Final Independent Evaluation of the Care Practices Program, Timor Tengah Selatan District in Nusa Tenggara Timur Province, Indonesia

Action Contre la Faim (ACF) has been active in Indonesia since 1998. In 2007, ACF began working in in the Timor Tengah Selatan (TTS) District of Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) province to help tackle alarming rates of wasting in young children through improving access to water, food security and hygiene practices. More recently, (2009) nutrition and care practices programmes were established. The main goals of the programmes were to prevent and reduce wasting by improving maternal care behaviors and dietary diversity. During monthly meetings, pregnant women and mothers of young children received information on various topics including breastfeeding practices, how to incorporate local, nutritious foods into children’s diets and the importance of hygiene and handwashing.

This evaluation of the nutrition and care practices programmes was commissioned by Action Against Hunger (AAH) UK to learn more about the results of this project, which ended in mid-2010. It evaluation examined the impact, coverage, coherence, relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability of the programmes. Data used in this evaluation were gathered by ACF on child nutritional status (via censuses) and feeding and care practices (via Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices or KAP surveys). As follow-up data were collected just prior to this evaluation, results included herein should be considered preliminary. Interviews and discussions with key informants were also conducted to learn more about the beneficiaries and the implementation of the programme.