This document aims at providing a guideline for the implementation of a baseline survey to capture information on nutrition and local food plants, which corresponds to the work on nutrition (third Pillar) of the “Sowing Diversity=Harvesting Security” Program (SD=HS). SD=HS is a global program, currently implemented by consortium partners in eight countries and coordinated by Oxfam Novib. The objective of the program’s work on nutrition is to strengthen coping strategies of communities by increasing the intake of nutritious food based on local biodiversity and improved management of local food plants, particularly NUS.
This is a dual baseline tool, which includes household and dietary surveys on the one hand, and an assessment of local food plants on the other hand. The objectives of the baseline are: to establish the local and regional context of the workplan on nutrition; to measure the situation at the beginning of the project, as the base to later determine project impact; to inform the organization of the trainings of trainers (ToT), development of country-specific curriculum and farmer field school (FFS) activities; and to provide information for policy advocacy and broader stakeholder involvement. In addition, one of the key outputs of the baseline is a list of key local food plant species with high nutritional value (that could potentially contribute to address local nutritional deficiencies), that contribute to food groups that are under-represented in the local diet, and fulfill an important role during the food scarcity period.
