Adapting in Evolving Contexts: The Role of Recurrent Monitoring Surveys to Inform Decision Making

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FSN Network

7 min readJun 9, 2023

By: Swasti Gautam, Program and Communications Officer, CARE USA

This blog was submitted by CARE as part of the ‘Nourishing Inclusion: Committing to Gender and Youth in the Food Crisis’ series, which showcases implementers’ examples of committing to inclusion not just in words, but in action. This post highlights commitment #3: Regular analysis of and reflection on data. Learn more about the series here.

A graphic illustration of Committing to Inclusion in the Food Crisis, as a wheel. In the center of the wheel is “Committing to Inclusion in the Food Crisis”. Clockwise from the top: Improve data collection; regular data analysis and reflection; implement transformative programming; incorporative programming; incorporate lessons learned; standalone budgets for gender and youth; no sectoral siloes; engage the private sector; support safe migration; meaningful engagement to promote agency. — Image courtesy of the Gender and Youth Activity

When we implement a food security activity, there are myriad factors out of our control. With the reverberating impacts of the crisis in Ukraine compounded by COVID-19 and climate change, systematically disadvantaged communities, and especially women, are affected the most. So how do we effectively monitor our programs to adapt to this evolving context?

For CARE, one solution has been leveraging regular data analysis and reflection to inform adaptive management. CARE conducts Recurrent Monitoring Surveys (RMS) by collecting real-time data following a predetermined shock trigger. This results in high-frequency data collection of short durations and small sample sizes. CARE complements this with other data collection and analysis, such as Beneficiary Based Surveys (BBS), which are less frequent and typically implemented by a third party.

An Example from Bangladesh

Globally, mounting food and fertilizer prices have led to increasing levels of poverty. In Bangladesh, the cost of staple food items, such as rice, wheat flour, and vegetable oil is higher than ever before. According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, the annual food inflation rose to 9.9% by August 2022. To better understand the impact of these global trends at the community-level, CARE’s Strengthening Household Ability to Respond to Development Opportunities (SHOUHARDO III) Activity, in Bangladesh, regularly conducts quantitative and qualitative RMS to gain valuable insights on how the program can adapt.

To date, SHOURHARDO III and its predecessor SHOUHARDO II Plus have conducted three major RMS among 425 randomly selected households.

In 2020, the team measured the impact of COVID-19 on the lives and livelihoods of participants.
In 2021, the team monitored the effects of the second wave of COVID-19 to assess whether households had developed resilience capacities to better recover from shocks.
In February 2023, the team conducted another RMS to understand the impacts of the ongoing price hikes.

Additionally, SHOUHARDO III conducts annual BBS to measure the progress of annual monitoring indicators.

What We’ve Learned

Through this regular data collection and analysis, the CARE team learned that women and girls are most affected by the multiple burden of reduced household income, increased workload, reduced nutrition, and increased in gender-based violence (GBV). Specifically, CARE learned:

#1: People are eating less and worse quality food. From the 2021 and 2023 RMS analysis, the SHOURHARDO team learned that rising food prices, COVID-19, and monsoon floods led to a reduction of both food quality and the number of meals consumed per day among project participants. The 2022 BBS found that 22.5% of households reported having fewer meals than usual as a negative coping strategy. By 2023, almost 60.4% of households consumed fewer meals per day. CARE knows that women, who often eat last and least, are most affected in these situations.

Simple bar chart shows that in 2022 22.5% of householdes reported eating fewer meals than usual and in 2023 this number was up to 60.4% reporting the same thing. — Graphic courtesy of CARE

#2: Gender-Based Violence is increasing. During the 2021 RMS, the team identified financial struggles as a key factor contributing to increased GBV at the household level. In fact, one RMS participant shared that hitting his wife was a way for him to satisfy his own anger and financial frustrations. Between 2022 and 2023, financial challenges continued to rise. In February 2023, 96.2% of households reported a price hike for rice, compared to 69.8% in July 2022. The team continued to see a link between the rise in food commodity prices and GBV. In July 2022, 27.2% of female household members reported experiencing violence. This already staggering number increased to 43.1% by February 2023.

Two graphs show that in July 2022 27.2% of households reported violence again women. This was up to 43.1% in February 2023. — Graph Courtesy of CARE

#3: Forced marriages remain a pressing issue. Through the 2021 RMS, the team learned that within the last year, seven girls under the age of 18 were forced into marriage. During prolonged periods of unemployment, poverty, and food crisis, girls are often forced to marry to lessen the burden of constrained food in the household. Outside data confirms that forced marriages are on the rise, making this an important focus for SHOUHARDO.

How We’re Adapting

The data from the RMS helped the SHOUHARDO team adapt several interventions to meet the evolving context. In particular, the data highlighted the increased importance of integrating livelihood resilience interventions to help families cope with the COVID-19 pandemic and rising food costs. Some key adaptations based on this data include:

#1 Providing direct financial support and strengthening capacities for diversified and increased income

The SHOUHARDO team established new multipurpose cash assistance (MPCA) programs during this period of economic crisis. MPCA supported the recipients, especially women, to recover from the loss of income during the COVID-19 pandemic, and recipients reported mostly using the money to purchase food items. The program also provided supplementary cash to support pregnant and lactating women to fulfill their nutritional gap.

Furthermore, to increase equitable access to income for women and improved nutrition for all, the team implemented several off-farm capacity strengthening initiatives, targeting women and youth such as power loom operation, hand loom, handicraft, and house wiring. Out of 93,000+ participants linked to these income-generating activities, 71,500+ were women.

“Until I got the input, it was beyond my knowledge that a woman can earn as much as I was earning by rearing chickens and ducks. After receiving the knowledge and the cash support from SHOUHARDO, I started my business. With time, this simple support turned to the source of my family’s regular income.” — Rubina, a program participant from Kishoreganj.

The 2021 RMS indicated that establishing businesses had significant positive changes on women’s decision making, freedom of mobility, and participation in community groups. Two-thirds of the female participants saw their freedom of movement increase once they had a business, for example, they were able to visit the local market without receiving consent from a household member.

#2 Investing in newly married women, young mothers, and young people

SHOUHARDO III invested in youth to prevent the rise of forced marriages for children and increase their economic potential. Specifically, the team worked with poor and extremely poor youth (aged 16 to 25) to strengthen their skills to be more employable. The team established 170 adolescent boys’ groups and 238 adolescent girls’ groups with 2,299 and 2,994 members, respectively. Roughly 50% of the trained youth are now employed, either through waged employment or entrepreneurial ventures.

The project also helped newly married women and young mothers through Village Savings and Loans Association and provided life skills capacity strengthening training around topics such as negotiation, communication, management, leadership, and decision making skills. Over 1,000 newly married women and young mothers have engaged in these groups. This helped strengthen the financial capacity of newly married women and youth mothers in rural areas, who often have limited economic opportunities. CARE will continue to adapt according to RMS findings to assist communities, especially women and youth, to access loan/credit facilities and gain useful skills for financial independence.

A group of women at a VSLA. — Photo Credit: Parvez Ahmed

Improved Data Collection to Design Useful, Informed Programs

The SHOUHARDO III Plus team used data to analyze and reflect on the impact of crises on women and girls and to adapt interventions to address their needs. This is an example of one of the nine core commitments identified by the Gender and Youth Activity (GAYA) that practitioners can make to reduce the unequal impact of the food crisis on marginalized communities.

Learn more about those commitments and the Nourishing Inclusion blog series here.

Want to learn more about RMS in Bangladesh? Check out these online resources!

Get Involved

Do you have an example of how your organization has committed to inclusion in the food crisis to share? We’d love to hear about it! Send them to gaya@savechildren.org.