HNE-36406 Monitoring, Evaluation and Impact Assessment of Food and Nutrition Programmes

Course

Credits 6.00

Language of instruction:

English

Assumed knowledge on:

HNE-20306 Nutrition Behaviour. Students from BSc or MSc programmes other than Nutrition and Health are advised to enroll in a computer-based self-study tutorial of about 40 hours, developed by the CDI (see: http://www.cdi.wur.nl/services/courses/overviewcourses2012)

Continuation courses:

MSc Thesis Nutrition and Health over the Lifecourse or MSc Thesis Nutrition and Disease.

Contents:

The Lancet nutrition series (2013) reported that rigorous evaluations on the effects of nutrition projects and programmes are scarce or non-existent. This absence of an adequate monitoring & evaluation (M&E) system represents a major constraint in food and nutrition insecurity programmes. Even though there is evidence that a well-designed M&E system is valuable in assessing and improving project performance, many project planners and managers are not fully able to develop and operate a M&E system. The course offered will help to address this need.
In this course participants will learn what a M&E system for food and nutrition security entails. Emphasis will be placed on what steps are needed within the M&E system to facilitate impact assessment. The course stresses the need for careful selection of indicators in designing information support systems. A scientific basis is used for analysis and interpretation of M&E data to be able to design strong policy on food and nutrition security. This course is integrated with a 3-weeks fulltime course organized in collaboration with the Wageningen UR Centre for Development Innovation involving nutrition professionals from all over the world.

Learning outcomes:

After successful completion of this course students are expected to:
- be able to understand the concept of food and nutrition security and the related frameworks;
- be able to assert that reduced malnutrition leads to both health and economic benefits;
- have new insights into the principles of participatory and learning-oriented, monitorin and evaluation planning in food and nutrition security;
- have strengthened your competence to design a M&E system including assessments for food and nutrition security programmes and/or projects;
- have clear ideas for improving M&E systems and impact assessments for food and nutrition security;
- have obtained basic skills in FAO food security information methodology (Food Basket, Dietary Diversity Score, Household Hunger Scale) and in software for analysis of nutrition survey data;
- be familiar with nutrition indicators to asses nutritional status on individual and household level;
- be acquainted with various semi-quantitative and qualitative food and nutrition security data collection techniques.

Activities:

Each module is scheduled at CDI full-time (morning and afternoon), contact the coordinator for detailed scheduling information.
The training approach is interactive and experience-based: it provides the students with the possibility to learn from expert facilitators as well as from each other.
Especially the combination with the foreign participants from the WI course will offer the students an excellent opportunity to exchange ideas. Transfer in knowledge goes hand in hand with case studies, working groups, etc.

Examination:

The presence at the course is obligatory for all sessions. The breakdown of marks contributing to the final grade received upon completion of this course is 40% from the case study report and 60% from an essay reflecting on own learning objectives. The case study report is written based on a case study for which a monitoring and evaluation plan has to be developed in closely supervised group work. The Essay comprises 2-4 pages and reflects on monitoring and evaluation learning objectives formulated in the first week of the course.

Literature:

A study guide and literature will be handed out at the beginning of the course at CDI.