Fortification Assessment Coverage Survey in Tanzania

To assess ongoing fortification efforts and plan future initiatives in Tanzania, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) sought to understand the coverage of fortified foods, quantify consumption patterns, and determine their contribution to micronutrient intake. Together with our local partner Masa Institute for Social Science Research (MISSR), rowsquared designed, implemented, and analyzed a household and school survey in Tanzania’s Iringa region.

We designed the survey based on GAIN’s Fortification Assessment Coverage Toolkit (FACT), which we adapted to the local context and expanded to better capture food consumption both at home and away from home. We incorporated several improvements and provided GAIN with a detailed list of suggestions to further enhance the FACT survey design and questionnaires. The design included collection of recipes, portion sizes, and units that were dynamically integrated into the CAPI tool.

Since part of GAIN’s fortification efforts targeted schools, we developed a school questionnaire capturing the content of fortifiable and fortified foods in school meals, and expanded the household questionnaire to capture school meals consumed. rowsquared designed the survey within a very short 4-week window to field the survey during school terms. This was possible due to our expertise in delivering surveys efficiently and effectively, as well as our extensive experience in Tanzania.

Together with our partner we planned and successfully implemented all survey phases, from pre-test to training and field work. Hands on survey management and thorough data quality monitoring ensured that we collected accurate and reliable data. For example, we used audio auditing and high frequency checks to detect possible issues and held regular physical feedback sessions with the field team to confirm or resolve unusual responses.

rowsquared is currently analysing the survey data and drafting the technical report with the findings.