By Lorraine Anyango
Kisumu County is employing a new strategy in reaching out to vulnerable communities by using the ‘Entire Household’ approach in a bid not to leave anyone behind. This focus will see to it that nutrition interventions are household engineered.
Conversation on the consumption of consolidated data to guide the allocation of resources even by the Multi-Sectoral Nutrition took center stage during the visits by the USAID Advancing Nutrition Global Head of Programs, Tina Lloren.
Ms. Loren accompanied by the Advancing Nutrition Chief of Party, Mr. Peter Milo, and Alex Adel Senior Capacity Strengthening Advisor held discussions with the Country’s Executive Member for Health and Sanitation nominee, Dr. Greggory Ganda, Chief Officer for Agriculture and livestock Dr. Paul Omanga, and directors from Education and Social Protection who are part of the MSN platform during a breakfast meeting.
They discussed practical ways of ensuring that the interventions benefit those deserving by providing that duplication of interventions is not undertaken by the same individuals all year round.
“Nutrition interventions are varied and by different partners, and the scenario of extending all interventions to the same people hampers the impact of the outcomes, we need data that indicates specifically which households have received nutrition intervention so that we can accurately report on the percentage of the vulnerable people reached so far, Dr. Ganda said.
“The directorate of social protection should work with the community health workers to consume the available data and move away from ‘Kwasi’ indicators.”Dr. Ganda added.
Dr. Omaga said that already they have assessed the most vulnerable farmers, adding that the digitization of farmers was done through a World Bank project.
“We will support a forum for us to discuss how we consolidate data, we will put the nutrition scorecards together with the financial tracking tool for better outcomes.” Mr. Milo responded while calling for consistency in the people driving the nutrition Agenda in Kisumu County.
The meeting also appreciated the need to harmonies the target indicators used to identify vulnerable groups. They would also apply data on the poverty index sensors undertaken by the World Bank. The department of housing collected data on the settlement schemes, although not all areas were covered.
“I’m impressed with the work done in such a short time, I have wonderful observations as well as motivation from the work that you are doing here,” Lloren said.
She added that the progress realized in such a short time, speaks of the commitment by the top leadership base “Having the first lady as the lead nutrition champion is a high-level support to nutrition Advocacy in this county.” She added.
Advancing Nutrition is a USAID-funded flagship project that is being implemented in three counties, namely, Kisumu, Kakamega, and Kitui.
Under the project, the counties’ MSN platforms have been established, nutrition champions drawn from different sectors have been trained in advocacy, and civil society has been incorporated to sustain the gains made by the project so far.
A nutrition scorecard and a financial tracking tool have been developed and are being used as well as the County’s Agri-Nutrition Implementation Strategy (CANIS) adopted from the national one. The project is ongoing.
