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Data for food fortification programs

Nutritionists generally maintain that food intake surveys are the gold standard for collecting individual food consumption data. Food intake surveys, however, are expensive, difficult to administer, and subject to considerable measurement error. There is now increasing recognition that Household Income and Expenditures Surveys (HIES) are an alternative that can provide indirect measures of food consumption. Although a number of characteristics of current HIES instruments have been identified as common shortcomings for designing and assessing fortification programs, these shortcomings can be eliminated or ameliorated with relatively minor modifications. The project aimed to develop guidelines to help improve HIES as a tool for designing and assessing fortification programs.

Project status: Closed
Sponsor(s): World Bank Development Grant Facility, Grant No 4001009-06, administered by the PARIS21 Secretariat at OECD
Implemented by: Jack Fiedler, IHSN consultant
Type of output: Working paper

These guidelines are intended to help improve household income and expenditure surveys as a tool for designing and assessing fortification programs, and thereby aid in accelerating the development of more evidence-based fortification programs.

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