Landell Mills rolls out index for measuring institutionalisation in SADC Member States
Landell Mills held a training workshop on the 10th of December in Johannesburg, South Africa on applying the 'Institutionalisation Index', a monitoring tool developed to assess, measure and report on the degree of institutionalisation of National Vulnerability Assessment Committees (NVACs). The workshop was organised under the RVAA Programme, where Landell Mills supports the institutionalisation of NVACs under a Swiss Development Cooperation funded contract.
NVACs currently exist in 14 Southern African Development Community (SADC) Member States. They oversee the tracking and reporting on food insecurity and malnutrition in order to determine populations at risk. NVACs carry out annual and periodic vulnerability assessments and analysis (VAA) and specific studies targeting the underlying reasons for chronic and acute vulnerability such as nutrition, livelihood trends and climate change.
Landell Mills works alongside the World Food Programme, which provides technical support, to improve and refine the VAA process which involves methods such as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) and the (Household Economy Approach)).
Landell Mills Monitoring & Evaluation Expert, George Chiduwa, presenting at the workshop
The Index, which was presented to SADC Member States as part of the Programme's Annual Review and Planning workshop, is the final product of a series of assessments and analyses carried out individually in each SADC Member State. It has seven components each reflecting an important aspect of institutionalisation and is designed as a flexible tool for measuring institutionalisation through self-assessment, taking account of specific national development priorities. The team is currently piloting the index with the Zambia VAC over a five-day workshop, which will culminate in the drafting of an institutionalisation strategy.
More information on the project can be found here.
