MONITORING TRACKS MANY LEVELS OF CHANGE

n the village of Rukoro, situated in the district of At each session, infants and young children are IRubavu along the shores of Lake Kivu, volunteer weighed to check that they are growing properly, community health worker Esperance Mukarundo while their mothers are able to participate in a recalls how only a year earlier, 28 children were savings group. Many have used sums from the detected as acutely malnourished. Most had group to purchase small livestock, such as hens been in the ‘red’ category, indicating severe acute that provide eggs for protein in children’s diet. The malnutrition, which requires inpatient treatment goal eventually is for everyone in the group to be at the local health centre. Today, 8 children still able to purchase health insurance, so that they linger in the ‘yellow’ category, denoting moderate can access the full range of health services for acute malnutrition, which can mostly be treated themselves and their families. in families through improved feeding and care Mukarundo is highly motivated to lead the practices. But no child is in red. Mukarundo can fight against nutrition in her village. Part of this is foresee the day when even the yellow number because she is supported by a local committee to drops to zero. eliminate malnutrition, which involves a number She tracks progress closely. Though the of local officials active on agriculture, economic national standard is a monthly session, she development, health and other issues, including gathers all mothers in the community who have the village chief. Gone are the days when nutrition malnourished children for a ‘Child Growth’ session in the village was an issue mainly for community each week. Collectively, they learn and reinforce health workers. the knowledge Mukarundo has shared with them Equally important has been the introduction about how to feed their children a diverse diet of Rapid SMS, a system where community health of foods appropriate to their age, practice good workers use a mobile phone app to report a series hygiene and manage small kitchen gardens that of milestones essential to the health and nutrition provide nutritious vegetables. of young children. It is one part of a system for

A nutritionist goes over a growth chart with a young woman carrying her daughter during a growth-monitoring session in . © UNICEF/UN016856/Noorani 1 monitoring progress in combatting malnutrition Speciose is a mother of three in Rukoro. For that also includes the DevInfo database, which her first pregnancy, before Rapid SMS was consolidates all indicators for the district plan to introduced, she remembers she never saw a eliminate malnutrition. community health worker. She gave birth at Tracking in Rapid SMS starts during home, as many women in the community have pregnancy and extends through age two, the traditionally done. But for her second pregnancy, so-called first 1,000 days of life. Data streams with Rapid SMS in place, the community directly to health centres as well as the national health worker came knocking on her door. She health system, under the name of each mother, received regular antenatal care and delivered at reducing the likelihood that individuals will the hospital, after which the community health be lost in more generic data collection, and worker visited again to advise her to breastfeed incentivizing community health workers to follow exclusively until six months and to introduce a up. If a mother misses a prenatal appointment, diverse diet of complementary foods after that for instance, and the community health worker point. Regular health screenings of her children, does not report that she has attended it, the including growth monitoring, have found that they system sends a message asking the health are well-nourished and thriving. worker to follow up.

A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE NUTRITION SITUATION IN :

18% 80% 54%

of children 6-23 months receive of households are have improved sanitation a minimum acceptable diet (up food secure facilities (58% in 2010) from 1% since 2010)

38% 4% 37%

of children younger than five of handwashing facilities with of children younger than five are stunted (down from 44% soap and water is available in 4% are suffering from anemia since 2010) of households (2% in 2010) (down from 38% in 2010)

87% 73% 2%

of children 0-6 months are of households have of children younger than five exclusively breastfed access to an improved waterer are wasted (down from 3% source (75% in 2010) since 2010)

Data sources: The RDHS 2014/15 and the CFSVA 2015.

2 WHAT IS BEING DONE BY UNICEF

With support from the Dutch Distribution of micronutrient caregivers of young children to Government, SDC, the IKEA powders, Vitamin A and deworming increase access to financing and Foundation and USAID, UNICEF to improve the micronutrient status income generating activities is implementing a multisectoral of children and reduce anemia Support to coordination, package of nutrition-specific as well Support to the management monitoring and evaluation, learning as nutrition-sensitive interventions of severe acute malnutrition in and knowledge management at focusing on 19 out of 30 districts children, including screening, district and national levels through in the country. These interventions referral and treatment training in DevInfo to track district include: plans to eliminate malnutrition, Training of caregivers of young Support to monthly community support to learning visits between children in establishing kitchen growth monitoring and promotion districts and training in and support gardens and small livestock rearing sessions, including cooking to operational research to capture to supplement the family’s diet demonstrations, to teach caregivers lessons learned and best practices on how to prepare a diversified diet Establishment of community and identify drivers and barriers for from locally available ingredients saving and lending groups for effective nutrition interventions.

BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT

Rubavu is one of 18 districts where UNICEF and successful interventions as well as bottlenecks. six partners have backed a multisectoral approach UNICEF has supported districts in strengthening to nutrition. The programme operates under the monitoring of interventions included in the district aegis of the Government of Rwanda’s national plans using DevInfo, a a monitoring tool that nutrition programme, and through funding from the can bring together data from diverse sectors Government of the Netherlands, the United States and national systems, including nutrition, health Agency for International Development (USAID), and agriculture, and present them in visual the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC) and compelling ways such as maps. These offer a the IKEA Foundation. The ACCESS Project is the dynamic visual measure of progress and gaps, partner in . including geographically across a district. DevInfo The multisectoral approach links the multiple is the only data system in Rwanda that combines issues critical to achieving sound nutrition all elements of the multisectoral approach to among children, such as child feeding and nutrition and is fully aligned with the district plans. care, hygiene, access to sufficient income and Each variable in each set of district data includes a agricultural practices that make a diverse diet baseline, regular updates and objectives. readily available. Districts selected for assistance UNICEF has also supported the Government include those with the highest rates of under-five in introducing RapidSMS in all 30 districts of stunting, poverty and food insecurity. Rwanda, including through the multisectoral Rwanda’s national plan to eliminate nutrition programme. This enables patient level malnutrition, given a national move towards more monitoring to complement the aggregated data decentralized provision of public services, prioritized produced by DevInfo. Evidence for improved the adoption of multisectoral district plans to nutrition programming is being generated through eliminate malnutrition. Under these, different evaluations of different programmes, including district actors plan and coordinate all activities one of the Dutch-funded nutrition programmes, required to reduce malnutrition, including by where results are expected in early 2017. The regularly monitoring and reviewing progress. national health management information system Monitoring is critical to track and manage the (HMIS) and SISCOM, a health financing database district plans and provides the evidence to identify are also used to monitor nutrition interventions.

3 LESSONS LEARNED AND RECOMMENDATIONS

General considerations relating to monitoring for nutrition Representatives from various organizations and the district look at a map generated by DevInfo during a planning meeting in . © UNICEF/UN016888/Noorani Gaps remain in capacities to analyse data. While data on health, including nutrition, is regularly compiled at the village, cell, sector, district and national levels, abilities to apply it to guide the district plans to eliminate malnutrition have required strong support from partners. One has offered METHODOLOGY regular refresher training for district staff on the basics of how to present and analyse data, seeking As part of identifying some lessons to overcome the tendency to think that it is enough learned in Rwanda, UNICEF commissioned to simply compile numbers. five briefs on themes central to Meetings of committees at different levels the programme: behaviour change, charged with implementing the district plans have multisectoral approaches to ending provided opportunities to demonstrate data analysis malnutrition, decentralization, monitoring in practice. Partners have used them to push people and innovation. beyond just reviewing data to asking questions and The briefs are based on a review thinking about what they can do about the problems of documents outlining the scope of the revealed. If a child receiving milk at the health programme and reporting on results, as centre is still in the red category of moderate acute well as over 75 semi-structured interviews malnutrition after several months, why? Who is with key informants, including national and responsible? Why hasn’t the case been resolved so local government counterparts, partners, far? What needs to be done next? men and women participating in the One partner has encouraged a more programme, and UNICEF staff in and interpretive use of Rapid SMS data to detect risk New York. The interviews were designed factors for neglect and malnutrition. If the system to elicit both technical information and reports that children are not being vaccinated expertise on which interventions were or mothers are not going to antenatal care, for most effective and which required example, the community health worker can be improvement, as well as to capture tasked to proactively investigate these issues, while and document the lived experiences of also asking about feeding and care practices. people who have benefited from project Targets may be political rather than technical. interventions. This concern was expressed by a district nutritionist The process was based on the who considered current targets on malnutrition and pause, learn, share methodology stunting, while driven by a strong sense of urgency developed by the National Aeronautics and understanding of these issues as a threat to the and Space Administration (NASA), the future, are too ambitious. He felt the targets do not US space agency. Aimed at eliciting recognize the complexity of the issue or the time it knowledge based on real-world will take to fully address it. This could lead to perverse experiences, it stresses taking time to incentives if people try to claim that progress is reflect on recent events, which helps happening faster than it is, or to discouragement if the people learn what happened and why. targets remain far off what has actually been achieved.

4 Strengths and weaknesses with “You cannot talk malnutrition without using DevInfo as a tool to improve data, and you cannot have sound data monitoring without strengthening community DevInfo’s flexible and visually compelling data nutrition programmes as a source of presentations have generated wider interest it. While we need to do more on this, in the nutrition agenda. Partners and district community growth monitoring has officials lauded DevInfo’s data presentation capability, which is unique in Rwanda. For an provided reliable evidence and shown issue like nutrition that has traditionally been the way forward.” low on district development agendas, DevInfo’s colourful maps have been valuable in making the —EMMANUEL BAGIRUWIGIZE, ACCESS case for persuading a cross-section of people to get involved in eliminating it. This has particularly been the case with higher level leaders focused Monitoring needs to take place on many on multiple district priorities, many of whom have levels. One of the strengths of the multisectoral no background in either health or nutrition. One approach is that it involves people from many district mayor was so impressed by DevInfo different backgrounds, including sectors of the that he suggested applying similar techniques to government as well as people within communities. tracking crime. Another district has extended the When they come together, whether in a savings system to early efforts to monitor the SDGs. and loan group for mothers or in a committee One benefit of DevInfo, according to district overseeing district plan to eliminate malnutrition, staff, is that it has indicators that can be changed, they in some sense monitor each other. That in contrast to the fixed indicators that characterize might involve an official from one sector asking national data systems. This allows close alignment fresh questions about data on another sector, or a with local needs expressed in the district plans to mother asking another mother whether her child eliminate malnutrition, which are supposed to be is gaining enough weight. Communities repeatedly updated annually. DevInfo data is easily accessible demonstrated a comfort or solidarity around issues on a personal computer, unlike national health raised and discussed within community groups. data, which cannot always be readily obtained on Partners stressed the importance of quality demand, and in some cases require involvement of data originating in communities above all else, a data manager. because they are the most direct and accurate DevInfo has required significant support reflection of the actual status of malnutrition and to implement. Despite training on rolling out the stunting. Having village level committees actively system, a variety of challenges were reported in engaged in locally implementing the district plans several districts, requiring extensive investments can be one avenue of supporting data collection, of time by the partners. In one district, the quality such as through encouraging community health of data improved greatly after the system was workers and reviewing progress on simple data on translated into Kinyarwanda. There was a learning the number of malnourished children. One partner curve around indicator definitions, some of which used community scorecards, where community varied from national definitions and were not members could track their own progress on basic initially well understood. indicators such as the number of malnourished Technical links to draw in existing data children, kitchen gardens, small livestock and so sources were seen as overly complicated, leading on. Some questions were raised on this approach, staff in one district, despite training, to revert to however, in terms of how it might intersect with simply sending new data to the partner to process other data collection systems, whether it imposed for inclusion in DevInfo. A district plan to eliminate additional duties on communities and how it could malnutrition may have over 100 indicators across be sustained over time. more than a dozen sectors; links have to be created separately for each data source.

5 Since DevInfo is based on the district level, people Members of the committee to implement the saw it as less useful on other levels, such as District Plan to Eliminate Malnutrition in one cells and sectors. Finally, there was a consistent district that is actively using the system said suggestion that the system be put online, rather that they would like to be able to use DevInfo than confined to individual computers. Not only across districts to compare progress, which is would this facilitate information sharing, but would currently not possible and would not be likely avoid the risks associated with computers being without a national rollout. UNICEF is planning lost or stolen, as happened in one district. to explore possibilities to roll out DevInfo to all Broader use of DevInfo may depend on districts, establish online DevInfo data bases, and central Government endorsement. While people link district level DevInfo systems with national in district offices said they liked the idea of DevInfo, monitoring and evaluation frameworks. they repeatedly noted constraints on money and manpower to make use of it. Some questioned the wisdom of adding what they saw as another data “Under the district plan to eliminate system that needs active maintenance since there malnutrition, all members of the are already two systems for health data or three where Rapid SMS has been rolled out, as well as committee to implement the plan in one for agriculture. Training has helped understand our cell go to villages for supervision. the distinct value of DevInfo in presenting That gives us the same level of information and combining data from different understanding, and because we work sectors, but there was still a general consensus that use of the system will mostly not extend as a team, we see more and know beyond the life of the UNICEF programme unless it what we need to do next” is mandated by the Ministry of Local Government. —JEANNE UTAMURIZE, IN CHARGE OF GOVERNANCE IN KAMUHOZA CELL, RUBAVU DISTRICT.

Representatives from the district of Gisagara and various organizations watch a DevInfo slide show presentation tracking progress on the District Plan for the Elimination of Malnutrition. © UNICEF

6 CONCLUSION

In Rwanda, regular tracking of activities under the including by introducing the notion of looking at district plans to eliminate malnutrition has raised data across the different sectors that contribute to the visibility of nutrition issues, among technicians sound nutrition. At the same time, more needs to in diverse sectors as well as political leaders. It be done to strengthen local level skills related to has allowed communities to proudly proclaim that multisectoral data analysis and linking analysis with they have no more acutely malnourished children decision making.. Not doing so poses the risk that and to realize where they still have more work to benefits of the multisector approach will not be do. The UNICEF-supported programme has laid a captured, and that collaboration among sectors will foundation for strengthening nutrition-related data, not advance or could decline over time.

KEY RECOMMENDATIONS

Despite the merits of DevInfo, there needs to be a clearer strategy to make sure this has national buy-in, and is not seen as an add-on responsibility.

SMS technology can provide effective mechanisms to support identifying and following up malnourished children or those at high risk, in addition to providing messages on sound nutrition.

Additional measures to validate data quality should be factored in, particularly in a multisector initiative that involves diverse measurements across different sectors, each of which may have its own challenges.

Support for collecting, analysing and acting on data may need to be ongoing, and should be considered beyond initial training and/or the provision of technical inputs.

7 SOME QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER FOR FUTURE WORK

1. For a multisectoral initiative, how can different data systems be brought together?

2. How can data and monitoring capture connections across different sectors?

3. How developed are national/subnational capacities and systems to manage the kind of data collection and analysis required for a multisectoral programme? If there are gaps, how can these be filled, in terms of interim measures and the longer term?

4. How can community level data collection be improved? Can communities be directly involved in monitoring nutrition shortfalls? If so, how would this connect to more formal systems of data management and without overburdening communities and existing systems?

ALSO IN THIS SERIES… For more on nutrition work in Rwanda, see:

1. Rwanda: National Goals Propel Local Advances in Child Nutrition

2. Changing Behaviour through Building and Sharing Knowledge

3. Bridging Many Sectors to Accelerate Nutrition Results

4. Decentralized Planning Mobilizes Local Government to Act on Reducing Malnutrition

5. In Pursuit of Innovation

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This brief was written with the support of the Ministry of Health in Rwanda, UNICEF Rwanda staff: Kristine Dandanell Garn, Josephine Kayumba, Youssouf Koita, Beatrice Kampirwa, Oliver Petrovic and Denise Uwera; and Gretchen Luchsinger (Consultant).

unicef.org