OPC, Department of Nutrition and HIV and AIDS.
• End of NNPSP Evaluation:
The end of NNPSP evaluation will be undertaken at the end of the implementation period of the Plan in 2011 or early 2012. The focus of the end of NNPSP evaluation will be to learn lessons to inform the future national nutrition initiatives and strategies in the country. The evaluation will be undertaken by an independent reviewer. Its main aim will be for reprogramming and replanning.
M & E components for each objective, listed under Annex 3