Lesotho food and nutrition planning and research assistance project : an evaluation

Evaluation covers the period l975-77 and is based on interviews with GOL and contractor personnel. The project has not progressed as expected. The GOL is reluctant to fully commit itself to NP (the need for which is obscured by prevailing traditional views of nutrition). Despite the GOL"s creation of a Food and Nutrition Coordinating Office (FNCO), jurisdiction over and responsibility for NP remains uncertain and poorly coordinated. This is evidenced by the exclusion of the Departments of Commerce and Industry, Finance, and Works and representatives of major food-related donors and PVO"s from GOL planning bodies such as FNCO"s ad hoc National Nutrition Advisory Group (NNAG). Moreover, the GOL does not view as a problem the nation"s almost total dependence on the Republic of South Africa for employment (although return of migrant miners would require greater food production and dependence on foreign aid), imported food, and transportation. Since the GOL has designated no NNAG staff to interact with the contractor -- Planning Assistance, Inc. (PAI), little NP information has been passed on to the GOL. Nonetheless, PAI could have been more flexible in providing training and assistance outside the strict confines of the NNAG. The presence of two U.S. research teams collecting similar nutritional data was an added complication; the University of Colorado"s Food Systems Study, while valuable, was not widely circulated; community participation was not promoted; and a Second National Nutrition Conference, while potentially useful, was not held. Before Phase II start-up, it is recommended that: (1) FNCO"s responsibility for national NP and its relationship to NNAG and other GOL bodies be better defined; (2) the posts of FNCO Director and Deputy Director be made permanent; (3) GOL agencies and private groups now excluded be considered for membership in FNCO; (4) the PAI"s role in nutrition and management consultancy and systems analysis be clarified; (5) evaluation standards be set for PAI and the project; and (6) a section on nutrition be included in the next 5-Year Plan.