Interim evaluation of Zaire area nutrition improvement project

Special evaluation covers the period 9/82-11/84 and is based on document review, site visits, and interviews (including anonymous questionnaires) with project and nonproject personnel and Government of Zaire (GOZ) officials. Project objectives are overly ambitious, given the difficulty in travel and communications in Bandundu region and a lack of sufficient resources to address malnutrition on the village level, but implementation, at least on the micro-level, is on schedule. The Food and Nutrition Council of Bandundu (CRANB) has in its first year become a viable working group, funding ten food production subprojects; nutrition surveillance has evolved into widescale data collection; and nutrition education has expanded. However, there is as yet no assurance that any of these activities will affect malnutrition. Also, the capacity of National Nutrition Planning Center (CEPLANUT) staff in Kinshasa has not been notably strenghtened, and CEPLANUT has no staff development and training plan. A preoccupation with outputs on the part of the senior project advisor has clouded the project focus, led overworked staff to neglect their responsibilities to transfer skills and technical capacity to Zairians, with related injury to Zairian morale. The project has also been handicapped by its separation from the GOZ units with which it must coordinate; e.g., curriculum development has been hampered by inadequate CEPLANUT-Department of Education interaction, while insufficient collaboration in nutrition surveillance by the Ministries of Public Health and Agriculture has led the project to rely on uncertain private data sources. Recommendations are to: allow Zairians, supported by U.S. staff, to direct project activities; increase the realism and focus of the project purpose, redefining it as both to reduce the prevalence of acute child malnutrition by 25% and to increase CEPLANUT institutional capabilities; cease nutrition surveillance activities which exceed CEPLANUT capabilities; focus nutrition education efforts on supporting CRANB interventions, training health personnel, and refining the draft primary school curriculum; and improve CRANB review procedures to increase the effectiveness of its interventions.