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DCID’s professor Fernando Fernholz and research associate Estuardo Pineda have just returned from a second trip to Mozambique where they led three days of successful presentations and “train the trainer” workshops focused on Cost Effectiveness Analysis (CEA) and food and nutrition. According to the World Food Programme, “almost one-third of Mozambicans, most of them living in the arid and flood-prone areas of the south and center regions, suffer from chronic food insecurity. Undernutrition, fueled by high rates of food insecurity and coupled with the underlying causes of poor dietary diversity, low meal frequency, poor feeding practices, high levels of disease and teenage pregnancy, is a critical public health challenge.” CEA is a decision-making tool that helps policymakers understand the health and social gains from various possible courses of action, relative to their costs. Offered as a partnership between Duke, USAID, and consulting firm Nathan Associates, the first day’s presentation of the project’s CEA results for Mozambique engaged participants from more than a dozen international organizations- from the World Food Programme to DFID to UNICEF. The second and third days were devoted to training on CEA, models, applications and case discussions with presentations by participant groups and discussions. Officials from local partner SETSAN (the Mozambique Technical Secretariat for Food Security and Nutrition), along with other Mozambican government agencies, filled the training room to capacity. Fernholz said, “there was active participation and enthusiasm– many officials expressed the need for more training in the future.” Fernholz and Pineda will wrap up the project by finalizing a report for Nathan Associates and USAID. This project was made possible by the United States Agency for International Development and the generous support of the American People through the Leadership in Public Financial Management II project. Duke is a subcontractor for Nathan Associates on this project. Task order #AID-OAA-1-12-00039/AID-OAA-TO-14-00040. |
