Food Security and Nutrition Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Food Security Officers, Nutrition Programme Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-FS-030

Before you join: Participants should have basic experience in development, humanitarian response, public health, agriculture, social protection or programme management.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Food security and nutrition professionals must make defensible decisions when households face rising prices, failed harvests, displacement, disease outbreaks or restricted market access. The work requires more than measuring food availability. Teams must identify who is affected, understand dietary and livelihood pressures, distinguish acute from chronic risks, select suitable assistance, and show whether programmes improve food consumption and nutrition outcomes. Poor assessment design or weak interpretation can misdirect scarce resources and leave high-risk groups without appropriate support.

This course develops practical capability in food and nutrition security assessment, analysis, programme design and monitoring. Participants use the FAO four pillars, the UNICEF malnutrition framework, household food-security indicators, market and livelihood analysis, and Integrated Food Security Phase Classification principles. They learn to interpret Food Consumption Scores, dietary diversity, coping indicators, nutrition measurements and price data; compare food, cash, voucher and livelihood responses; and design results frameworks that meet operational and reporting needs.

Instructor-led sessions combine concise technical briefings with humanitarian and development cases, including drought-affected farming communities, urban food-price shocks and displacement settings. Participants work with sample datasets, assessment findings, market information and programme scenarios to test decisions and justify recommendations. Each participant leaves with a reusable food and nutrition security assessment plan, indicator reference sheet, response-analysis model and 90-day application plan for their role.

The course suits professionals working in government, humanitarian agencies, NGOs, donors, social protection programmes, agriculture projects, health services and corporate foundations. It is particularly relevant for staff who contribute to needs assessments, programme quality, monitoring, grant design, emergency response or nutrition-sensitive development work.

What you will be able to do

  • Apply the FAO four-pillar framework to diagnose food security constraints
  • Design a food and nutrition security assessment using decision-led questions
  • Calculate and interpret Food Consumption Score, dietary diversity and coping indicators
  • Classify acute food insecurity evidence using Integrated Food Security Phase Classification principles
  • Analyse market, livelihood and seasonal evidence for response decision-making
  • Select food, cash, voucher and livelihood assistance using response-analysis criteria
  • Develop a results framework with SMART food security and nutrition indicators
  • Produce an evidence-based application plan for a current programme challenge

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Interpret food security and nutrition evidence with greater professional confidence
  • Write clearer assessment questions linked to operational decisions
  • Judge when food, cash, vouchers or livelihood support are appropriate
  • Contribute credible evidence to proposals, situation reports and donor meetings
  • Build a practical action plan for improving current programme decisions

For your organisation

  • Better targeted assistance based on household, market and nutrition evidence
  • More defensible response choices during food-price, climate or displacement shocks
  • Improved programme designs aligned with Sphere and nutrition standards
  • Stronger monitoring data for management decisions and donor reporting
  • Closer coordination between food security, nutrition, health and social protection teams

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can distinguish food security, nutrition security and related drivers using recognised analytical frameworks.

  • FAO four pillars: availability, access, utilisation and stability
  • Distinguishing food security, nutrition security, safety and food systems
  • Rights-based food approach, participation and duty-bearer accountability principles
  • Seasonality calendars linking rainfall, harvests, prices and household consumption
  • Classifying chronic, acute and transitory food insecurity conditions
  • Mapping immediate, underlying and basic causes of malnutrition

Participants can design decision-focused food and nutrition security assessments with appropriate data sources and safeguards.

  • Assessment purpose statements, decision questions and information requirements matrices
  • Secondary-data review using market, health, agriculture and displacement sources
  • Sampling frames, sample-size logic and bias controls for household surveys
  • Household Economy Analysis baselines, wealth groups and livelihood-zone interpretation
  • Focus-group discussion guides designed to test quantitative findings
  • Ethical informed consent, safeguarding, referral and data-protection procedures
  • Data-quality checks: skip logic, outliers, missingness and enumerator error

Participants can calculate, interpret and triangulate core food security and nutrition indicators.

  • Food Consumption Score calculation, thresholds and food-group weighting
  • Household Dietary Diversity Score and Minimum Dietary Diversity measures
  • Reduced Coping Strategies Index scoring and interpretation limits
  • Livelihood Coping Strategy Index: stress, crisis and emergency behaviours
  • MUAC, oedema and weight-for-height indicators for acute malnutrition
  • Triangulating household consumption, coping, nutrition and market evidence

Participants can structure and communicate evidence for acute food insecurity classification decisions.

  • Integrated Food Security Phase Classification evidence protocols and phase definitions
  • Area analysis versus household classification and population estimates
  • Convergence of evidence tables, reliability ratings and analyst consensus
  • Identifying contributing factors, hazards and projected outcomes
  • Acute Food Insecurity and Acute Malnutrition IPC scales
  • Communicating phase results without overstating precision or causality

Participants can integrate nutrition priorities into food security programme design and referral pathways.

  • UNICEF conceptual framework linking diets, care, health and services
  • Maternal, infant and young child feeding practices
  • First 1,000 days, adolescent nutrition and maternal nutrition needs
  • Essential Nutrition Actions and nutrition-sensitive programme pathways
  • Screening referral pathways for wasting, stunting and micronutrient deficiencies
  • Preventing and managing anaemia, vitamin A deficiency and iodine deficiency
  • Nutrition surveillance interpretation, prevalence thresholds and programme implications

Participants can analyse how markets, livelihoods and seasonal conditions shape household food access.

  • Market system mapping: actors, flows, infrastructure and constraints
  • Price monitoring, terms of trade and purchasing-power analysis
  • Livelihood assets, income sources and expenditure patterns by wealth group
  • Seasonal calendars for labour, debt, migration and food stocks
  • Market functionality criteria for cash-based assistance decisions
  • Conflict, climate and policy shocks affecting food access

Participants can compare response options and recommend appropriate assistance packages using clear criteria.

  • Response analysis comparing food, cash, vouchers and livelihood support
  • Cash feasibility criteria: markets, delivery systems, protection and financial access
  • Transfer-value calculation using minimum expenditure baskets and gap analysis
  • Targeting methods: geographic, community-based, categorical and household approaches
  • Food basket design, ration calculation and nutrient adequacy checks
  • Linking treatment, prevention, WASH, health and social protection services
  • Do-no-harm analysis for gender, disability, conflict and exclusion risks

Participants can develop accountable food and nutrition security programme designs with measurable results.

  • Results frameworks connecting inputs, outputs, outcomes and impact pathways
  • Theory of Change assumptions, causal links and external risks
  • SMART indicators with disaggregation by sex, age and disability
  • Logframes, workplans, budgets, milestones and responsibility matrices
  • Sphere Handbook food-security and nutrition minimum technical standards
  • Accountability to Affected Populations feedback and complaints mechanisms
  • Partner capacity assessments, due diligence and local coordination arrangements

Participants can establish monitoring systems that support programme improvement and credible reporting.

  • Baseline, midline and endline designs matched to decision needs
  • Indicator reference sheets defining numerators, denominators, sources and frequency
  • Post-distribution monitoring questions for assistance use, access and protection
  • Monitoring market prices, trader capacity and commodity availability
  • Outcome harvesting and contribution analysis for complex nutrition results
  • Data dashboards, situation reports and donor reporting narratives
  • Adaptive management triggers based on thresholds and monitoring signals

Participants can align food and nutrition security actions with coordination structures and workplace priorities.

  • Cluster coordination roles, 4Ws mapping and response gap analysis
  • Government alignment with national nutrition policies and social protection systems
  • Humanitarian-development-peace coherence in protracted food insecurity planning settings
  • Stakeholder influence mapping and community engagement plans for implementation
  • Risk registers covering climate, conflict, markets, fraud and access
  • Funding proposals structured around needs evidence, outcomes and value
  • Personal 90-day application plans with milestones and accountability

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Food and nutrition security assessment planning template
  2. Household indicator calculation and interpretation workbook
  3. Market and livelihood analysis model
  4. Food, cash and voucher response-selection matrix
  5. Food security and nutrition indicator reference sheet
  6. 90-day workplace application plan

Who should attend

  • Food Security Officers — need stronger assessment, analysis and response-design judgement
  • Nutrition Programme Managers — need to connect nutrition outcomes with food security interventions
  • Humanitarian Project Managers — need evidence for targeting, transfer choices and programme adaptation
  • Monitoring and Evaluation Specialists — need relevant indicators and interpretation methods
  • Government Agriculture and Social Protection Officers — need tools for food-security planning and coordination
  • Donor and Grant Managers — need to assess programme logic, evidence quality and reported results

Skills and tools covered

Food security assessmentNutrition indicator analysisMarket and livelihood analysisResponse option selectionProgramme results designAdaptive monitoring

Tools and standards

Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, SMART Methodology, Sphere Handbook, Household Economy Analysis

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to establish technical concepts, followed by guided case work using household survey results, market prices, nutrition findings and response scenarios. Small-group exercises test indicator interpretation, evidence triangulation, targeting choices and programme design decisions. Participants examine how assumptions, data gaps and protection risks affect recommendations. A response-selection simulation brings assessment, market and nutrition evidence together. Facilitated application planning helps each participant adapt the methods, templates and decision criteria to an active or upcoming assignment.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have basic experience in development, humanitarian response, public health, agriculture, social protection or programme management. They should be comfortable reading simple tables, charts and survey findings, and should understand the purpose of needs assessments and monitoring. Prior exposure to food assistance, nutrition, livelihoods or market programmes is useful but not essential. No advanced statistics, econometrics, clinical nutrition qualification, GIS expertise or prior Integrated Food Security Phase Classification certification is required. The course explains technical terms before applying them to cases.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants need basic familiarity with development, humanitarian, health, agriculture or social protection work. The course does not require advanced statistics, clinical nutrition credentials or prior experience with IPC analysis.

Bring a laptop if attending in person, as participants work with sample tables, templates and programme scenarios. You may also bring a current assessment, proposal or monitoring challenge to inform your application plan.

It suits food security, nutrition, programme, monitoring, government and donor professionals who make or inform programme decisions. It is designed for practitioners with some relevant workplace experience rather than staff seeking an introductory humanitarian orientation.

This course connects household food access, diets, livelihoods, markets, malnutrition and response design. It covers cash and nutrition interventions as parts of wider food and nutrition security decision-making, rather than treating either as a specialist subject alone.

Participants can use the assessment planning template, indicator reference sheet and response-selection matrix in current programme work. The final application plan identifies a specific work priority, milestones and evidence needed for implementation.

The five days provide approximately 32.5 contact hours, normally from 08:30 to 16:30 each day. Time is divided between technical briefings, case analysis, group exercises, response simulations and structured application planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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