The MER SC Workshop Discussed the NNP II Performance Report and Other Issues

The MER SC Workshop Discussed the NNP II Performance Report and Other Issues

The National Nutrition Program Monitoring, Evaluation and Research Steering Committee (MER SC) meeting was conducted on January 30, 2020 in Adama. The main objective of the meeting was to discuss the progress of NNP-II, to provide highlights on the 2021 National Nutrition survey, to report the findings of the recent operational researches undertaken by EPHI and to give an overview of the activities of the National Information Platform for Nutrition (NIPN). The workshop officially started with keynote speeches from EPHI- FSNRD, and representatives from FAO, UNICEF, Save the children - ECS SUN, and EU delegation. The speakers gave an introductory remark on their organizational support and contribution to the different initiatives that are underway in Ethiopia. The representatives assure the continuation of their organizations support and underlined the significance of working together with different nutrition actors for better expected nutrition outcomes in Ethiopia.

Ato Masresha Tessema, director of food science and nutrition research directorate (FSNRD) welcomed the participants and mentioned the outcomes of the multi-sectoral contributions to better implement the NNP II. He also explained the multi-sectoral partnership activities and the different initiatives that are supported by different partners in the FSNRD of EPHI.

The MER SC workshop discussed the 2019 NNP II progress report which was presented by Ato Abera Dibabe from the ministry of health (MOH). Ato Abera mentioned the monitoring progress for implementation of nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions across sectors for NNP II, the major challenges, the lessons learned, and the way forward.

guideline as well as the progresses so far achieved by the technical team. He underscores the significance of the government's commitment to overdue the guideline. He said, EPHI will develop, validate, release and disseminate the guideline.

 Following this, the Validation of Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women was presented by Ato Dilnesaw Zerfu from EPHI. He said, it is a multi- country initiative, previously done also in Cambodia and Zambia, which researches about what and how women are eating. The research deals about diversified diet in Ethiopia and Amhara region was selected in this sampling, 3 zones, 13 kebeles, 24 gotes were part of the research.

Dr. Meron Girma also spoke on the NIPN policy question formulation (PQF) processes. She presented the PQF steps performed so far and updated the audience on the status of the PQF processes. The policy question identification, refining question with the participation of stakeholders and the approval process of the question were explained. Dr. Meron said, 22 relevant questions were identified during a consultative workshop with different stakeholders, in which the questions were assessed individually, discussions held in groups and 12 questions were identified from the list. The final questions were refined to answer two policy relevant questions in 2020.

The NIPN regional Dashboard was also one focus of discussion during the workshop in which several interactive discussions were conducted. The participants were also briefed about the NIPN Ethiopia progress by Dr. Aregash.