Altai Consulting provides strategic support to actors contributing to improve access to health services or willing to launch or promote quality nutritional or health products meeting the market needs. 

Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Support for the mNutrition Initiative in Eight Countries

• Client: GSMA/FCDO

• Thematic pillar: Nutrition

• Geography: Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique, Zambia, Nigeria, Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania

The project aimed at supporting the GSMA mHealth team in implementing their Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) framework. Altai focused on assessing the services performance as well as their impact on users’ nutritional knowledge and practices. Both quantitative and qualitative research have been conducted for each service to collect and analyse self-reported data from users: (i) Quantitative surveys have been conducted at the beginning and at the end of the project, for each service, with a view to assess the performance of the service and to what extent it impacts nutritional knowledge and practices (sample size: ~1,600 phone interviews); (ii) Qualitative research was also conducted for each service with a view to investigate the nutrition impact pathway and users’ behaviour changes.

Assessment of Scale and Capacity of Commercial Wheat Millers in Pakistan 

• Client: GAIN

• Thematic pillar: Food fortification

• Geography: Pakistan

The overall objective of the project was to identify commercial wheat millers in five districts of Punjab (Faisalabad, Multan, Khanewal, Bahawalpur and Rahim Yar Khan) willing to supply biofortified zinc wheat, to drive the commercialization of this variety in the country. In particular, the objectives of the research were to: (i) Conduct a mapping of the commercial wheat millers in the five targeted districts; (ii) Collect information on commercial wheat millers in the five districts: geographic location, wheat procurement & prices, traceability of wheat, production capacity & monthly volumes, quality control processes, product portfolio, distribution/spread, market access, expressed needs (in terms of branding, marketing, incentives, etc.); (iii) Determine millers’ interest in participating in the biofortification programme and gauge their capacity in terms of procurement, sales and promotion; (iv) Define criteria to identify commercial wheat millers in each district that are the most likely to achieve the objectives of commercialisation, profitability and scale of biofortified zinc wheat; (v) For the selected millers, conduct a mapping of the supply chain (identification of farmers/aggregators/traders) and for (preferred) suppliers, assess the segregation capacity or enablers to establish a segregation mechanism and identify mitigation strategies to ensure integrity of the supply.

Improving Nutrition Status of Maternal, Infants and Young Children in Vietnam

• Client: Gain

• Thematic pillars: Nutrition, Child nutrition 

• Geography: Vietnam

The GAIN Multi-Nutrient supplement project in Vietnam aims at promoting the use of Lyzivita (MNP) and HEBI-MAM (RUSF) products, targeted at young infants (6 months to 5 years) and pregnant and lactating women in rural areas of seven provinces across Vietnam. The objective of the assignment was to support the development of a business plan related to the multi-nutrient supplement project. Specific objectives included: (i) Review of the production and distribution structure based on information collected from the project stakeholders, notably NIN Food and PSI; (ii) Formulation of recommendations to (i) reduce the cost of the current production and distribution structure based on the analysis of the above mentioned business plan; (ii) identify distribution channels to further expand the project’s outreach building on options pre-identified by the project stakeholders, notably NIN.

Health Sector Donor Mapping

• Client: Confidential

• Thematic pillar: Public health

• Geography: World

A world leader in gases, technologies and services for industry and health, commissioned Altai Consulting to conduct a mapping of public and private donors in the health sector as the group seeks financial partners to expand its Access Oxygen project. The client’s Inclusive Business project provides a complete medical oxygen solution for small health centres. A pilot was launched in Senegal where the project supported 20 health structures and counted 2 “Oxygen Houses” enabling to treat c. 1,200 patients and train 200 medical staff.

Socio-Economic Impact Assessment of the Covid-19 Crisis in Uganda 

• Client: FSDU

• Thematic pillar: Public Health

• Geography: Uganda

Financial Sector Deepening Uganda has contracted Altai to conduct data analytics to generate insights for FSDU’s Covid-19 response strategies. The initial objective, at the beginning of the lockdown with economic activity coming to a near stand-still, was to assess the potential resilience of Ugandan households, leveraging the FinScope and Findex databases. Analysis covered types of savings and saving duration of households before Covid-19, the emergency funds and credit sources, the types of livelihoods and how they are threatened and the identification of potential other drivers or indicators of financial resilience and livelihoods. Then, from May onwards, the team leveraged each monthly wave of the Covid-19 Tracker to assess trends in several key areas, e.g. livelihoods, economic consequences, coping mechanisms, behaviours in face of Covid-19, etc. The insights provided help FSDU guide policy makers and financial services providers on the most effective solutions to deploy.

Assessment of Covid-19 Impact on Remittances and Coping Mechanisms of Families with Children in Moldova 

• Client: UNICEF

• Thematic pillar: Public Health

• Geography: Moldova

Altai was hired by UNICEF to conduct an assessment of the Covid-19 on remittances and coping mechanisms of families with children in Moldova. The research was composed of four main phases: i) In-depth secondary research; ii) Assessment of the socio-economic impact of the Covid-19 crisis based on data collected via a quantitative survey among 1,000 respondents incl. behaviour changes, coping mechanisms, etc. iii) Gathering of qualitative insights via online FGDs and iv) Policy benchmarking at the regional level.

Evaluation of the non-formal basic education and vocational youth training In Nguenyyiel refugee camp

• Client: NRC

• Thematic pillar: Forced displacement

• Geography: Ethiopia

Altai Consulting conducted an independent endline evaluation to understand the performance of a project supporting education and training in Nguenyyiel Refugee Camp, Gambella Region, Ethiopia. The evaluation provided recommendations for the continuation and scale-up of similar interventions and build lessons learned for future programming.

Covid-19 High-Frequency Phone Survey in Somalia

• Client: World Bank

• Thematic pillar: Public Health

• Geography: Somalia

The Somalia HFPS Covid-19 will conduct around 3,000 phone interviews, with the households randomly selected across all regions of Somalia as a pilot with the hope to expand the scale and establish a frequent data collection system eventually. In doing so, the Somalia HFPS Covid-19 will focus on socio-economic impacts of Covid-19 and related restrictions, and provide data to the Government of Somalia, the World Bank, and development partners in near real-time, supporting an evidence-based response to the crisis.