WFP Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific - 2016 SPRs RBB 2016 SPRs by project type | Page 256

Standard Project Report 2016
Implementation of Evaluation Recommendations and Lessons
Learned
During 2016, the programme implemented a number of recommendations from the European Union's (EU) mid-term
evaluation of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and WFP's mother and child health and nutrition
programmes. These recommendations included increased coordination with UNICEF's treatment programme for
severe acute malnutrition (SAM) through cost-sharing and the co-facilitation of national training on the
implementation of nutrition programmes, as well as closer coordination of the development and sharing of behaviour
change communication materials, including the joint development of a recipe book for communities. WFP integrated
the mSupply system with the Ministry of Health's system, through support to the Medical and Pharmaceutical
Supply Agency (SAMES). WFP also increased coordination and support to the Ministry of Health's monitoring and
evaluation department. For example, nutrition data collected in health facilities in Dili through the WFP and Ministry
of Health treatment programme for moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) were incorporated into the government-led
health information systems.
Addressing Capacity Development
The evaluation also recommended to increase capacity development for health staff, and provide institutional
capacity development to address the low number of adequately trained technical staff. In response, WFP placed an
internationally trained nutritionist in Oecusse, while supporting the rollout of technical training of health staff on
nutrition interventions and programming. WFP's staff also worked with the nutrition department of the Ministry of
Health, providing input into various nutrition guidelines and documents on contingency planning, dietetics for
hospital menu planning, and assessment formats for monitoring nutrition-related programmes.
One of the major challenges to the implementation of WFP's nutrition programme has been the low capacity and
frequent turnover of health staff, both at the national and municipal or local health facility levels. These challenges
affect programme implementation as new staff need additional support and on-the-job training on programme
activities and the national guidelines for MAM treatment. As a result, and following a request from the Ministry's
nutrition department, WFP changed the scheduled nutrition training from shorter two-day refresher sessions that
focused on the treatment of MAM using the national treatment protocols, to a more comprehensive six-day training
course covering ten nutrition-specific interventions developed by the Ministry of Health and the National Institute of
Health (INS). These training courses were conducted in partnership with the nutrition department, UNICEF and the
INS, with co-funding from UNICEF. Given the need for ongoing skills development, WFP also conducted refresher
sessions on monitoring and evaluation recording and reporting tools, as well as on community mobilisation and
behaviour change for nutrition.
Potential Commercialisation of Specialised Nutritious Foods
In order to address problems with the production of Timor Vita, the EU review recommended analysing whether
Timor Global could produce a fortified cereal blend, similar to Timor Vita. WFP hired a value chain consultant to
analyse