| dc.description.abstract | The Christian Partners Development Agency (CPDA) food security project III Vihiga
District aims at improving the quality of life by supporting communities to attain food
security through improved agricultural and nutritional practices. health. water and
sanitation. An evaluation of the project conducted in July. 2003 showed that although it had
achieved its objectives in varying degrees, the extent of these achievements was not
verifiable due to lack of a Monitoring and Evaluation system. Hence. a cross sectional
survey was conducted to identify appropriate project and food security indicators and
develop a monitoring and evaluation system for CPDA's food security project.
The study consisted of three phases. The first phase involved desk review of CPDA's
documents to generate the projects' process. outcome and impact indicators from the
objectives. activities and expected outputs. The second phase of the study was to determine
household food security indicators. This was done by conducting interviews in three
hundred and forty randomly selected households. four focus group discussions and eight key
informant interviews. The third phase involved development of a monitoring and evaluation
system using the generated indicators. ifhe data collected from the field survey was analysed
using SPSS (version 10) and Epi info statistical packages.
The CPDA food security project has four components namely: Alternative Leadership
Programme. Sustainable Agriculture. Health and Nutrition and Water and Sanitation. The
primary project activities include: identification and training of Community Own Resource
Persons (CORPs). i.e.. Farmer Motivators (FaMos), Community Health Workers (CHWs).
Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) and water committees, promotion of organic farming,
dissemination of information on health and nutrition issues, construction and protection of
water springs. The study concentrated on Agriculture and Health and Nutrition components.
The desk review revealed that CPDA had listed and quantified the project's expected
outcomes based on the four project components. The outcomes had a time frame within
which they were to be achieved. Most outcomes were based on the number of workshops
and demonstration sessions held, demonstration plots established, CORPs trained in the
various project components, level of adoption of sustainable agricultural practices and the
impact of project activities on food availability and nutritional status. Accordingly, process
indicators that reflect these outputs were generated in the study.
The field survey revealed that the most appropriate food security indicators in Vihiga
District were: Socio- demographic indicators i.e. household size, adult literacy level: Direct
food security indicators i.e., amount of land owned, food production level, income level,
proportion of income spent on food, asset ownership index, food consumption patterns,
dietary diversity scores and indices of coping strategies. The indirect food security
indicators were health and nutritional status of the children below five years of age.
A monitoring and evaluation systems was then developed using the generated food security
indicators from both the desk review and field survey. The system specifies what, when,
how and who to collect monitoring data. The proposed system needs to be tested and put in
place so that the achievement of the CPDA food security project can be assessed against the
set objectives. The system recommends collection of monitoring data on a quarterly basis. | en |
