SMART+
Transforming Survey Systems to Provide Real-Time Solutions to Malnutrition in Nigeria
The Challenge
In Nigeria, traditional paper-based nutrition surveys led to significant delays in finalizing reports. This rendered survey results outdated and ineffective for timely nutrition situation analysis, programming, planning, appeals and mounting localized responses.
The lengthy turnaround time of 3-4 months - affected urgent nutrition response planning and investments based on ground realities. Paper-based surveys were also fraught with variability in data quality and accuracy. Historical data was scattered across files or lost altogether, making it difficult to analyze trends over time.
A key limitation was the lack of timely, high-quality disaggregated data at the state and district levels to enable adaptation of nutrition interventions as per evolving needs on the ground. Moreover, the paper-based approach limited the frequency, timeliness and optimization of surveys. And though mobile data collection applications like Kobo360 were already in use, these lacked the real-time, granular insight capabilities required to support evidence-based, localized decision-making for reaching the most deprived children.
The Solution
In 2023, UNICEF in collaboration with Action Against Hunger introduced SMART+, an innovative digital platform that revolutionizes nutrition survey processes through end-to-end digitization, aggregation, and analysis of survey data. SMART+ enables real-time monitoring of ongoing survey progress for data tracking, disaggregation, and quality assurance, and promptly generates results. This ensures a quicker turnaround time - compared to conventional surveys - for improved, data-driven responses.
With SMART+, actionable insights are available within 2-3 weeks. The platform also allows easy data access across countries through aggregated cloud storage. SMART+ has transformed nutrition surveys in Nigeria by optimizing efficiency, timeliness, quality, and transparency for informed decision-making.
The Impact
SMART+ has demonstrated numerous benefits for strengthening nutrition programmes and policies in Nigeria by providing near real-time data to enable targeted and localized malnutrition interventions towards high-priority districts with a significant number of at-risk children. The innovative platform's granular insights have allowed policymakers to strategically analyze and optimize health investments by pinpointing priority areas and nutrition service gaps at the State and LGA levels.
SMART+ surveys conducted by UNICEF in Northeast Nigeria in mid-2023 revealed alarming seasonal and geographic hotspots of child malnutrition unlike previously captured through paper-based surveys. The disaggregated, real-time insights provided by using SMART+ led to rapid localized responses. Temporary mobile nutrition teams were quickly deployed to the worst-hit areas of Ngala, Monguno, and Kukawa, alongside emergency airlifting of essential medicines and ready-to-use therapeutic food to treat over 25,000 children with severe acute malnutrition.
Without the agile granular data, thousands of at-risk children in acute need could have been overlooked for weeks until paper-based surveys were processed. The ability to swiftly detect spikes through SMART+'s interactive maps was critical to mounting targeted services, preventing child deaths. As SMART+ scales nationwide, it is expected to improve nutrition service delivery and investment, benefiting Nigeria's most vulnerable children across communities.
