Seqota Declaration process evaluation community labs

Abstract

Community labs are multi-sectoral platforms at the woreda and kebele level that provide community stakeholders with a forum to understand drivers of stunting in their community and collectively brainstorm, innovate, and test interventions to address these issues. As a hallmark innovation of the Seqota Declaration, community labs are expected to play a key role in promoting multi-sectoral coordination and community engagement on the goal of ending stunting in children under two by 2030. Following the launch of a community lab, community stakeholders together with sector implementers are meant to test innovative approaches (“prototypes”) within the labs to assess their performance and determine suitability for scale up in the woreda. Known solutions to stunting are also meant to be implemented as per plans outlined by the community lab.

Since November 2017, nine community labs have been launched across Tigray and Amhara, for the most part under the guidance of the PDU, and in some cases with the support of a technical partner - Synergos or ThinkPlace. To assess the implementation in community labs to date, IDinsight conducted a light touch process evaluation to answer the following research questions.