• Outcome
• Situation

• Food Security and Nutrition
• Food Security and Nutrition Situation

Minimum Dietary Diversity (MDD). The MDD is a proxy measure of the nutritional quality of an individual's (child's) diet. This is different from the Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) assessing the household's economic access to food. Children eating at least 4 of the 7 food groups have a higher likelihood of consuming at least one animal-source food and at least one fruit or vegetable that day, in addition to a staple food (grain, root or tuber). In comparison to the HDDS there are fewer food groups but the 7 groups combine several of those assessed by the HDDS, e.g. grains with roots and tubers or meat with fish. The group ‘sugar/honey' is important for the HDDS as an indicator of economic access to food but is not an important contributor to the nutritional quality of a child's diet (MDD). It is considered a public health concern if <80% of children received at least 4 food groups (however needs to be discussed in the context).

Geography/Livelihoods zone; Gender, age, disabilities, chronic diseases (for individuals, associations members, etc.), and any other relevant criteria, such as urban/rural, religious, ethnic or political identities; Wealth groups; Livelihoods group (e.g. pastoralist, farmers, traders); Period to achieve the objective;

• Increase (number)

Both secondary and primary data collection can be used according to context. Baseline/Endline. If multiyear programme depending on comparison requirements between lean season and other seasons, consider an interim reporting/evaluation Secondary data. Reliable/relevant sources from other actors, clusters or government. Data Collection methods: Secondary data analysis; Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), KPC or KAP surveys, food security and nutrition surveys; Households Survey, Focus Group Discussion;

• Food security

Step 2: Sum up the number of food groups consumed. Step 3: The overall average score may be calculated (add up all food groups consumed by all children in the data set and divide by the overall number of children 6-23m) or you may calculate the percentage of children aged 6-23 months who consumed foods from four or more food groups on the previous day. Step 3: Report results separately for children who receive RUTF or CSB as part of a treatment programme and for those who don't. Being on RUTF may affect dietary diversity to a large extent. Similarly good to check for breastfeeding at times. Therefore, it is useful to assess whether the child receives RUTF/ CSB and breast milk also. Interviewers and interviewees might get confused when both MDD and HDDS data is collected in the same survey (risk of recall bias). So the programme team should decide whether they are more interested in dietary quality (MDD or WDDS) or economic access to food (HDDS). The quantity of food consumed is not being assessed. If child is in a treatment programme providing RUTF or CSB the number of food groups might be artificially low; it is good to report results separately for those children. Note that the IYCF guide recommends asking questions in a more detailed way and combining categories back to the 7 food groups at analysis stage. In order to simplify and ease data collection, especially for non-health sector data collection teams, you may use the 7 food groups already during the question. Use 6-23 months age group indicator as proxy for 24-59 months, and assume older age group is worse off - CAN be an important ALERT indicator in early phases of an emergency (WHO uses a parameter of previous 24 hours). Food groups defined as follows: (1) grains, roots and tubers (2) legumes and nuts (3) dairy products (milk, yogurt, cheese) (4) flesh foods (meat, fish, poultry and liver/organ meats) (5) eggs (6) vitamin-A rich fruits and vegetables (7) other fruits and vegetables