Objective
The South African Presidency/Department of Planning Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) commissioned Khulisa to evaluate the implementation of 18 nutrition interventions. These interventions are carried out by 4 government departments: Health, Social Development, Agriculture, and Rural Development.
The evaluation aimed to identify barriers and enablers to accessing these interventions and to propose strategies for addressing or scaling them where appropriate.
Approach
Khulisa used a Qualitative Case Study Approach to: 1) understand the Government’s underlying program theories around the nutrition interventions; 2) evaluate the effectiveness of project implementation; 3) identify barriers to effective delivery; and 4) gauge fidelity to relevant policies. The evaluation examined critical system and implementation issues that inhibit or enable access to nutrition interventions for pregnant women and children under the age of five.
Data collection methods included both a literature review and fieldwork carried out with key respondents at national, provincial, district, and site levels. Fieldwork methods comprised of in-person in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and a rapid performance assessment administered at health facilities and community nutrition programs.
Through in-depth analysis, Khulisa created 8 case studies: 4 provincial case studies and 4 intervention-specific case studies:
- Breastfeeding support;
- Targeted meal supplementation (delivered through health facilities);
- Food access interventions (food parcels, food banks, and food kitchens) delivered by the Department of Social Development); and
- Household food production and preservation (home gardening).
Impact:
The evaluation results had a direct policy impact. South Africa’s National Food and Nutrition Security Plan (2018 to 2023), a comprehensive and integrated national plan, specifically mentions the findings from Khulisa’s evaluation and attributes the development of the national plan to the evaluation’s findings.