The Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women (MDD-W) indicator
The MDD-W indicator was developed by FAO and partners to fill the need for a simple, food-based indicator for measuring dietary diversity and micronutrient adequacy, key dimensions of diet quality of women of reproductive age. This population–level qualitative indicator measures the proportion of women 15-49 years of age who consumed food items (at least 15g) from at least five out of the ten defined food groups the previous day or night. It is associated with a higher probability of nutrient adequacy for 11 micronutrients. The MDD-W indicator is primarily collected using one out of two qualitative dietary assessment methods: open recall or list-based. Since the indicator’s launch in 2015, 55 countries have collected MDD-W data: 11 at national level and 44 at subnational level for research or impact evaluation. The MDD-W indicator is also included in the annual report The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, since 2020.
FAO’s work on the MDD-W indicator
With financial support from the German Ministry of Agriculture, FAO carried out a three-year research project in Cambodia, Ethiopia and Zambia to:
- Evaluate the performance of current methodologies used for data collection
- Develop and release the updated guide Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women. An updated guide for measurement: from collection to action (2021)
Capacity development, technical assistance and knowledge sharing on data collection, analysis and interpretation
FAO collaborates with partners to support capacity development for high quality data collection and analysis of MDD-W at regional and country levels:
- Provide technical support on the use of MDD-W for monitoring and evaluation of FAO projects
- Plan and conduct regional workshops for countries in the South and East Africa regions and the Near-East region
- Assist countries on integrating MDD-W in national surveys, when requested.
Share new evidence, survey tools, capacity development materials and lessons learnt through the FAO MDD-W listserv and existing networks.
Find out more here.