In 2000, UNICEF-Ghana and IFPRI agreed upon a program of action research to evaluate the scope for food-based strategies to reduce micronutrient undernutrition in Ghana. The food-based strategies were planned as one component of UNICEF’s broader Integrated Community Based Development (ICBD) program. Although UNICEF had been operating its ICBD program in other districts, the food-based micronutrient strategies were first introduced as part of the ICBD program in Savelugu/Nanton District. The 2004 Savelugu/Nanton Household Survey was collected by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in collaboration with the Food and Nutrition Security Unit (FNSU) at the University for Development Studies (UDS), which is based in Tamale, northern Ghana. It is a cross-sectional survey that, when paired with the baseline survey conducted in 2001, formed the basis for an IFPRI-led impact evaluation of interventions sponsored by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to increase the micronutrient content of young children’s diets. The 2001 baseline household and community survey is also available from IFPRI at this link.

This dataset provides information on livelihoods and household food and nutrition security in an urban setting. The questionnaire was administered to 559 households in 16 enumeration areas in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area from January through April, 1997. The sample is representative of households with children under 36 months. Topics in the household survey include complete household income, including information on credit and transfers; employment status; household food consumption (including detailed information on street food consumption); household food and non-food expenditures, assets; educational attainment for the head of the household and the mother of the index child, morbidity and health seeking behavior; anthropometry of all children in the household and the mother of the index child; care practices; food coping strategies; adaptive strategies; and hygiene spot check. Topics in the community survey include market prices, street foods, quality of services, and NGO activity.

The Feed the Future Innovation Lab on Small-Scale Irrigation (FTF-ILSSI) is a cooperative agreement funded by USAID under the Feed the Future program to undertake research aimed to increase food production, improve nutrition, accelerate economic development and contribute to the protection of the environment. The project seeks these objectives through identifying, testing and demonstrating technological options in small-scale irrigation and irrigated fodder, supported by a continual dialogue approach with stakeholders and capacity development toward sustained use of research approaches and evidence. Collaborators on this project include Texas A&M University, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), North Carolina A&T State University (NCAT) and Texas A&M AgriLife Research (TAMUS). As part of this project, IFPRI is undertaking a study of irrigating and non-irrigating households in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Ghana to investigate the connections between irrigation, gender, nutrition and health. The survey explores these linkages through an in-depth household questionnaire with questions on agricultural production, nutrition and health, a WEAI module and a community questionnaire. This work forms part of the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE).