Impact evaluation of food and nutrition surveillances system (FNSS) on food and nutrition programs during post devolution in four selected districts of East Java, Indonesia

The study was primarily conducted to assess the impact of the FNSS on food and nutrition program planning during post devolution in four selected districts of East Java, Indonesia. Specifically, the objectives of the study are the following: 1. to analyze the factors that influence the FNSS implementation; 2. to assess the effectiveness of implementing FNSS during post evolution; and 3. to offer recommendations for improving the implementation and utilization of FNSS. The results of the study revealed that the implementation of FNSS post devolution was affected by the attributes of the government officials like their educational attainment, length of service and attendance of trainings on FNSS. The responsibility on implementing FNSS post devolution was highly under the accountability of the local government both at the provincial and district levels. The role of provincial and district government post devolution became more significant as stipulated in Law No. 32 Year 2004. However, active participation in the FNSS was still low because of its inability to allocate sufficient funds to cover their share of the FNSS budget. The provincial and district government post devolution were expected to play a crucial role in implementing the agenda more than pre devolution era as stated in the stipulation of Law No. 32 Year 2004. The local government was not able to carry out their roles due to limitations on funds allotted for FNSS related activities (fund provided was low compared to the fund provided by the central government.) There is a need for the central government to improve the performance of FNSS implementation, through particular attention to the provision of fund, technical guidance and conducting trainings of FNSS for the local government officials. It was observed that the participation of the Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) nad the community to the FNSS implementation also increased in the post devolution era. The assessment of pre and post devolution showed that the implementation of FNSS post devolution is relatively better compared to pre devolution since the devolution was actualized more than five years, but still has no significant difference or change in many aspects in enforcing FNSS. Factors that must be considered to increase the effectiveness of FNSS by multisectional agencies include the conduct of regular meetings, regular training of FNSS, technical guidance from the experts and availability of funds. To improve the implementation of FNSS post devolution, the following suggestions were given by the respondents: provision of more fund; improvement of multi-sectional coordination; improvement of law enforcement; increasing the number of training on FNSS and provision of technical guidance.