The various methodological steps presented in this guide may be used to achieve different purposes. The four major ones include:
(1) The appraisal of a nutrition situation within the broader context of a livelihoods analysis.
(2) The design of a strategy, a programme or a project with the improvement of nutrition as development objective.
(3) The integration of nutrition objectives and considerations into sector-specific and poverty-alleviation projects and programmes.
(4) The development of a baseline for participatory monitoring and evaluation of nutrition and household food security indicators
Depending on one’s background and what one wants to achieve, the user of this guide may wish to use part or all of the methodological steps presented in Section 4. If one has already embarked on an inter-sectoral and iterative process of appraisal, analysis and planning, one may wish to adapt the appraisal design and tools to one’s own purposes and skip the process steps. In case of time or financial constraints, one may wish to base the analysis solely on secondary information and hence skip step 2.
The first purpose of the appraisal is always to prepare a profile of the nutrition situation of a specific area or population. Local government may use such a profile to sensitise national policy makers and planners and solicit their support. A district or area profile may also provide useful information to organisations interested in supporting specific programmes in the area. In this case, the appraisal may be a one-off exercise and the information may be updated from time to time. In any of those cases, those tasked with the appraisal may break off the exercise after Step 3, once the findings have been analysed. The appraisal team should avoid creating false expectations and inform local stakeholders that no immediate action will follow from the appraisal.
Without having the resources available to support action, one may decide to go one step further and move into the identification of objectives and potential strategies. This would be the case where for example a district based development committee would wish to seek funding from central government or donor agencies. In several countries, district development committees have designed their own district development plans, incorporating nutrition objectives and considerations. These are financed through decentralised rural development and sector investment programmes. In this case, the appraisal team should implement all four steps so as to be able to present a basket of strategic interventions. While the objective of the exercise may be poverty alleviation, the methodology allows for a focus on nutrition as a basic livelihood outcome and determinant. To capture other livelihood outcomes, one may wish to adapt or use alternative tools.
The prioritisation of these interventions will assist donors and central government together with local stakeholders to make decisions on what programmes to implement first. Such a situation would also require that the district-based consultation process started off in Step 1 is already or will be institutionalised. Institutionalisation requires the establishment of an iterative process of appraisal, analysis and planning and the involvement of grass roots stakeholders.
Often, the establishment of such a process is not immediately applicable. The institutional framework may not be adapted to decentralised and participatory decision making and existing funding mechanisms may not allow for the devolution of budgetary and financial authority to the lower levels of the administration. In such cases, one may wish to demonstrate how such a system could work and lead to greater impact and sustainability. This can be done through projects and programmes, whose experiences may later on be up-scaled or replicated and institutionalised. In this case, the team tasked with project design may wish to run through all four steps and establish a process through which stakeholders from the various levels can participate in the different stages of the project cycle.
The appraisal may also be used as a baseline against which to measure change over time. Monitoring may be done through a regular measurement of those indicators that were found to be sensitive to capture nutritional vulnerability in specific groups. Beneficiary assessment building on the results of previous appraisals may be used to measure project or programme impact during as well as following implementation. For the purpose of a beneficiary assessment, one may use Steps 1 to 3 and if one wishes to use this information for a mid-term adjustment in project design Step 4 provides, with some adjustments, an appropriate planning methodology.
