Summary
The Joint Action for Nutrition Outcome (JANO) project aims to reduce malnutrition and meet the nutritional needs of pregnant and breastfeeding women, including adolescents. JANO is also focused on capacity building at multiple levels of government, particularly improving the capacity of nutrition committees (NC) at Upazila and district levels with regard to nutrition plan development, budget and effective monitoring. Plan International, funded by the European Union (EU) and implemented by CARE, Plan International, including the Eco Social Development Organization (ESDO). JANO worked with the government of Bangladesh (GoB) to implement the National Action Plan for Nutrition (NPAN) -2) at local, regional and national levels and selected all 65 unions of the seven most vulnerable Upazilas of Rangpur and Nilphamari (with A stunt rate of 42.1% was selected for this project, which includes Gangachara, Kaunia, Taraganj, Domar, Jaldhaka, Kishorgonj and Nilphamari Sadar.
Approximately 4.7 million people in Rangpur and Nilphamari received knowledge and training on health and nutrition practices in accordance with government priorities. The beneficiaries of the project include 275,415 pregnant and breastfeeding women as well as married teenage girls aged between 15 and 49, 190,322 children under five, 421,425 unmarried teenage girls and boys aged 10 to 19.
The annual evaluation had two objectives:
- Measurement of progress in the second year using certain log frame indicators.
1.1. Measuring the outcome (health and nutrition) of JANO’s COVID response project
- Measurement of the effects of COVID-19 on the JANO project and recommendation of the further procedure.
To assess the project’s annual impact on the year, CARE Bangladesh worked with Innovative Research and Consultancy (IRC) Limited to measure all 18 indicators that the JANO project identified as outcome and expected outcomes in the protocol framework.
The data for the annual assessment was collected from October 16-23, 2020 using a mixed method or a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods and techniques. A two-tier systematic random sampling method was used to collect a representative quantitative sample at the household level. The quantitative sample for the study comprised a total of 430 respondents, consisting of pregnant women (n = 103) and breastfeeding women (n = 327) from 35 villages in the 7 target project areas. Using the same sample approach, a total of 430 young people, consisting of girls (n = 262) and boys (n = 168), from 22 schools and madrashas were selected. In addition, 35 members of the School Administration Committee, 71 Community Support Groups, 100 female members of the Community Group (CG), the Community Support Group (CSG) and the District Nutrition Coordination Committee (DNCC) were interviewed.
Qualitative data was collected through focus group discussions (FGDs), key informant interviews (KIIs), and in-depth interviews (IDIs) with CGs, CSGs, pregnant and breastfeeding women (PLW), adolescent girls and boys, men and other key stakeholders, including local nutrition committees (NC) ), Service providers, local government agencies and officials. A total of 10 REA, 35 KII and 10 IDI were carried out. (21) female counters and three (3) supervisors were included in the data collection. In addition, relevant documents and literature were reviewed in order to assess the overall scenario of the JANO project.
The second annual assessment found the average household size to be 5. This is higher than the first assessment survey (4.30) and also higher than the national household size of 4.06. The majority (51.4%) of households had a female head compared to the first annual assessment (0.9%). The study found that the main occupation of household heads was agricultural daily wage work (harvest / livestock) (22.1%), followed by non-agricultural daily wage work (20.5%). During the first annual assessment, the main occupation of household heads was non-agricultural wage labor of 24%.
The main results of the second annual evaluation are divided into several sub-categories: 1) empowerment of women and adolescent girls; 2) maternal, adolescent and child health and nutrition; 3) nutritional guidance; 4) food security and livelihood; 5) access to information, information and communication technology (ICT), 6) WASH practice and 7) Covid-19 response and effects of Covid19 on JANO.
