Behind the scenes

Adopting a Standard Dietary Diversity Indicator for Monitoring Hunger and Malnutrition in Mozambique

April 2008

Ms. Marcela Libombo is the National Coordinator of the Technical Secretariat for Food Security and Nutrition (SETSAN), Ministry of Agriculture, Mozambique.

Françoise Trine is a Food Security Analyst at FAO.

Background

SETSAN is responsible for implementing Mozambique’s Food Security and Nutrition Strategy (ESAN) and has requested FAO’s assistance for choosing indicators to help monitor progress made in reducing hunger and malnutrition.

On 27 February 2008, SETSAN organized a meeting, attended by representatives from major food security and nutrition organizations, to discuss the possibility of adopting the dietary diversity indicator for monitoring food security. The Food Security and Nutrition Association of Mozambique (ANSA), on behalf of FAO, presented evidence showing the relevance of the dietary diversity indicator for monitoring food security in Mozambique. At the end of the meeting, participants agreed to use the dietary diversity indicator for monitoring food security at national and provincial levels and identified concrete steps for developing a monitoring mechanism.

FT:
How important was the decision to use the dietary diversity indicator for monitoring and evaluating food security and nutrition in Mozambique?

ML:
Although Mozambique has significantly reduced poverty levels in the last five years, malnutrition rates remain very high. Indeed, more than 40% of children suffer from chronic malnutrition. High levels of HIV/AIDS, poor diet habits, and malaria compound these problems.

The government of Mozambique, aware of persistent food insecurity, has taken steps to reduce hunger and malnutrition. The second Food Security and Nutrition Strategy (ESAN II) and its Action Plan (PASAN) were approved by the Council of Ministry in October 2007. However, SETSAN needed to develop a mechanism for monitoring progress.

The decision to adopt a standard household dietary diversity indicator for monitoring hunger and malnutrition will facilitate our work. In fact, in Mozambique, information on dietary diversity is already widely collected and analyzed, but the methodologies and analyses are not standardized. Another advantage is that the household dietary diversity indicator is simple to use.

FT:
What was FAO’s role in promoting the dietary diversity indicator?

ML:
FAO played an important role in building consensus among different institutions. The dietary diversity indicator was tested during the Baseline Survey conducted by FAO in Manica and Sofala provinces. Based on results from this test case, participants at the February meeting realized that the indicator would be useful for provincial officials who need to collect and analyse information and use it to make decisions and design anti-hunger programmes. Participants also saw clearly how simple it was to collect and analyze data for measuring dietary diversity.

FT:
What additional assistance do you expect from FAO and national partner institutions in order to monitor dietary diversity in Mozambique more effectively?

ML:
FAO and ANSA have been asked to provide technical support to SETSAN to design a Technical Guidance Note for monitoring diet diversity for ESAN II and the Poverty Reduction Strategy (PARPA II) as well. FAO has also been asked to help train provincial officials in using the dietary diversity indicator.