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.
