IP-3: Number of people moved from inadequate to adequate intake of micronutrients

Definition: This indicator measures the number of people living in households whose suppy of micronutrients (and macronutrients) has surpassed the aggregate Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) and/or Estimated Average Requirement (EAR) through the consumption of ICARDA promoted/supplied crops and livestock cultivated/reared within the household or purchased from the market.

Unit of Measure: Count of people/individuals

Disaggregated by: Threshold (RDA, EAR), Gender, Geographic location
Gender: Women of reproductive age/ 14-59 years, children 6-24 months, children 6-59 months, men 14-59 years(as comparison group)

Method of Calculation:
Step 1: Compute the average amount of food available for daily consumption in the household;
Step 2: Discount for post-harvest and preparation/processing losses;
Step 3: Divide the quantity of food per day by the total number of adult equivalents in the household;
Step 4: Use appropriate food composition tables and efficacy factors to compute the amount of micro- and macro- nutrient intake per adult equivalent per day;
Step 5: Make reference to the adult equivalents of age-gender group of interest and impute the micro- or macro- nutrient intake for these groups;
Step 6: Compare the share of the sampled farmers that had below WHO threshold intake before and after intervention
Step 7: Based on the total number of people (by age-gender category) in the intervention group, calculate the number of people lifted above the micro- or macro-nutrient intake threshold.

Data sources: Intervention Households

Data collection method: Survey with an elaborate food intake module

Data collection and reporting responsibility: M&E Unit, SEP team

Data Collection and Reporting Frequency: Baseline, endline'impact evaluation

Evidence required:
For internal evaluation or research studies: Study protocol, data collection tools, dataset, report, re-executable data management and analysis file;
For external evaluation or research studies: Request for proposals (RFP) document, inception report, final report, dataset, re-executable data management and analysis file

Rationale: This indicator will track the work of ICARDA is combating hunger and malnutrition, as envisaged in SLO2 and SDG 2.

Comments and limitations: The adult equivalent approach assumes intra-household distribution of food based on metabolic energy requirements of the household members. There maybe cases where this assumption does not hold, but the cost and rigor required to conduct a study on intra-household food allocation make this a prgmatic apprach and it has been used widely in Scientific literature. In addition, the inference methods used require that the study sample is representative of (drawn randomly from) the intervention group. Careful timing of the study is also key to the validity and representativeness of the results due to temporal fluctuations in households consumption patterns.