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)