Noanne M. Laïda

Cash and Markets Expert

CVA FOR NUTRITION

PROGRAMMES

Activities to increase CVA in Nutrition

The Nutrition Cluster will benefit from Cash and Markets by Cash Cap support until January 2020

to complete the following activities :

➢ Developing a Targeting approach for CVA in NUT

➢ Guidance note to design nutrition sensitive projects with CVA

➢ Review accountability systems used monitor CVA in Nutrition

➢ Advocacy strategy to increase Cash in Nutrition

➢ Do we have an enabling environment ?

➢ Do we have guidance notes to support CVA for nutrition programmes ?

➢ Is the MEB in Somalia reflecting nutritious food required for a balanced diet?

➢ How do we calculate transfer values for supplementary fresh food programmes ?

Where do we begin?

The MEB is defined as the total needs HH – ona regular or seasonal basis – and its averagecost over time.It is a critical component in the design ofinterventions including Multipurpose CashGrants/Assistance (MPG/MCA), with transferamounts calculated to contribute to meetingthe MEB.

= MEB

*Basic needs of people affected by disasters/ hazards and crises requiring life-saving assistance

One Off package

MPCA

Sector specific assistance

SMEB minimum amount

required for a family to

meet their survival needs

WHAT IS A MINIMUM EXPENDITURE BASKET

According to a UN declaration that resulted from theWorld Summit on Social Development absolute poverty is "a condition characterised by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education, and information. It depends not only on income, but also on access to services.

Absolute Poverty The Minimum Expenditure Basket

The Minimum Expenditure Basket (MEB) is defined as what a household requires in order to meet basic needs – on a regular or seasonal basis – and its average cost”

MEB Types Advantages Disadvantages

Expenditure-based MEB CFSVA, EFSA, household pre-assistance baseline data or PDM, survey data from

partners

straightforward to carry out

• problematic when everybody is poor • not rights-based • does not facilitate sector-specific assistance

Rights-based MEB Detailed prices/cost for food and non-food

expenditures

survey data is not needed

• effective demand can be different from assessed needs > comparison with monitoring data is hard

• big incentives for partners to inflate sector-specific needs

Hybrid approach: rights-based starting point Detailed prices/cost for food and non-food expenditures, survey data

combining the rights-based lens with an approach consistent with demand patterns

• data intense

HOW DO WE CONSTRUCT A MEB?

• Multi-sector engagement: Create a Task-force as a reference

group for consultation and review,

• Selection of minimum required items and services: A basket of items for both the MEB and SMEB are selected to

meet minimum basic needs.

• Validate Basket/s with clusters and through field-based focus

group discussions with potential beneficiaries. NOTE: separation of recurrent and one-off costs; NFI items should be disaggregated into recurrent costs, e.g. water, soap, etc. and one-off costs, e.g. winter clothes.

• Costing at a local level: Cost of items in the individual

cities/towns selected (where possible). it is important to note that it should only capture needs that households will realistically cover through the market; MEB cannot capture every needs of the population.

• Estimation for some items and services: Where

secondary cost/pricing information are not available and where it was not possible to collect primary data for the study, use estimation from ‘validated’ sources or data from other cities and towns.

• Validation against expenditure data: Collect household

expenditure data to validate minimum expenditure estimation. If poverty and vulnerability are high amongst affected population filter data to only consider expenditure amongst households who appeared to be meeting their needs.

• Validation of basket with the community: After

validation with task force and Inter-agency fora, the MEB and SMEB calculations should ideally be validated through field-based consultations with beneficiary households.

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Hybrid Rights based approach

What does A Fresh Food Basket Looks like?

The MPG transfer values while

looking complicated can best

be understood as six building

blocks with recommended

transfer amounts for each

component that together

combine to cover the basic

recurrent needs of a household

in acute need.

Minimum expenditure basket with a Nutrition Lens

Item Groups Kilo calories per day

Starches (Rice, white/red sorghum, white maize)

1,180

Pulses (cow peas, lentils..) 403

Fresh vegetable ( pumpkin, beans okra)

Fresh fruit (Bananas, papaya, oranges) 51

Protein (Fish, chicken, camel meat)

Calcium (Eggs, goats or Camel milk)

Fats (Vegetable , i.e. sesame oil) 35

Carbohydrate (sugar) 19

Salt 0,5

Somalia MEB

Own income /other assistance

Unmet food needs for a

balanced diet

Calculating Transfer values for Nutrition Programmes

The objectives and logic of the project oractivity - i.e. is it a multi-sector transfer orsingle sector? Are the objectives to meetbasic food needs or to complement existingassistance? Is the activity a ‘one off’ orregular transfer, etc.?

A MEB will capture minimum needs for a balanced meal for an average households.

It can support the nutritional intake of distinctgroups such as PLW, Children 0-24, Elderly,people living with disabilities, and people withchronic diseases, however specific foodrequirements may be necessary to addressspecific condition.

Needs Based

Recurrent

Average nutritionNeeds

Fresh food rich with

micronutrients and

minerals…

Non Average Needs

Example: OTP

• The MEB and the SMEB should form part of the programme logic.

• A review IS REQUIRED at least twice a year to allow specific inflationary effects ( and other factors)to be incorporated in transfer values.

• Monitoring for food and NFI commodities should be standardized and answer specifics questionson, availability, quantity and quality for each item that’s form part of the MEB basket.

• To understand the gap between income and MEB and SMEB needs, a detailed income assessmentshould be undertaken with consideration to the seasonal calendar.

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Recommendations

Main conclusions

• Needs assessment is key before starting the MEB process

• Since Somalia MPCA package does not consider food with high content in micro nutrients; nutrition partners can increase fresh food intake with CVA for supplementary food programmes

• Consensus on the content of the MEB is key to ensure utilisation of the transfer values

Next steps

• Nominate a member of the nutrition cluster to work alongside CashCap to design and calculate nutrition content of a standardized balanced meal

• CashCap produces a position paper on the MEB process from a nutrition lens

• Somalia CashCap organises a workshop with (Global CashCap) to validate position paper, endorsing fresh food transfer values and presenting Global CVA nutrition guidance and case study on Somalia

Conclusions