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Update on Minimum Reporting Package
(MRP) trainings in London and Nairobi
By Emily Mates, Nutrition Advisor, MRP, Save the Children UK
The ‘Minimum Reporting Package’ (MRP)
has been developed to support standardised
data collection for emergency
Supplementary Feeding Programmes (SFPs)
(see Box 1). The need for this package was identified
following analysis in 2005/6 (by the
Emergency Nutrition Network (ENN) and Save
the Children UK) of the efficacy and effectiveness
of 82 emergency SFPs implemented
between 2002 and 2005 . A key problem identified
was that inadequate reporting standards
were being followed, making it difficult to
assess the efficacy of programmes without
considerable re-analysis of data. An unexpected
number of information gaps, inaccuracies and
statistical errors were found, raising concerns
over the quality of the interventions and implications,
for the impact on beneficiaries, the
accountability of agencies (to both donors and
beneficiaries), and organisation’s capacity to
learn from experience.
The current phase of work (MRP rollout) is
implemented by Save the Children UK and
funded by ECHO to December 2012.
London ToT
Save the Children UK hosted a global training
of trainers (ToT) in London in March 2012.
Fourteen participants from eight international
Box 1: What is the Minimum Reporting Package (MRP)?
The MRP is a monitoring and reporting tool with
harmonised reporting categories, definitions and
indicators for 3 different (but often joined up)
programmes to treat acute malnutrition: targeted
Supplementary Feeding Programme (SFP),
Outpatient Therapeutic Programmes (OTP), and
Stabilisation Centre (SC).
The MRP consists of three tools: user guidelines,
software, and a software manual.
The MRP presents harmonised reporting categories,
definitions and indicators, conforming to the revised
(2011) SPHERE standards for emergency SFPs across
implementing agencies and countries . The tool
intends to improve SFP programme management
decisions, accountability and learning for moderate
acute malnutrition (MAM) management as there is
strong consensus for the urgent need for this learning
across the international and governmental
nutrition community.
Box 2: Support services the MRP team* will provide
for implementing agencies in 2012
• Regional ToT trainings for country level staff
starting in May 2012
• Helpdesk for agencies for all questions around
the MRP and use of the software
• Development of distance learning tool
(e-learning) to complement the MRP User
guidelines, the MRP software manual and the
MRP software
• Translation of MRP tools into French
*The SC-UK MRP team comprises of three technical experts led
by Emily Mates.
agencies were trained in the use of the MRP
tools.
Overall the MRP and accompanying software
were positively received by agencies
attending. Comments included:
The MRP:
“… is good and has great potential. I hope it is taken
on by others (NGOs, the cluster) and can become a
standard.”
“… is off to a good start; (the software) is really user
friendly in most aspects.”
“… is an effective monitoring tool for higher level
support.”
The aspects of it mentioned as most useful
were:
• The MRP software is able to reduce time in
preparing reports.
• The user friendliness of the automatic
calculation of performance indicators and
graphs through the software.
• The usefulness of the harmonised reporting
categories and performance indicators
being standardised across agencies.
Agencies showed considerable interest in the
MRP and its application at field level. All agencies
present at the training announced plans to
either use the MRP as their internal reporting
system, or to ‘feed’ their internal data into the
MRP centralised database, in order to
contribute to the learning objective on MAM.
MRP field use and complementarily with
other systems
The training initiated wider discussions on the
MRP and its planned roll-out amongst agencies
in 2012, with the opportunity for the MRP team
to clarify issues raised by participants, for
example on the MRP field use and complementarily
with other systems. Whilst the focus is on
emergency SFPs, indicators relevant to the
collection of data from emergency therapeutic
programmes that treat severe acute malnutrition
(SAM) have recently been included. The
development of an optional SAM module was
driven by requests from NGOs who preferred
to use one ‘package’ for reporting, where SFP
was delivered as part of a ‘full’ CMAM
programme that included both SAM and MAM
treatment. Should national governments,
UNICEF and other partners subsequently wish
to use (or integrate) the MRP into national
reporting systems, the software would need
some alteration and/or further simplification in
order to fulfil this need.
Nairobi regional training
Very positive feedback on the MRP and its software
was received from participants of the
regional MRP training that was held in Nairobi
(8th -10th May, 2012). In attendance were 15
participants from seven agencies working in
Somalia, South Sudan and Ethiopia. Training is
planned for June/July 2012 in Niamey, Niger, as
soon as the MRP tools have been translated into
French.
Additional considerations
The MRP roll-out is expected to gather pace in
2012, following the regional trainings to be held
in East and West Africa and additional support
from the MRP team to implementing agencies
(see Box 2).
The MRP project can deliver standardised
information within a short period of time,
particularly for MAM programming, as long as
critical stakeholders and enough implementing
agencies support its application. Both the
London and Nairobi trainings were well
received by the implementing agencies in attendance,
and were successful in training
participants in the use of the MRP.
The MRP includes a specific piece of software
for analysis of data. This does not rule out
the use of the reporting guidelines and/or the
collection and analysis of data using other software
systems that have been, or will be,
developed for reporting and analysis of acute
malnutrition programming data
In the longer-term, the merging of MRP
reporting categories within national reporting
systems may prove useful. However, key to any
successful merging is to ensure that systems
already in place or those to be set-up have
common reporting criteria and guidelines, to
ensure that the data is comparable.
1
See report at http://www.ennonline.net/research/supplementary
2
There is also an optional severe acute malnutrition (SAM)
module that may be useful for programme managers to
use where SFP is delivered as part of a CMAM programme.
3
The MRP project will gather SFP data from partners, using
the MRP software for analysis of SFP effectiveness and
efficacy (learning objective of the MRP).
4
Agencies attending: ACF-Spain , ACF-USA Concern
Worldwide, GOAL, Islamic Relief, World Vision, WFP and
Save the Children UK
5
Agencies attending included ACF USA, Concern Worldwide,
GOAL, IMC, Islamic Relief, Save the Children, WFP
The European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid department funds relief operations
for victims of natural disasters and conflicts outside the European Union. Aid is
channelled impartially, straight to people in need, regardless of their race, ethnic
group, religion, gender, age, nationality or political affiliation.
This article has been produced with the financial assistance of the European
Commission. The views expressed herein should not be taken, in any way, to reflect
the official opinion of the European Commission.
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