Independent Final Evaluation Report Addressing Malnutrition Crisis in Flood-Affected Areas of District Matiari, Sindh, Pakistan

According to National Nutrition Survey (NNS) 2011, Pakistan is facing a nutrition emergency with Sindh being the worst affected area of the country. A series of natural calamities such as floods and draughts have further deteriorated the already fragile state of the population into a state of nutrition emergency. Like some other districts, the floods caused severe damage to the infrastructure and loss of human life in Matiari district in 2015. In response, Action Against Hunger implemented Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) funded integrated Nutrition, Food Security and Livelihood (FSL); and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) project. The project was of 12 months duration and was implemented in flood affected areas of the 3 union councils of 3 Talukas of district Matiari. The project beneficiaries were entire population of these union councils i.e. 93,051 individuals / 13,293 Households (HHs). This evaluation was commissioned by Action Against Hunger and was carried out by GLOW consultants to independently evaluate SIDA funded project “Addressing Malnutrition Crisis in Flood-Affected Areas of District Matiari” in Sindh Province, Pakistan”.

Methodology: The overall purpose of the evaluation was to evaluate the project within the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) framework. The methodologies adopted by the evaluation team included literature review, Key Informant Interviews (KIIs), Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and field observation with supporting photographs. Evaluation team covered 9 villages as part of this evaluation. The sampling universe of this integrated project constituted the entire targeted villages of Action Against Hunger. Sampled villages were selected with a multi-stage approach. In stage one all the three project implementation UCs were selected. In stage two, 3 villages per UC were randomly selected. Therefore, a total of 9 villages were visited by the evaluators to interact directly with the communities. In the FGDs, a total of 104 men and 96 women were met. Separate, FGDs were conducted with men and women groups to make it convenient for women to actively participate in the discussions. It was also ensured to include recipients of all different types of activities in the FGDs. In all villages, team had a transect walk to have an overview of the wellbeing of the village and understand its overall needs. This walk was more relevant in areas where there was physical infrastructure and Cash for Work (CfW) activities were carried out.