Qualitative Formative Research- towards Designing Interventions in Schools in Vietnam to Improve Diets

Client: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

Time: 4/2018 – 12/2018

Overview: This formative research is the first stage of the “Improving Diets through Schools in Vietnam” project funded by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). This is part of the CGIAR’s Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH) research program with the flagship “Food Systems for Healthier Diets”, which has the goal of finding ways to bring about sustainable and systemic food system transformations for healthier diets. The aim of this qualitative formative research is to explore: (i) the main concerns of parents, children and school leaders regarding children’s diets; (ii) their attitudes towards and practices to ensure healthy diets and food safety at home and at school; (iii) recommendations for improving children and their families’ diets. The research collects data through focus groups and in-depth interviews with parents, children, school administrators and school meal suppliers from 02 public schools in Cau Giay district and 02 public schools from Dong Anh district in Hanoi. The results of this research are used as the basis for designing an intervention to improve children and their families’ diets that will be tested by a lab-in-the-field experiment or a randomized control trial in the second stage.

Main tasks:

• Design and implement qualitative tools including Focus Group Discussions and Key Informant Interviews with parents, children, school leaders and school meal suppliers from 04 schools in Cau Giay and Dong Anh districts;
• Carry out qualitative data analysis;
• Writing a report summarising key findings and suggesting a specific intervention for the next stage.