Tropentag 2021, September 15 - 17, hybrid conference, Germany "Towards shifting paradigms in agriculture for a healthy and sustainable future"

Participatory ex-ante Impact Assessment of Nutrition-Sensitive Interventions in Madagascar: Differences by Gender and Location

¹University of Antananarivo, Tropical Agriculture and Sustainable Development Dept., Madagascar
²Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Thaer-Institute of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, Germany
³Leibniz Centre for Agric. Landscape Res. (ZALF), Sustainable Land Use in Developing Countries (SusLAND), Germany

Abstract

Participatory ex-ante impact assessment of intended interventions can support the successful implementation of development projects. It can help to design and target interventions according to beneficiaries’ needs, especially where high diversity both in wealth and social norms are observed. In the South East of Madagascar, 11 gender-disaggregated workshops were organised at the end of the second lean period, each with six to seven future beneficiaries of a nutrition-sensitive intervention project. The 80 participants first ranked eight predefined impact criteria by their perceived importance. Second, the expected impacts of 14 proposed interventions on each food security criterion were rated. Third, participants selected their preferred interventions from among the proposed interventions. The results show that men and women prioritise the same impact criteria, especially, increased income and increased food self-sufficiency. In the same way, for both, most positive assessments are observed with kitchen gardens and poultry. However, both gender and location influence the perception of project impacts. Women expect more positive impacts with voucher distribution, whereas men prioritise cash crop and poultry activities. Participants from the coastal region positively assess VSLA and farmer’s organisation promotion, unlike those from the inland, who support interventions more related to production such as kitchen garden, farmer field school, and food storage. Thus, overall, men and women have different preferences regarding the specific interventions to achieve food security. Compared to men, women are more interested in the promotion of diet diversification and hygiene sensitisation. Men mainly choose technical interventions such as farmer field school, and storage and transformation training. Nevertheless, support to poultry production and farmer field schools are among the most attractive interventions for both genders. Our results, revealing the perception of beneficiaries, are useful to inform the design and targeting of nutrition-sensitive interventions to different target groups.

Keywords: Beneficiaries’ perception, criteria ranking, food security interventions, impact rating, Madagascar, participatory assessment

Contact Address: Sarah Tojo Mandaharisoa, University of Antananarivo, Tropical Agriculture and Sustainable Development Dept., Antananarivo, Madagascar, e-mail: tojmandsyahoo.fr