Food and nutrition security monitoring commences in Guatemala

© Foto: SESAN – Guatemala

Food and Nutrition Security Monitoring (MONISAN) is conducted nationally to monitor interventions related to food and nutrition security among government program beneficiaries, expanding the Monitoring of the Thousand Day Window Actions (MONIMIL) that is used for FNS implementation.

According to point 10.6 of the National Food and Nutrition Security Policy, it is SESAN’s role to coordinate FNS surveillance, monitoring and evaluation activities with the different data-generating institutions.

René Martínez Farfán, director of the Secretariat’s Institutional Strengthening department, explained that the interventions to be monitored refer to the Thousand Day Window, Conditional Cash Transfers, and the Family Farming for Peasant Economic Strengthening (PAFEEC) and School Feeding (PAE) programs.

“Monitoring is conducted via household surveys distributed to a representative sample of 298 communities (315 when you add an additional 5 per cent margin of security), selected randomly from all those with Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare health posts nationally. The monitoring will be conducted every four months by SESAN monitors, stated the director of the Secretariat’s Institutional Strengthening department.

He added that the main objective was to monitor implementation of the planned activities, measure the management outcomes and optimize their processes, finding out what works and what does not by comparing the interventions implemented with those planned. It will thus be possible for decision-makers to draw on the MONISAN outcomes when implementing corrective measures to ensure continuous improvement.

 

Secretariat for Food and Nutrition Security (SESAN) conducting food and nutrition security monitoring (MONISAN) among poor and extremely poor families in Huehuetenango pic.twitter.com/SZCVyHLfiZ

— SESAN Huehuetenango (@SESAN_Huehue) June 20, 2018

The 2016-2020 National Strategy for Prevention of Chronic Malnutrition (ENPDC) was designed in 2016 to reduce chronic malnutrition in children under two by 10 per cent over four years.

To this end, the ENPDC has set its strategic priorities as: strengthening primary health care; directing educational action towards behavior change; improving water and sanitation indices; promoting technological options to ensure food availability and improve the family economy; strengthening interinstitutional governance and coordination between central and local levels; and implementing monitoring and evaluation actions for decision-making, accompanied by a social audit and outcomes-driven management mechanisms.

The strategy covers seven departments in two phases. The first comprises 82 municipalities in Alta Verapaz, Huehuetenango, Quiché and Chiquimula (2016-2017); and phase two a total of 57 municipalities in San Marcos, Totonicapán and Sololá (2018 – 2019).

* Article originally published by Guatemala’s Secretariat for Food and Nutrition Security (SESAN)