Zambia
Baseline Evaluation of Zambia’s First 1,000 Days Nutrition Programme
This report provides the baseline results of the impact evaluation of Zambia’s First 1,000 Most Critical Days Programme (MCDP). The evaluation of the MCDP will be a two year mixed methods non-experimental design that includes three components: a rapid qualitative assessment (RQA), a process evaluation, and an impact evaluation. The purpose of the evaluation is to learn if and how the programme impacts the lives of pregnant women, and children under 2 years old for an array of outcomes including young child nutrition; health, water and sanitation practices; and the use of health related services. Department for International Development (DfID) Zambia contracted the American Institutes for Research (AIR) and its partners Palm Associates and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) to conduct the evaluation of the MCDP. (34 pages) Read More...
Evaluation of Zambia’s First 1,000 Days Nutrition Programme
National Food and Nutrition Council (NFNC) and several donors—including the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID), Irish Aid, and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) —designed a bundled, multisector programme called the First 1,000 Most Critical Days Programme (MCDP). The MCDP will run for three years (from late 2014 through 2016) in 14 districts across Zambia, and it includes targeted interventions such as micronutrient supplementation; promotion of best practices in breastfeeding and complementary feeding; promotion of diverse diets for pregnant and lactating women; zinc treatment for diarrhoea; promotion of safe water, hygiene, and sanitation; growth monitoring; deworming; and management of acute malnutrition. The impact evaluation of the MCDP consists of four components, the first of which is the rapid qualitative assessment (RQA). The RQA is intended to facilitate formative research and is designed to provide tailored, programme-relevant information to MCDP implementers in order to guide refinements to the programme. It was developed around one central research question: “What is the nature and experience of poverty and undernutrition, including access to food, dietary and feeding practices, and behaviour for households with young children in rural Zambia?” To answer this question, the RQA employed three primary methods of data collection: focused ethnographic studies (FESs); focus group discussions (FGDs); and social mapping (SM). (84 pages) Read More...
Zambia’s First 1000 Most Critical Days Programme (MCDP)
This report presents the results of a mixed-methods, summative evaluation of Zambia’s First 1000 Most Critical Days Programme (MCDP). The MCDP is a bundled, multi-sectoral programme that aims to reduce stunting in Zambia by 50% by focusing on the most critical period for stunting: pregnant and lactating mothers, and children under 2 years of age. The programme focuses on bringing to scale a strategic subset of routine evidence-based interventions proven to reduce stunting: deworming and vitamin A supplementation; family planning; growth monitoring; iron and folic acid supplementation; iodised salt, micronutrients, and breastfeeding; fortified staples and specialised nutritional products; a mother- and baby-friendly hospital initiative; and management of severely malnourished children (National Food and Nutrition Commission of Zambia [NFNC], 2011). These interventions are supplemented by a range of trainings and behaviour change components designed to take advantage of potential complementarities between child health and improved maternal knowledge, WASH practices, and nutritional intake. The programme is led by the Zambia Food and Nutrition Commission (NFNC) and it involves the Ministry of Health (MoH), Ministry of Education (MoE), Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries (MoA), the Ministry of Community Development and Social Welfare (MCD), and the Ministry of Local Government and Housing (MLGH). CARE International is the main technical assistance and fund management partner and the MCDP is funded by the Scaling Up Nutrition network (SUN) in Zambia. (359 pages)
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Nutrition at the Center Endline Report Zambia
From 2013 to 2017 CARE International in Zambia implemented the Nutrition at the Center (N@C) Project in 22 health facilities of Lundazi and Chadiza Districts of Eastern Zambia (15 in Lundazi and 7 in Chadiza district). The impact indicator of the N@C Project was pegged at improving the nutritional status of women (15-49 years) and children whose age was below 3 years old with a focus on reducing stunting generally. During the 4 years of project implementation, a number of activities were successfully implemented; as a result, CARE Zambia decided to institute an endline evaluation whose focus was to assess achievements on several nutrition and general indicators including infant and young child feeding (IYCF), maternal health and nutrition, food security, women empowerment, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), and program participation. The current evaluation also aimed at determining perceived or actual weaknesses and strengths of the N@C project as well as document lessons learned to inform future nutrition programming.
Data was collected from 41 health facilities out of the 46 targeted in Chadiza and Lundazi districts. A structured household questionnaire was used to collect data from women who had children below the age of 3 years in both intervention and non-intervention areas. Of the targeted 1266 women, 1195 were successfully interviewed representing a response rate of 94.4 percent. Four focus group discussions and 12 key informant interviews were also conducted. [58 pages]
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Data was collected from 41 health facilities out of the 46 targeted in Chadiza and Lundazi districts. A structured household questionnaire was used to collect data from women who had children below the age of 3 years in both intervention and non-intervention areas. Of the targeted 1266 women, 1195 were successfully interviewed representing a response rate of 94.4 percent. Four focus group discussions and 12 key informant interviews were also conducted. [58 pages]
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Schools Promoting Learning Achievement through Sanitation and Hygiene (SPLASH)
SPLASH is a five-year USAID-funded project that is targeting to reach over 240,000 primary school pupils in four districts of Eastern Province, Zambia, (Mambwe, Chipata, Lundazi, and Chadiza). This 5-year project (2011-2015), funded through USAID’s Bureau for Global Health and led by FHI 360 in partnership with CARE and Winrock International, uses at-scale programming approaches to reduce diarrheal diseases and acute respiratory infections, the two top killers of children under age five globally. The project works with the Ministry of Education, Science, Vocational Training, and Early Education (MESVTEE) and other line ministries such as the Ministry of Local Government and Housing (MLGH) and the Ministry of Health (MOH). SPLASH’s overall objective is to sustainably improve access to safe water, adequate sanitation, hygiene information, and health practices to improve learning environments and educational performance in primary schools. You can also find the final technical report: https://www.fhi360.org/sites/default/files/media/documents/resource-splash-endofproject-report-2016.pdf Read More...
Scale Project Impact Study Project Brief
Strengthening Cash transfers for Access to finance, Livelihood and Entrepreneurship (SCALE) is a three-year (2013- 2016) project funded by the European Union which CARE International in Zambia, in collaboration with the Ministry ofCommunityDevelopmentandSocialWelfare(MCDSW),isimplementing. Itisapracticalandscalablemodelfor social and economic empowerment that brings tangible benefits to communities and contributes to poverty reduction.
The SCALE Project is premised on the idea that combining social cash transfers (SCT) with Village Savings and Loans (VSL), which are enriched with business skills using a Selection, Planning and Management (SPM) approach, will enable beneficiaries to graduate to sustainable livelihoods beyond SCT.
The complementary model of VSL and SPM builds on the existing Government SCT programme. The project has organised beneficiaries of SCT into Village Saving and Loans Associations (VSLAs) and trained them in VSL and SPM methodologies. Read More...
The SCALE Project is premised on the idea that combining social cash transfers (SCT) with Village Savings and Loans (VSL), which are enriched with business skills using a Selection, Planning and Management (SPM) approach, will enable beneficiaries to graduate to sustainable livelihoods beyond SCT.
The complementary model of VSL and SPM builds on the existing Government SCT programme. The project has organised beneficiaries of SCT into Village Saving and Loans Associations (VSLAs) and trained them in VSL and SPM methodologies. Read More...
Supporting the Use of the Treadle Pump to Promote Food Security Project
The report highlights activities carried out between July and September 2017 under the “Supporting the Use of the Treadle Pump to Promote Food Security project” being implemented in all seven health centers covered by Nutrition at the Center (N@C) project in Chadiza District.
The “Supporting the Use of the Treadle Pump to Promote Food Security project” supplements the Nutrition at the Centre project that focuses on Maternal Infant and Young Child Nutrition (MIYCN), Food Security, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), and Women Empowerment activities in Chadiza and Lundazi districts of Eastern province. [13 pages] Read More...
The “Supporting the Use of the Treadle Pump to Promote Food Security project” supplements the Nutrition at the Centre project that focuses on Maternal Infant and Young Child Nutrition (MIYCN), Food Security, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), and Women Empowerment activities in Chadiza and Lundazi districts of Eastern province. [13 pages] Read More...
A Safer Zambia (ASAZA)
CARE led a consortium of local organizations, Zambian government institutions, and international partners in A Safer Zambia (ASAZA) program to provide a multi-pronged approach to the issue of gender-based violence (GBV) in Zambia. First, CARE sought to strengthen vulnerable populations’ access to GBV services and their utilization of these services through the creation of eight Coordinated Response Centers (CRCs). Second, ASAZA increased the response capacity of local institutions through collaboration with local NGOs and various Zambian government agencies, culminating in the eventual handover of the CRCs to the Ministry of Health (MoH). Finally, ASAZA worked with traditional community leaders to conduct a coordinated outreach and behavioral change campaign to improve GBV prevention strategies. Taken together, these activities comprised a twofold approach to tackling the problem of GBV. While the CRCs represented a restorative approach, the array of informational, educational and behavior change communications represented a preventative approach. [14 pages] Read More...
COMEQS SOLID WASTE PROJECT
CARE International in Zambia is an international NGO that has worked in Zambia for over 20 years, focusing on humanitarian response and development in rural and peri-urban areas. CARE has been implementing projects in the areas of health and HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health, water and sanitation, social protection, governance, education, gender equality, economic empowerment and environmental conservation among others. To achieve sustainability of its interventions and ensure true ownership in communities of the processes supported by our work, CARE Zambia works with existing community structures and engages participating communities to increase their capacities to be responsive to their own developmental challenges. [59 pages] Read More...
C-Change Endline Report: FP/HIV Integration through SBCC in Zambia
Between November 2009 and June 2011, the Academy for Educational Development (AED)1 partnered with CARE Zambia through the Communication for Social Change (C-Change) initiative to implement a project designed to explore the effects of social and behavior change communication on family planning uptake. The project aimed to increase family planning utilization and as well as address the underlying social norms that influence uptake of family planning services. The project had a particular goal of exploring the effect of these interventions on uptake of family planning among HIV-positive individuals.
The project was implemented in the Mwase Zonal Rural Health Center (Mwase RHC) catchment area in Lundazi District, Eastern Province, Zambia. Study participants included HIV-positive and HIV-negative men and women of reproductive age (18-50). Survey participants were selected from a sampling frame built from the Mwase RHC ART and VCT registers. [122 pages] Read More...
The project was implemented in the Mwase Zonal Rural Health Center (Mwase RHC) catchment area in Lundazi District, Eastern Province, Zambia. Study participants included HIV-positive and HIV-negative men and women of reproductive age (18-50). Survey participants were selected from a sampling frame built from the Mwase RHC ART and VCT registers. [122 pages] Read More...