Food and Nutrition Lead iDE Kathmandu, Bagmati, Nepal
Name of the scientific conference where the work was recently presented:: Nutrition Specific and Nutrition Sensitive Approaches: Nepal case
Date on which the work was previously presented at the scientific conference listed above:: April 26-30, iDE Nepal, Kathmandu
Objectives: The study was based on the following two Theory of Changes: i) if people are mobilized through cash/ food transfer, it will not only improve their income/ food security status but also ensure the critical infrastructures vital for sustainable agriculture and livelihoods development; and, ii) if direct support on home gardening, agriculture promotion and nutrition practices is provided in earthquake hit agrarian society like Nepal, it will have immediate positive impacts on availability and consumption of diverse food items and as well as improve household income at some extent.
Methods: Mix method survey approach was followed as quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques were used for collecting the primary data.
1,089 HHs were interviewed for quantitative information and 15 Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) + 20 Key Informant Interview (KII) were conducted for qualitative data.
The household survey followed longitudinal study design and used multi-stage cluster sampling method.
20 enumerators were hired, trained and mobilized for the data collection.
Results: Baseline and Endline results:
Average household Food Consumption Score (FCS): 50.25 (baseline) and 52.39 (endline)
Average HDDS: 4.9 and 5.16
% of Households with low HDDS: 26.3% and 6.00%
Overall reduced Copping Strategy Index (rCSI): 2.6 and 0.68
Conclusions: The home-gardening and agriculture-based intervention proved vital in terms of food/ nutrition recovery and resilience as first, farming turned out to be an appropriate entry point to transfer required knowledge and skills (as most of the beneficiary were small holder farmers), and second, it not only improved the availability of diverse food groups, but also improved the household income at some extent.
