Happy New Year to much of the world! While there are bigger headlines dominating our news feeds, the start of 2022 signals that we are in the final stretch in DataDENT’s first 5-year funding cycle. DataDENT global and country partners have been hard at work and also celebrating the fruits of multiple years of learning and engagement. This post reviews our top 5 achievements in 2021 and previews what is coming in 2022.
Top 5 Achievements
1. DataDENT went from theory to action in promoting effective communication of nutrition data to decision makers in Nigeria
In April 2021, the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) launched their Nutrition Scorecard, a collaborative effort between the NGF Secretariat and DataDENT. The scorecard reflects important lessons learned through DataDENT’s earlier global and India data visual landscaping work including the need for a clear theory of change to support effective design and use of the tool. DataDENT’s work around data visuals has been shared in multiple forums including two webinars and articles in Gates Open Research and Sight & Life magazine as well as a forthcoming article in the Emergency Nutrition Network (ENN) Field Exchange. During 2021, DataDENT partners also provided technical assistance to tool developers in India and the team supporting the Global Food Systems Dashboard.
2. At global level, DataDENT released new reference tools for household surveys and coordinated efforts to improve nutrition data collection in facility surveys
In July 2021, DataDENT released a Compendium of Nutrition Intervention Coverage Indicators & Questions for Household Surveys to help guide stakeholders looking to fill data gaps through large-scale household surveys. The Compendium is informed by measurement research including cognitive testing studies carried out by DataDENT partners in India & Nepal. We also coordinated global nutrition stakeholders to submit recommendations to the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) Program and USAID for the updated Service Provision Assessment (SPA) questionnaire. As part of this effort, we supported an expert survey on measurement of nutrition intervention quality using facility surveys. We also provided technical assistance to survey developers in Nigeria, Burkina Faso, and India.
3. DataDENT expanded efforts to promote comprehensive and coordinated COVID-19 nutrition measurement by data partners in India
In December 2020, DataDENT together with partners NITI Aayog, Partnerships and Opportunities to Strengthen and Harmonize Actions for Nutrition in India (POSHAN), and IDinsight officially launched the India National Nutrition Indicator Framework which was followed in August 2021 by the National Nutrition Indicator Framework Model Household Survey Questionnaire to support operationalization of the framework. The COVID-19 pandemic spurred a rapid rise in data collection by a range of partners across India, often using phone-based methods. DataDENT and partners released a common COVID-19 Nutrition Measurement Framework in 2021 to help harmonize these efforts. In the last quarter of 2021, DataDENT partners in India finished phone-based data collection informed by the framework across six states. This survey is generating important data on COVID-nutrition impacts while also helping to answer methodological questions related to collecting nutrition indicators through telephone surveys.
4. DataDENT and partners advocated for strong data commitments by participants in Nutrition for Growth 2021
In July 2021, DataDENT released an analysis of donor nutrition data financing using OCED Creditor Reporting Systems which complemented our 2019 analysis of country-level data investments reflected in Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Costed Plans. These findings provided a foundation for the September 2021 release of N4G data & accountability commitment recommendations by DataDENT, UNICEF, SUN together with other development partners. In November 2021, DataDENT and partners co-hosted an official N4G Side Event focused on nutrition data commitments.
At regional level, DataDENT’s August 2021 follow-up assessment of the Together for Nutrition (T4N) West African Data Forum & Call to Action was used to advocate with the West African Health Organization (WAHO) Nutrition Technical Working Group.
5. DataDENT continued to growth its global knowledge sharing and dissemination platforms including the Data for Nutrition Community of Practice
Over the course of 2021 the Data for Nutrition (DfN) Community of Practice grew to more than 925 members and 1,392 Twitter followers. DfN hosted 7 webinars in 2021 on diverse topics ranging from decomposition analysis methods to identify nutrition drivers to innovative measurement methods for improving nutrition through school feeding programs.
We also revamped our own DataDENT website to make our work and outputs easier to find. We encourage you to check it out!
Looking ahead to 2022
DataDENT partners will be wrapping up a number of efforts in the first half of 2022. In the coming months, we will release findings from a nutrition data innovations landscaping that will showcase new tools, methods and strategies for strengthening nutrition data value chains in low- and middle-income countries. We plan to host of global consultation around measurement of nutrition sensitive social protection coverage that will highlight ongoing DataDENT work to develop a measurement framework and test that framework using secondary analysis of DHS, MICS, and World Bank datasets and findings from the India phone survey mentioned above. We will also be co-hosting a large nutrition data event in Nigeria that will mark the launch of costed recommendations for improved coordination of national nutrition data collection in Nigeria which are being developed by government and development partners with DataDENT support. Finally, we will release new indicators for assessing the impact of nutrition advocacy efforts based on intensive case-based research in Nigeria and India.
Keep an eye on this website and Data for Nutrition to learn about these outputs as soon as they are released!