Drawing up a logframe for Nutrition- Exercise
Completing the Nutrition Logistical Framework (Logframe)
The lesson from Basics of MEL Basics of Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) introduces Logframes
Here we will show you how to build your own logframe for Nutrition.
Remember for a small project you will not be able to carry out a comprehensive evaluation of all the outcomes so some prioritisation will be needed.
I will walk you through the example from Himalayan Permaculture Centre that was introduced for the Theory of Change and show you how to put that data into a logframe- so you can do the same for your project.
A Permaculture project presents some challenges to produce a fully comprehensive logframe because, unlike many development projects there are multiple activities, outputs, outcomes and impacts. So this is why we need to concentrate our efforts on the most important ones. What do we mean by important ones? This will be up to you and each project is different. Some guidance is given in subsequent lessons on how to prioritise!
By drawing out your own logframe, the types of assessment you need will become apparent as you come to define outcomes, outputs and their related indicators.
You can find videos explaining this and other aspects of Monitoring and Evaluation on this website. There is also an example of a completed logframe and M&E framework from ‘Tools4dev’ http://www.tools4dev.org/
Logical Framework (Logframe) Template
PROJECT SUMMARY | INDICATORS | MEANS OF VERIFICATION | RISKS / ASSUMPTIONS | |
Goal | ||||
Outcomes | ||||
Outputs | ||||
Activities |
- The project summary is what you are trying to achieve, for example, ‘dietary diversity of children aged 6 to 24 months is improved by 1 food group over a year’
- An Indicator is something you measure to assess whether your programme is successful. For example ‘dietary diversity score of children 6 to 24 months’. These indicators can be related to input, output, outcome or goal (impact) of your project. For the purpose of this guide we concentrate on outcome and goal (impact) indicators that relate to the ToC and to Nutrition. Suggested indicators are described in ‘Nutrition Indicators’. Other indicators you will have to devise yourselves based on the output or outcome.
- Means of verification is a brief summary of how to measure the indicator- this will be expanded and defined more clearly in the M&E Framework exercise below.
- The risks and assumptions column covers a range of eventualities that could occur and if they do, would limit the achievement of the outcome. For example, ‘there is a crop failure’
Here is an example
Overall Objective or Goal
Improvement in Dietary Diversity of household members
Impact Indicator: ‘Individual Dietary Diversity Score’
You have drawn up your Theory of Change and identified that the project aims to improve nutrition through 3 distinct pathways:
Pathway 1 (related to Household Food Security)
It was recognised that household diets were the poorest during the hungry season due to lack of production.
Activity: Training on agriculture methods
Output: Application of agricultural techniques by farmers
Output indicator: Number of farmers adopting practices
Outcome: Increased on-farm agricultural production of a range of foods (vegetables, fruit, legumes, staple crops) Improved agricultural diversity
Outcome indicator: Crop nutritional functional richness
Pathway 2 (related to Caring Practices)
It was recognised that there was a gap in knowledge about what was an adequate diet for different members of the household and a lack of understanding on how to use local foods to prepare nutritious meals.
Activity 2: Training on Health and Nutrition
Output 2: improved knowledge of women on diet, nutrition and health
Output indicator: post training evaluation on nutritional knowledge (qualitative)
Outcome: women prepare nutritious meals
Outcome indicator: number of women preparing nutritious meals
Activity 3: Training on labour-saving innovations
Output 3: improved adoption of labour-saving techniques
Outcome: Time savings for women
Outcome indicator: 24 hour time recall
Pathway 3 (related to Healthy Environment)
It was recognised that water supplies were inadequate and there was a lack of sanitation and children were suffering from diarrhoea frequently.
Activity: Introduction of safe water supplies and composting toilets to prevent water-borne diseases and diarrhoea of household members.
Outcome: improved water supplies and sanitation
Outcome indicator: Household protected water source available/accessible
Household access to a latrine or compost toilet
PROJECT SUMMARY | INDICATORS | MEANS OF VERIFICATION | RISKS / ASSUMPTIONS | |
Overall Goal | Improved Dietary Diversity of household members | Individual Dietary Diversity Score | Household self recorded surveys | |
Outcomes | 1. Increased on-farm agricultural production of a range of foods (vegetables, fruit, legumes, staple crops) | Crop nutritional functional richness
|
Farmers data on crops produced | Weather conditions result in crop failure |
Outputs | 1. Adoption of agricultural techniques by farmers | Number of farmers adopting practices
|
assessments by staff | Availability of inputs including seeds |
Activities | 1. Training on agriculture methods
|
Number of training sessions | Project records | Farmers are able to attend |
Outcomes | 2. women prepare nutritious meals
|
number of women preparing nutritious meals | assessments by project staff | Availability of foods (related to outcome 1) |
Outputs | 2. improved knowledge of women on diet, nutrition and health | post training evaluation on nutritional knowledge | Qualitative assessments by project staff | |
Activities | 2. Training on Health and Nutrition
|
Number of training sessions | Project records | Women are able to attend |
Outcomes | 3. Time savings for women
|
24 hour time recall
|
Qualitative assessments by project staff | Other demands on time allow |
Outputs | 3. Adoption of labour saving innovations | Number of labour-saving innovations adopted | assessments by project staff | Inputs are available |
Activities | 3. Training on labour-saving innovations | Number of training sessions | Project records | Women are able to attend |
Now it is over to you to try this for your own project. You will have your Theory of Change to refer to.
- What is your goal- this is the impact you are trying to achieve in this part of the project
- What activities are needed to reach this impact & what outputs relate to each activity
- For each of the outputs, what outcome can you expect- this is higher level of achievement related to the output
- Now decide what indicators relate to each of these activities, outputs and outcomes.
- For each of these, think how you will obtain the necessary information
- What might be the risks/ assumptions related to each- in other words what else is needed or could prevent the achievement of the desired activity, output or outcome?