User:Abdullahi Sheikh/sandbox

WHAT IS A BASELINE ASSESSMENT? A baseline food security assessment is a comprehensive description of the food security status of a given population in a country or region at a specific point in time.

Baseline assessments might include one or several of the following components: •	Characterization of how the populations live (description of their livelihoods) Livelihoods are the various ways people adopt in order to make a living. These will depend on a number of factors related to the surrounding environment.

Messages in this type of community tend to be diverse over time and may include questions and answers, pointers to links and documents, announcements, or ongoing discussions.

- the natural/geo-physical environment in which they live, such as, weather and climate variability,  mountains, valleys, forests, pastures, mineral resources, rivers and lakes, soil fertility…

- The availability and accessibility of infrastructures and services including roads, markets, health  and education facilities, employment opportunities...

- The institutional settings, including the political, administrative and social contexts.

- the various farm and non-farm activities conducted and assets owned by individuals, including  productive and non-productive assets (types of food and cash crops grown, livestock, land,   houses, farm and transport equipment…). The identification of assets is useful to rank population  groups according to wealth and socio-economic status.

•	Understanding the risks and hazards they are facing In conducting their daily lives, people are exposed to risk that can have potentially devastating impacts on their livelihoods.

Risks can be defined as “the probability of harmful consequences, or expected losses (deaths, injuries, property, livelihoods, economic activity disrupted or environment damaged) resulting from interactions between natural or human-induced hazards and vulnerable conditions”.

In a baseline assessment, the range of potential risks that can result in a food crisis or from the deterioration in people’s livelihoods should be identified. •	Understanding their capacities to deal with risk Once the potential risks have been identified, a baseline assessment should analyse the capacity of the population to cope with and recover from the impact of these risks -- their resilience.

It is important to identify these mechanisms to determine:

- How successful they are in helping to overcome the immediate effect of different hazards - How sustainable they are to supporting people’s livelihoods and food security status in the  medium to long term

How frequency is BASELINE ASSESSMENT conducted? Baselines are conducted fairly infrequently, as people’s livelihoods typically change relatively slowly. For example, an assessment may be updated every five or more years, or whenever a dramatic change occurring in the country or region has impacted the baseline conditions (such as a natural disaster, changes in administrative divisions). An initial baseline assessment should be representative of all the prevailing livelihood systems in the country in order to provide a comprehensive picture, taking into account the administrative and agro-ecological zones in the country. This comprehensive picture will help identify where the most vulnerable population groups are located, or “hot spots”. Given the high cost related to conducting a baseline assessment, subsequent updates might be limited to specific locations where risks of food insecurity are the highest. What does Baseline Assessment provide? WHY IS A BASELINE ASSESSMENT NEEDED? Baseline assessments provide a reference point and rationale to guide various decision-making processes. A credible and reliable diagnosis of a food security situation can be used: •	As a reference guide for understanding changes and trends. Information provided through baseline assessments indicates the state of food security at a specific point in time for a specific population. Repeating this type of assessment at another point in time helps identify changes and trends, i.e. improvement/deterioration in the food security status of a given population, as well as the explanatory factors. It also helps identify indicators that should be monitored on a regular basis. Example: Monitoring the achievement of the MDGs One use of baseline assessments is to monitor the progress of programmes towards achieving certain objectives, such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). One MDG is halving the number of people who live on a dollar a day or less by year 2015. Baseline assessment results can indicate whether the gap between what needs to be done to achieve the MDGs and what is actually being done is narrowing or widening.

•	To inform policies and programmes for long-term development and poverty/vulnerability reduction strategies. Baseline assessments help to identify mechanisms and key constraints, challenges and opportunities towards achieving food security. Analysing people’s livelihoods can help to develop more appropriate policies in order to strengthen the most sustainable coping strategies and increase populations’ resilience. In other words, baselines help to find ways of addressing various constraints that can feed into policies and programmes for long-term development. Example: Identifying the causes of poverty and vulnerability In Zambia, a baseline assessment conducted by the World Bank helped identify the underlying causes of poverty and vulnerability, which included institutional, policy and structural factors as well as risk factors such as climate, health and animal-plant disease and price fluctuations. The Zambia baseline assessment also highlighted how the coping strategies of the population had weakened over the years and identified ways of strengthening them that included improved policies and programmes.

•	To support programmes and projects for emergency preparedness and disaster mitigation. Baseline assessments may help to understand the impacts of potential disasters to better plan for emergency preparedness. Having depicted a situation before the occurrence of a shock helps to better understand the potential magnitude of the problem, how people could cope with it, and the possible level of performance of the institutions they can rely upon and what type of external assistance may be needed. Baseline assessments can help identify where the chronically vulnerable populations are located and how they can be assisted, before shocks occur. Example: Emergency preparedness C-SAFE is a joint project of three non-governmental organizations that was implemented from 2002 to 2005 in Lesotho, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The main objectives of the project were to improve the nutritional status of vulnerable population groups, protect their productive assets and strengthen household and community resilience to current and future shocks. For monitoring and evaluation purposes, a baseline survey was conducted at the beginning of the project, anticipating the need to measure outcomes from the actual interventions. The baseline had two main objectives: (1) Establish baseline values of livelihood indicators against which future measurements of goal-related changes could be made; and (2) Increase the understanding of livelihood security factors impacting the lives of rural households. The secondary objectives were to: (1) Identify groups and geographic areas where food and livelihood security may be low; and (2) gather and analyse information that would assist project staff in designing/ appropriate interventions or modifying existing ones, or that would generate information for further refining the project log frame.

WHAT IS AN ACTION-ORIENTED ASSESSMENT? An action-oriented assessment is used to address a specific issue or problem in order to come up with recommendations that could be immediately translated into actions to solve the identified problem or address the specific issue. Action-oriented assessments are often triggered by a mid-term evaluation/the end of a project or programme or by a monitoring or early warning assessment that indicates the occurrence of a problem, shock or hazard and the need for more specific information in order to better respond to the prevailing situation. Examples include: Emergency needs assessments (i.e. the broad range of sectoral needs including food security assessments and food needs assessments) Measuring the impact of a specific project or programme. WHAT DO YOU WANT THE READER TO DO? An action-oriented assessment can inform decision makers on: whether or not to intervene the nature and scale of the intervention that is required prioritization and allocation of resources how effective the programme decisions have been. The information obtained helps to justify the approach taken and measures the extent to which the predicted outcomes of the project/programme have been achieved. This provides further justification and rationale for initiation of new projects or programmes, or their continuation, revision or termination. Design

Evaluation

Implementation Action-oriented assessments are part of the process of response/project design, implementation and evaluation. WHY IS AN ACTION-ORIENTED ASSESSMENT NEEDED? Action-oriented assessments provide an understanding of the magnitude of the problem, how long it will last, who are the most vulnerable groups, and what is the best response in terms of what is needed, how much and for how long. They should also help identify what would happen if no action was taken or if there was an inadequate response. Example: Emergency assessment OXFAM’s experience in Orissa, is an example of emergency assessment. Several villages were hit by cyclones and flood.OXFAM conducted an emergency assessment in Orissa in order to determine what was the impact of the shock, which categories of people were the most affected, in which locations and why; and how to combine food and non-food aid interventions effectively and for how long. This emergency assessment indicated immediate responses required to prevent acute malnutrition and loss of lives, as well as interventions to help rebuild livelihoods.

HOW IS AN ACTION-ORIENTED ASSESSMENT USED? In a food security emergency assessment, problems might be related to lack of food availability, in the event of crop failure due to drought; or a lack of food access, in the event of market failure due to either skyrocketing prices or lack of supply by traders. An action-oriented crop assessment may be required to assess the extent of the crop failures. A market assessment may be triggered by unusually high prices for the season or lack of commodities. In this case, the assessment aims to understand the causes of the shock and the impacts on the most vulnerable, and identifies ways of addressing the problem (including food aid, subsidized sales, etc. Results obtained from such action-oriented assessments contribute to decisions regarding mobilizing required financial, human and logistical resources, planning for appropriate interventions, and targeting effectively and efficiently.These results can also be used as important advocacy tools in attracting government and donor attention to a specific problem and, subsequently, funds to support emergency relief. Example: Nutrition assessment in Niger in 2005 In 2005, the Government of Niger and UNICEF conducted an emergency nutritional survey in order to assess the magnitude of malnutrition and recent illness among young children. The survey results indicated that among children aged 6-59 months, 15.3% had Global Acute Malnutrition and a greater mortality rate than the emergency threshold (2 deaths per 10,000 children per day); during the preceding two weeks, 72% had fever, and 49.1% had diarrhea. Among children aged 9-59 months, 33.7% had not been vaccinated for measles. Can you indicate how the outcome of the assessment were used? •	to fine-tune previous actions •	To trigger an emergency response--- correct answer Correct. The example shows as nutrition assessments may be triggered by unusual high frequency of visits to health centers in a given area at a specific time of the year. A nutrition assessment would strive to understand how dietary intake and anthropometric status of a population group or subgroup have evolved following a crisis. Results from nutrition assessment help identify appropriate measures to be undertaken including supplementary feeding, oral rehydration, clinical therapy, etc. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BASELINE AND ACTION-ORIENTED ASSESSMENTS BASELINE ASSESSMENTS                                     ACTION-ORIENTED ASSESSMENTS

The difference in terms of scope is threefold, including: the range of issues involved, the timeframe and the geographical area of intervention.

In terms of use of information, the difference between a baseline and an action-oriented assessment lies in: •	the number of people who potentially could use the outcome of each assessment type; and •	The way the information is used.

To summarize: can you compare the purposes of baseline and action-oriented assessments? PURPOSE

Answers: Action-oriented assessments are more focused on a specific objective, while baseline assessments are a multipurpose exercise with broad objectives.

Let’s now compare scopes:

SCOPE •	National, sub-national/structural, long-term; broad objectives Baseline Assessments •	Location-specific; short and medium term; specific objectives-- Action-oriented assessments The difference in terms of scope includes the range of issues involved, the timeframe and the geographical area of intervention.

Finally, let’s compare uses: To inform decision makers by providing: - Programme and policy recommendations for long- term development  and planning - Benchmarks and thresholds for monitoring and evaluation purposes;  emergency preparedness and disaster mitigation--- Baseline Assessments

To inform decision makers for short-term actions through advocacy for  resource mobilization towards immediate action inrelief and   emergency operations. - To restore a pre-crisis situation previously identified in a baseline. --- Action-oriented assessments Compared to an action-oriented assessment, a baseline assessment has a larger potential number of users and its impact on the primary beneficiaries is more indirect HOW ARE BASELINE AND ACTION-ORIENTED ASSESSMENTS RELATED? •	Baseline assessments can provide an important context for understanding and interpreting the results of action oriented assessments. An emergency needs assessment requires a wider analysis of the food security context in order to obtain a better understanding of the problem and come up with appropriate recommendations. Example In the drought-affected district of Wajir in Kenya, an analysis of the context helped better understand who the people affected by the 1999 drought were, what basic services they had access to, and to what extent the Wajir economy was connected to the rest of the Kenyan economy. The food security context provided in the baseline survey also emphasized the level of civil insecurity resulting from clan conflict over grazing land as well as the conflict in neighboring Somalia. •	Baseline assessments provide benchmarks and references that can be used as criteria for judging severity in an action-oriented assessment. Food security issues analysed in an emergency assessment (post-crisis situation) provide more credible conclusions if they are compared to a benchmark of a reference period (pre-crisis) derived from a baseline. Example The nutritional emergency situation in Niger helps illustrate this purpose. Baseline data collected previously by Médecins Sans Frontière (MSF) had shown that … “[historically during] the lean period (between the exhaustion of food reserves and the new harvest), from June to September … the number of [clinic] admissions is high: between 250 and 300 per week. After the harvest, in October, the number of admissions diminishes and maintains itself at a low level (around 50 to 100 per week) until May. However, in 2005, since January, the number of admissions is abnormally high and the situation is rapidly worsening. In March, the MSF feeding programme in Maradi recorded 200-300 admissions per week, which shows that the situation is very critical” (MSF Nutritional Emergency in Niger, July 2005).

•	Baseline assessments also help differentiate between chronic and transitory food security status. A chronically food-insecure population group regularly experiences hunger, while a transitory food-insecure group is affected occasionally. Within a given population, difference households may experience different types of food-insecurity. Differentiating between a chronic and a transitory food insecure population is crucial in order to design appropriate interventions, and this is possible if a baseline assessment is already available. Similar interventions are not appropriate in both cases, and baseline assessments usually provide this type of classification of the population under study. BASELINE ASSESSMENT

ACTION ORIENTED ASSESSMENT Action-oriented assessments should ideally be preceded by or rely upon a baseline assessment in order to gain a thorough understanding of the current situation, and help select key indicators to be measured as part of the action assessment.

Results and lessons learned from action-oriented assessments can also serve as a basis for updating a previous baseline assessment.

RESOURCE CONSTRAINTS Several types of resource constraints can emerge while conducting each type of assessment, including time constraints, staff requirements, logistical requirements and financial resources. However, these constraints are different for each type of assessment. .

Sometimes an action-oriented assessment is called for but there is no baseline assessment to guide the process. In these situations one of the following options can be adopte

ASSESSING CAPACITY Knowing the general level of performance of existing institutions and their willingness to participate helps to better understand the potential role they can play in providing support and services to the assessment process. External assistance could then be provided to fill any capacity gaps as well as develop programmes to help support capacity building.

Roles in conducting baseline assessments

In conducting a baseline assessment, it is important to find available human resources to assist with: 1. Conducting secondary data research and analysis and identifying information gaps   that need to be filled with primary data collection. This research and analysis can   be conducted through academic institutions and research centres. 2. elaborating a methodology for conducting the whole data collection work,   including sampling, questionnaire design, data management and analysis and    interpretation of findings. 3. Training enumerators in data collection, participatory interview and survey methods   and child anthropometry, if necessary, and hiring supervisors responsible for the    quality control of enumerators’ work. 4. Writing and editing intermediate and final reports. 5. Coordinating the whole process and making sure that all inputs are managed and   processed properly.

ASSESSING CAPACITY In summary, several people and institutions may take part in both types of assessments: local and international NGOs, national and local administrative officials, leaders and staff, representatives from the private sector, civil society, academic and research institutions, etc. Researchers from academic institutions and research centres are more likely to be involved in baseline assessments, where secondary data and analytical capacity are more appropriate. Available time and financial resources, as well as the objectives of the assessment will also guide the selection of appropriate resource persons and institutions. In both cases, two considerations should be taken into account given the specific circumstances and objectives of the assessment: While well informed local skills are useful and cost-effective, using external resources may also be considered in order to take advantage of an independent opinion. This could be the case, for example, when assessing food aid needs of an affected community. In an emergency situation where the purpose of the assessment is to save lives, timeliness and utility of the assessment may be traded against quality and accuracy. SUMMARY A baseline food security assessment is a comprehensive description of the food security status of a given population in a country or region at a specific point in time. Baseline assessments can be used: as a reference guide for understanding changes and trends; to inform policies and programmes for long-term development and poverty/vulnerability reduction strategies; or to support programmes and projects for emergency preparedness and disaster mitigation. An action-oriented assessment is used to address a specific issue or problem in order to come up with recommendations that could be immediately translated into actions. In the case of a project evaluation, the outcomes of an action-oriented assessment can help fine-tune current and future actions and lead to a new orientation of the project. In a food security emergency, an action-oriented assessment may be required to assess the extent of the problem. Baseline assessments can provide context, benchmarks and references for interpreting the results of action oriented assessments.

-->