Country: Ethiopia

Project: Monitoring and evaluation of population-based intervention strategies to prevent and control micronutrient deficiencies.

Objective/Purposes:

• Provide technical support on the design and implementation of the micronutrient survey 2013-14.
• Assist in the development of a monitoring and evaluation system for the food fortification program.
• Support the development of a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system for the UNICEF community-based nutrition program.

Background:

The Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) and The Ethiopian Health and Nutrition Research Institute (EHNRI) will conduct the Ethiopian National Micronutrient Survey with CDC technical assistance in 2014. The survey will provide evidence based information on micronutrient status of the Ethiopia population at both national and regional levels, with focus on iodine, iron, vitamin A, zinc, vitamin B12 and folate.

The Government of Ethiopia is developing a National Food Fortification Program, but need a rigorous M&E framework focused on both biological impact assessments and compliance monitoring and documentation. CDC IMMPaCt has been engaged with EHNRI, UNICEF Ethiopia, and other partners in training Ethiopian Government Agencies involved in the National Food Fortification Program. There is need for awareness and sensitization of millers as well as quality control, quality assurance, and M&E training for all partners involved in fortification.

The Community-Based Nutrition program (CBN), which is being implemented by the Ethiopian government with UNICEF support in 4 agrarian regions, focuses primarily on children under the age of five, pregnant and lactating mothers. This program is being scaled-up to all Woredas in each of the 4 regions.  CDC plans to assist in designing the impact evaluation plan to accommodate the scale up of this intervention.

Potential Impact:

The Survey will allow the Government and partners to effectively manage existing interventions and to adequately plan, implement, advocate for and monitor new prevention programs.  Moreover, this survey will provide a baseline to evaluate the impact of micronutrient malnutrition programs such as flour fortification over time.

 Top of Page