This guide was developed by FANTA in conjunction with the USAID Bureau for Food Security and the Office of Food for Peace.

This guide provides technical guidance on the design and use of participant-based surveys (PaBSs) to support the collection of data for annual monitoring indicators. The guide is intended for use mainly by U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Feed the Future implementing partners (IPs), including USAID Office of Food for Peace (FFP) development food security activity awardees.

PaBSs are conducted among a sample of the population that participates in a project’s interventions. This is in contrast to population-based surveys (PBSs), which are conducted among a sample of the entire population living within a project’s area of coverage. Typically:

• PBSs are used in the Feed the Future context for performance evaluations using baseline, interim, and end-line surveys, and to monitor progress and see if there has been change over time at the population level in key outcomes and impact indicators.
• PaBSs are used in the context of project monitoring to ensure that project implementation is rolling out as expected and that project interventions are on track for achieving their intended outcomes and targets in the participant population. The results of such monitoring exercises can be used to inform decisions about project strategies and to make corrections to project components if monitoring data show that they are not on track.

Data in support of annual monitoring indicators can be collected either through a project’s routine monitoring systems or through specialized periodic PaBSs. All Feed the Future IPs have routine monitoring systems in place to collect basic process, output, and outcome data relating to their projects, to support the tabulation of output and outcome indicators on (ideally) all participants of the projects. Often data collection through routine monitoring occurs simultaneously with project implementation; such data are collected by community members, government workers, and/or project monitoring and evaluation (M&E) staff.

This updated and revised version of the Sampling Guide for Beneficiary-Based Surveys for Select Feed the Future Agricultural Annual Monitoring Indicators reflects the new USAID Global Food Security Strategy by integrating the Feed the Future phase two annual monitoring indicators. The guide provides a technical roadmap for those wanting to design, plan, and implement PaBSs and focuses on select Feed the Future agriculture-related indicators that are considered more challenging in terms of data collection. Indicators relating to other sectors, such as maternal and child health and nutrition, and water, sanitation, and hygiene, are also discussed. While the original guide focused on indicators of totals only, the updated and revised guide also covers indicators of proportions and means.