March 22, 2016
UNHCR / Corentin Fohlen
DARA has finalized the Impact Evaluation for the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) of the World Food Programme’s (WFP) program targeting moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) in humanitarian situations in Chad focusing on the Chadian population living along the Sahelian belt.
The evaluation aimed to assess the impact of WFP’s MAM interventions in Chad and improve understanding of the relationship between malnutrition treatment and prevention work. Previous research on the inter-relation between prevention and treatment of MAM is limited, and one of the greatest challenges is the lack of evidence, consensus and programmatic guidance on how to prevent MAM through addressing the underlying causes with nutrition-sensitive interventions.
The evaluation used a quasi-experimental methodology to capture the effects of preventive interventions in children aged 6 to 23 months in the region of Bahr el Ghazal (BEG) some of the key findings show that preventive measures have a positive effect on MAM incidence during lean season, as well as protecting households subject to seasonal livelihoods. It is expected that this findings provide insights for nutrition actors in Chad on the best design for addressing MAM in country and provide inputs to the current national nutrition protocol as well as influence WFP’s MAM programmes through its partners.
A first step for this was the participation of DARA’s Principal Investigator in the peer-learning event “Designing and implementing high-quality, policy-relevant impact evaluations in humanitarian contexts: lessons from 3ie-supported impact evaluations”, held in the framework of the African Evaluation Association’s 8th AfrEA International Conference in Kampala, Uganda during 27 – 31 March 2017. Preliminary findings and lessons learnt from designing and implementing this type of evaluations were shared with other peers performing evaluations and stakeholders implementing the humanitarian programmes being evaluated under the 3ie Humanitarian Assistance Thematic Window.
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