ORIE Research Summary 7. Quantitative Impact Evaluation: Baseline Report
Abstract
This summary provides an overview of the baseline quantitative evaluation of the WINNN programme which aims at assessing the impact of two outputs – the Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) and Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) interventions. The programme is using a quasi-experimental design, which has matched local government areas in which the programme is operating to control local government areas which receive standard government care. At the end of the programme these same households will be visited and surveyed to examine changes over time in areas where the WINNN programme is operating.
The baseline survey found unacceptably high levels of stunting- 58 per cent of children under the age of 5 years were too short for their age, which impacts the child’s health and potentially cognitive development, educational attainment and lifetime earnings. Undernutrition is due to a number of factors including poor dietary intake and disease. Optimal infant and young child feeding practices were not widely followed, with only 7 per cent of mother exclusively breastfeeding a child under six months and only five percent of children 6-23 months receiving an adequate acceptable diet with looks at how often the child is fed and the number of food groups the child receives. There were low levels of uptake for preventative health care practices – only 3 per cent of children could be considered fully vaccinated and levels of antenatal care for mothers were also very low, with only 43 per cent of women receiving any antenatal care.
Key findings include the importance of maternal nutrition, and nutrition for women before they become pregnant , based on the correlation between maternal underweight and child stunting. Based on the low access to health facilities, it is important to bring interventions such as CMAM and IYCF into the community and not relying only on services delivered through health facilities. Improving community mobilization will also be important, using multiple channels to reach different populations, given that many of the mothers were not aware of key interventions. Findings from the baseline survey can also be used to tailor messages to make them most effective in this context.
Citation
Jasper, P.; Visram, A. ORIE Research Summary 7. Quantitative Impact Evaluation: Baseline Report. ORIE (2014) 4 pp.
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