The Maisha Bora programme aims to improve the food security of these (semi-) pastoral communities in 15 villages. As each development programme, Maisha Bora started in 2015 with the creation of a baseline. A baseline is an analysis of the situation that is taken as a point of reference to monitor, measure and evaluate the results of the programme. The survey to determine this important baseline was conducted with digital tools and the further monitoring and evaluation (M&E) will also be done digitally. Coached by data experts and equipped with tablets and GPS-devices, local enumerators took charge of the data collection. A first time experience for them.

The Maisha Bora programme involves five international partners, which are all responsible for the implementation of a specific component together with their local partners. Within such a unique approach different organizations all work together on one common programme objective: improving food security of households in 15 targeted villages. Yet, different organizations bring along different approaches, reporting formats, monitoring and evaluation systems, indicators, etc. Enabel therefore ensures that the efforts of all partners are harmonized and directed towards the common programme objective. 

The same applies to the baseline study of the programme. Enabel teamed up with a service provider, Savannas Forever Tanzania (SFTZ), to design a common household survey incorporating impact indicators for all different components. The survey consisted of a questionnaire and anthropometric measurements to yield both quantitative and qualitative information on the food security and nutrition status of the beneficiaries, as well as on socio-economic data about their revenues, livestock assets and their access to water. 

Mathias Lardinois, programme coordinator of Maisha Bora, explains: "We decided to carry out one common household survey for our programme baseline. All partners worked together to integrate all their indicators and to make sure that there was no overlap. These efforts lead to a more efficient data collection, so our beneficiaries didn't have to go through five separate surveys." 

Susan James, Executive Director of Savannas Forever Tanzania: “Designing the household survey was a real challenge. We worked closely together with Enabel and the implementing partners to harmonize the different Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) systems and to consolidate all the indicators. It was our task to turn it into a scientifically sound and workable household survey and to program it into the software.” 

Traditional Maasai lifestyle centres around their cattle.

The 15 Maisha Bora programme villages are spread over a vast area in the districts of Simanjiro and Longido. The Maasai communities living in these scarcely populated plains of Northern Tanzania are mainly (agro-)pastoralists, who seasonally move around in search for green pastures for their livestock. Household dwellings (locally referred to as "bomas") are often located miles apart. By organizing one common household survey for the programme, the Maisha Bora partners made sure that the resources for the baseline survey were efficiently used and logistics were carefully organized. 

The team of Savannas Forever Tanzania (SFTZ) was up for the task. In three weeks' time the enumerators interviewed more than 920 households in 15 villages. David Mollel, teamleader of Savannas Forever Tanzania: “The area in Longido and Simanjiro is rough. Due to the heavy rains some bridges were damaged and roads were literally washed away. Some of the villages could not be reached by car, so we had to walk for several hours. Besides, sometimes the Maasai men were still herding their cattle out of the village in the dry-season grazing lands. Others had moved to town temporarily. You know, Maasai are mobile, but so are we. In the end we reached all the bomas and interviewed more than 900 households”. 

Digital questionnaires were an obvious choice for Jovit Felix, programmer of SFTZ: "We abandoned pens and paper questionnaires many years ago. Digital tools create added value. They make data collection much more efficient and enumerators can minimize the time they spend on each interview. We are much more in control of data quality during data collection and we avoid encoding errors." 

With this in mind, rich digital data bring another advantage to the programme. They allow for more precise analyses on different parameters. Programme partners will be able to map the data, use time-series of data and easily compare the results with other data sets. Altogether, this should lead to better decisions, better programmes and better results. 

The five international partners are: Enabel, Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Belgium, Iles De Paix, TRIAS and the World Food Programme. The ten local partners are: Heifer, UCRT, OIKOS, LCDO, PWC, MWEDO, MVIWATA-Arusha, TCCIA Arusha, TCCIA Manyara, and Childreach Tanzania. Enabel coordinates the programme. In doing so, Enabel stimulates synergies and cooperation among the different partners and monitors and evaluates the impact of the programme. 

First picture Maasai: © Tim Bruijninckx (VSF-Belgium)

All other pictures: © Enabel/ Toon Driesen