Rapid Assessment of Nutrition - RAN - Brief Description

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RAN stands for Rapid Assessment of Nutrition for poverty and/or nutrition related Project/Programmes in developing countries. RAN is an exploratory method for initial assessment of the absolute poverty and the nutritional situation during project identification (e.g. pre-feasibility study). Once a project idea is considered to be relevant for project/programme development within a deprived region or population, RAN is to be carried out before the decision about the purpose or nature of the evaluated project is made. It can be applied, in an interdisciplinary team, where problems in different areas are to be discussed as causes of the poverty situation. RAN offers a set of methods for data collection:

  • Analysis of existing data, use of results of local surveys or data bases from relevant public or private institutions.
  • Interviews with national, provincial or district planners.
  • Talks with the local resource persons.
  • Transects (compare Transect method in MethodFinder).
  • Group discussions with the potential target population.

These methods allow an overview of the situation, summarizing the main facts and causes of the preliminary defined problems for the final conclusion, describing the degree of concern of a particular nutritional problem.

Malnutrition remains the most adequate indicator for assessing the poverty situation and nutritional vulnerability within a region. Therefore, RAN has integrated the study of body stature of schoolchildren, during project identification, which reflect the poor conditions and food insecure situation of the communities.

 

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