Retrospective Study of Emergency Supplementary Feeding Programmes
Responding to recommendations to generate more evidence of impact of specific nutrition interventions in emergencies, ENN and SC UK undertook research in 2005-6 to evaluate the efficacy and effectiveness of emergency supplementary feeding programmes. The study involved an analysis of 82 programme data sets from 22 countries undertaken by 16 international humanitarian agencies between 2002-5.
The key findings of the study were:
i) Inadequate reporting standards were being followed, so that it was difficult to assess the efficacy of programmes without considerable re-analysis of data. Furthermore, various aspects of reporting guidelines needed modification in order to improve understanding of programme performance.
ii) The majority of programmes (59%) were not achieving SPHERE standards in terms of outcome indicators (mortality, default, recovery, non-response, weight gain and length of stay). A major factor that undermined programme performance was defaulting.
iii) Impact at population level could not be demonstrated and was unlikely to be significant given low coverage levels. The main recommendations of the study included: . the need to define and implement minimum reporting standards . the need to establish a research agenda specifically to:
- assess the cost-effectiveness of alternative means of addressing mild and moderate malnutrition (e.g. expanded general rations, cash transfers, seasonal blanket supplementary feeding) compared to centre based emergency supplementary feeding
- increase understanding of the role of default in programme performance and strategies to minimise its occurrence
- increase understanding of the causes of non-response and means of addressing the problem
- explore tools for assessing impact of emergency supplementary feeding at population level, e.g. GAM:SAM ratios . the need to establish institutional mechanisms so that data from emergency SFPs (and other types of intervention to address mild, moderate and severe malnutrition) can be collated and analysed, in order to inform development of appropriate strategies for tackling malnutrition arising from acute crises.
The study has recently been published as a Humanitarian Practice Network Paper: Navarro-Colorado. C, Mason. F and Shoham. J (2008): Measuring the Effectiveness of Supplementary Feeding Programmes in Emergencies. HPN Network Paper, No 63, September 2008.
The ENN report is available here (PDF, 624kb)
