Nutrition Program Design Assistant (NPDA)
A Tool for Program Planners
Highlights
This tool helps program planning teams select appropriate community-based nutrition approaches for specific target areas. The tool has two components:
1) a reference guide that provides guidance on analyzing the nutrition situation, identifying program approaches, and selecting a combination of approaches that best suits the situation, resources, and objectives; and
2) a workbook where the team records information, decisions, and decision-making rationale.
The tool leads a user through six steps:
1) Gathering and synthesizing information on the nutrition situation (including quantitative and qualitative data) – the intention of this step is to determine if a community-based nutrition programme is warranted for the setting, the potential causes of undernutrition and intervention areas to consider, and if prevention-only or prevention + recuperation interventions are needed.
2) Determining the initial programme goal, purpose and sub-purposes – in this step, the data synthesized from step 1 will guide the initial development of programme goal, purpose and sub-purposes. These will be later refined in step 6.
3) Reviewing nutrition and health services – in this step, the existing capacity of local health and nutrition services will be mapped, including national policy and local services and materials.
4) Preliminary program design: prevention – in this step, potential interventions that can prevent malnutrition in the target area will be identified. This step includes a specific section (B) in infant and young child feeding.
5) Preliminary program design: recuperation – in this step potential recuperative interventions will be added to the preventative programme, as appropriate.
6) Putting it all together – this steps guides decision-making on the final combination of interventions to include in the nutrition programme for the target area. This includes the completion of a logframe, with a logframe template provided.
