34 th Session – Working Together Task Force on Assessment, Monitoring, and Evaluation UNITED NATIONS SYSTEM Standing Committee on Nutrition Mark Smulders, FAO Agnès Dhur, WFP

Task Force on Assessment, Monitoring, and Evaluation SCN 34th Session – Working Together What is TF – AME expected to do? What has been done so far? What could/should the TF do? Membership Resource requirements Discussion points:

Task Force on Assessment, Monitoring, and Evaluation SCN 34th Session – Working Together 6 -7 areas of work identified in SCN Action Plan measurement and monitoring of food & nutrition -> MDGs indicators for assessment, monitoring and evaluation methods and tools for AME M&E frameworks and criteria (evidence; effectiveness of projects and programmes) defining standards, strengthening analysis for health and nutrition information in emergencies (NICS; HNTS) build on existing initiatives, including SCN-WGs, IASC, FIVIMS initiative and others Expectations:

Task Force on Assessment, Monitoring, and Evaluation SCN 34th Session – Working Together (i) $3m budget in SCN Action Plan for: Interagency Nutrition Initiative ($2m) Nutrition Information in Crisis Situations Monitoring indicators for Right to Adequate Food M&E framework for the realization of RtF (see briefing note) (ii) Concept note for TF-AME; initial feedback (iii) Pre-session meeting of a “partial TF”; expression of interest from Brazil Where are we?

Task Force on Assessment, Monitoring, and Evaluation Assessment, Monitoring, Evaluation: for what purpose? baseline understanding (FS,N,H) – (for whom?) surveillance/monitoring of HHFS, nutrition status, health status? – child growth? early warning? of what? emergency needs assessment and response? development planning? – policy formulation? at which level? accounting of investments made (human/$$)? research? advocacy? SCN 34th Session – Working Together

ACTORS & ACTION AREAS information system activities / functions assessmentmonitoringevaluation level 1: community  community development planning of FS/N activities  extension work  raising awareness -participatory appraisal for intervention projects -  Health facility data  growth monitoring  -M&E of local small- scale projects (usually externally driven) - level 2: district  development planning  prioritization  targeting -rapid, ad hoc, assessments -  sentinel site surveillance - M&E of specific intervention programmes (usually externally driven) level 3: national  development of national FS/N strategies, programmes  policy formulation  budget prioritization  fundraising  repeated national surveys (nutrition, hh budget, agric,..)  census  baseline assessment  analytical studies  research  monitoring and surveillance of programmes  national routine statistics  -M&E of specific intervention programmes -Impact assessment - level 4: global  advocacy  global initiatives  cross-country comparison  fundraising - United Nations agencies' international data banks - Global assessments studies - global studies on trend analyses - -M&E on intervention programmes -

Task Force on Assessment, Monitoring, and Evaluation Core questions (for TF-AME): focus and scope? value added? target audience/clients? supply-driven info vs. demand-driven info? global/national MDG context vs. focus on community, HH, individual outcomes? development and/or emergency context? how do we link food security, nutrition and health concerns what action do we want to influence / inform? SCN 34th Session – Working Together

Task Force on Assessment, Monitoring, and Evaluation Issues for discussion & feedback: We have excellent understanding of key issues at global level... We have an abundance of methods, tools, techniques We have tremendous knowledge, but how do we reach the people who are food insecure and malnourished? Emergency/humanitarian context well covered (coordination) (IASC clusters on Nutrition, Health, Agriculture; IASC WG on IM; SCN Nutrition in Emergencies WG; ALNAP; etc.) What is missing? What are opportunities for TF-AME? SCN 34th Session – Working Together

Task Force on Assessment, Monitoring, and Evaluation SCN 34th Session – Working Together Possible future work of the Task Force on AME: Knowledge sharing/management (who is doing what? where? lessons learned, especially at local levels) How? Web portal; stock-taking; technical fora (global, regional, country level?); SCN newsletter; SCN clearing house function Indicators. Provide guidance; commission studies; draw lessons from country level; share best practices; FS, N, H linkages Set-up regional or national task forces (knowledge sharing; draw lessons on AME techniques; discuss indicators; link food security, nutrition and livelihoods concerns) Horn of Africa.  Whatever is done ‘define the problem closer to where the solutions are’ – even for a global level TF