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.