How to conduct a rapid nutrition assessment - Health Systems Trust

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Step 2: Build a common vision for the district health nutrition team All the relevant local people and institutions should then be invited to a meeting or workshop where the problem of undernutrition, the importance of a multi-sectoral and participatory approach to tackling the problem can be discussed and agreed. The meeting should aim to set up and strengthen a nutrition task team whose first task is to conduct a participatory NSA for the district. Box 2 shows the aims of such an initial meeting in Mount Frere. Box 2: Aims of First Nutrition Workshop, in Mount Frere 1. To introduce the various role players working in Mount Frere and Region E to each other and to share what they are doing 2. To share the results of national and local surveys showing the prevalence and impact of malnutrition in the region. 3. To perform a mapping exercise of the district in order to share information about nutrition related activities and projects in the district 4. To develop a common understanding of the causes of malnutrition., 5. To motivate for the need for multi-sectoral collaboration 6. To form a regional and district integrated nutrition team which can perform a NSA and then a “health district” based INP. If it is not possible to organise a workshop or meeting then visiting key individuals such as the agricultural officer, education officer and other maternal and child health workers to explain what you are going to do and how they might be involved can be a way of getting cooperation / collaboration. Step 3: Establish the framework for the NSA After setting up a health district nutrition team, it is necessary to outline the NSA framework. A useful exercise is to ask the team what information they would require if they were requested by a district manager to recommend a nutrition intervention. In the Mount Frere district, for example, the team came up with the following headings: ❖ The geography of the district ❖ The community composition (demographic details) of the district ❖ The socio-economic profile of the district ❖ The health status of the population ❖ The nutrition status of the population. ❖ The environmental health indicators 6
❖ Important child care practices ❖ Household Food Security After further discussion it was also decided to add the following: ❖ The quality and coverage of existing child, nutrition and welfare services and programmes, as they relate to nutrition ❖ The resources available in the district to tackle undernutrition Drawing up the framework in this way helps to get the team to think about all the information that is required. The team can also now plan for the collection of data. It is therefore important that all members of the team understand each part of the framework. This manual provides a framework which can be adapted to fit the circumstances of a health district, but which is suggested as a model framework to allow comparisons between different districts. To make it easier to see what information needs to be collected, the framework can be rearranged into an information pyramid as shown in figure 2. Figure 2: Information Framework Nutrition Status Nutrition Services Health & Illness Profile Physical Environment Care Household Food Security Physical Geography Socio- Economic Profile Community Resources/ Structures Community Composition Demography The bottom level of the pyramid represents a foundation of information about community composition, socio-economic factors, geography and existing resources and structures. It is important for nutrition planners to know about the community with which they are working and some of community resources available for nutrition interventions. It can assist in deciding what parts of the district need to be targeted first and whether there are very different groups of people within the district. 7
Page 1: HOW TO CONDUCT A RAPID NUTRITION SI
Page 4 and 5: Written by: Mickey Chopra & David M
Page 6 and 7: Preface Designing and implementing
Page 8 and 9: LEVEL 4 ...........................
Page 10 and 11: Figure 1: The UNICEF conceptual fra
Page 12 and 13: Section 2: Steps in Conducting a Nu
Page 16 and 17: The next level aims to establish th
Page 18 and 19: Step 6: Collect the information Aft
Page 20 and 21: 1.2 The Community Composition (Demo
Page 22 and 23: Table 2: Assessment of Household Fo
Page 24 and 25: 2.3 Care Food and health services a
Page 26 and 27: Primary level (clinic/CHC’s/ Hosp
Page 28 and 29: Activities ❖ The current set of a
Page 30 and 31: LEVEL 4 4.1 Nutrition Status There
Page 33 and 34: APPENDIX 1: SAMPLE OBSERVATION CHEC
Page 35: APPENDIX 3: EXAMPLE OF A SCORING SY

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