Guidelines for participatory nutrition projects

Malnutrition remains a serious problem in most developing countries today. Experience has shown that when a community is fully involved in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of nutrition and other development projects, these are likely to be more effective and sustainable. These guidelines for participatory approaches to nutrition projects are designed for use by professional staff from different institutional and technical backgrounds, working with development at a community level. They describe different aspects of participatory nutrition projects through four parts: The preparatory phase where existing information is reviewed, links are established to other development organisations and institutions, community relationships and dialogue are initiated and strengthened; The rationale and implementation of participatory appraisal of community food and nutrition presenting different visualisation and analysis techniques; Design and implementation of participatory projects an activities and how to find funding for micro-project proposals; The rationale and implementation of monitoring and evaluation. All the parts include boxes with case-studies from different parts of the world (e.g. Kenya, Tanzania, Guinea, Mexico, Philippines) and are concluded with an analysis of potential constraints and the role of the developmental worker described in steps.