CATIE strengthens processes for evidence-based decision making in favor of food and nutrition security

• In Guatemala, the institution developed a course that covers planning, design, analysis and interpretation of data and presentation of results in socio demographic and national health studies.

June 27, 2023. The course on planning, design, analysis and interpretation of data and presentation of results in socio demographic and national health studies was held in Guatemala City from June 19 to 23, with the objective of strengthening the methodological bases for sampling in socio demographic and national health studies, as well as providing techniques for systematizing and controlling the quality of information from surveys for subsequent analysis, interpretation and presentation of results. 

This course was implemented within the framework of the National Nutrition Information Platform (PiNN) project, which is executed by CATIE (Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Cente), with the support of the European Union in Guatemala.

Juan Diego Chang, statistics specialist for the PiNN project, indicated that the course was aimed at professionals from the Ministry of Social Development (MIDES, its Spanish acronym), the Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance (MSPAS, its Spanish acronym), the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food (MAGA, its Spanish acrony,), the Secretariat of Food and Nutritional Security of the Presidency (SESAN, its Spanish acronym,) and the National Forestry Institute (INAB, its Spanish acronym), who are involved in the design and analysis of data from surveys and administrative data.

According to Eduardo Say, coordinator of the PiNN project, the course was given by Eduardo Corrales and Sergio Vílchez, specialists from CATIE's Biostatistics Unit, who shared their knowledge and experience in the use of methodological tools for sampling design, management, debugging and analysis of databases using specialized statistical analysis software. This course also helped to strengthen the capacity for data analysis and interpretation of results, which are essential elements to guarantee the quality of the research and the reliability of the results.

Say added that through the proposed theoretical-practical methodology and the technological tool InfoStat, he supported the generation of skills that allow participants to improve their capabilities in research and development processes, and indicated that during the course, the contents were exemplified with real data through the use of statistical analysis software, providing a space to work in workshop mode and analyze databases provided by the course participants. After setting the objectives, analysis strategies were proposed and the presentation of results through technical reports was discussed.

"The course was very valuable and important because it allowed us to identify the techniques that are available to us to generate reports with the data that the institutions have, to analyze the information and the most important thing was to know the data of other institutions to make a combination of data and identify some common points for decision making," said Emerson Arevalo, from the MIDES Information System Directorate.

Ruth Estrada, regulatory technician of the MSPAS Food and Nutrition Security Program, said that the course was very productive and provided many tools to sort, classify and analyze the valuable information available to the supply chain.

Finally, Corrales, who was in charge of facilitating the course, indicated that this type of course is very useful for countries, institutions and organizations, since there is no doubt that decision-making must be based on the analysis of the information and data available, and that the officials who participated in the course were eager to update their statistical knowledge, aware that this will help them in the decision-making process.