External Evaluation Panel Report 2007: Review of the Enhancing Child Nutrition through Animal Source Food Management (ENAM) Project

The ENAM project is intended to improve the current poor feeding practices and inadequate diet quality that contribute to childhood malnutrition in targeted communities in Ghana. The project monitors the multiple pathways that might increase availability, accessibility, and utilization of animal source foods (ASF) in the targeted communities, especially for children between two and five years of age, by supporting a small microcredit program for mothers in this target group in conjunction with training on nutrition and business development. If the final results of the community intervention activities that combine income generative activities (IGA) with nutrition and microfinance education do show a significant increase of the intake on ASF by participants’ involved in the study, then this will have important policy implications for Ghana and other parts of Africa. A successful set of results will demonstrate the value of this innovative and integrated approach to improve children’s nutrition by addressing the multiple constraints on availability, access, and utilization of animal source foods (ASF). Based on their review, the panel is recommending extension of the ENAM project to September 30, 2008.