Young, H.

This paper describes the use of wealth ranking as part of rapid nutritional assessments undertaken between 1988 and 1989 in Darfur, Sudan by an Oxfam nutrition team. The assessments combined two techniques; wealth ranking, a technique to show people's own perceptions of differences in wealth, and conventional weight-for-height measurements of child malnutrition. The objective was to establish whether it was the poorer families who were more likely to have malnourished children.

This report describes the work of two multi-disciplinary teams during June 1992 in Zambia who attempted to find solutions to malnutrition and vitamin A deficiency in the Luapula Valley. As well as identifying diet and food production patterns, the RRA exercise intended to find out more about the views of the local people and the constraints they faced. A variety of RRA techniques were used including semi-structured interviews and wealth ranking, and these showed that poorer groups, particularly female-headed households were more likely to experience food shortages during the year.

The bulk of the document concentrates on indicators of malnutrition, famine and the ability of early warning predictors. The relationship between famine and nutrition is discussed. There is a section which deals with methodology of assesment, and is split between formal, qualitative data collection and quantitative assesments, predominantly RRA and PRA. The applications and analysis of quantitative data are discussed, with many of the criticisms of qualitative work being outlined, and a combination with quantitative work suggested.