Table 1.

Analytical framework for estimating program costs and impacts

Costing framework
Component of costing framework	Description
Cost category and item description	Items are grouped into program cost categories, including: personnel (by level of salary range); real estate for office space and other needs; transportation costs; supplies, equipment, other resources; monitoring and evaluation as a percent of other program costs; and other costs or revenue. Separate lines within each category are used for individual items with differing prices or numbers of units
Units of measure	Units of measure are explicitly listed, such as person-years for salaries, kilometres travelled for transport, and workshop days for attendee expenses
Price per unit	Price per unit is calculated by converting local currency amounts to constant US dollars in PPP terms, so that costs are comparable across countries and over time
Start-up costs	Calculated using the number of units and cost per unit (quantity×price) during the first year of the program
Recurring costs	Calculated using the number of units and cost per unit (price×quantity) for each year after the first, using a standard inflation rate in PPP prices of 0.05
NPV	Calculated as the sum of all items across duration of each program, with a discount rate over time of 0.03

Dietary impact frameworka
Mechanism for impact	Description of impact mechanism	Main program parameters	Main behavioural parameter
Resource transfers	Transfer of resources to shift composition of diet	Number of targeted individuals, and value of resource transfer to them, as a percent of their total income	Income elasticity of demand for the targeted food item
Access changes	Changing food prices to alter purchasing behaviour	Number of consumers affected, and percent change in their cost of acquisition of the targeted food item	Price elasticity of demand for the targeted food item
Preference change	Changing dietary preferences	Number of consumers affected by the program’s behaviour-change efforts	Change in quantity of nutrient consumed per recipient per day
Food transfers	Transfer of food items to increase intake of target nutrients	Number of recipients to whom food is transferred	Change in quantity of nutrient consumed per recipient per day

PPP, purchasing power parity

^aEach program may aim to alter intake of more than one food, through more than one mechanism of impact as described by program parameters that describe its reach and delivery, and the resulting alteration of dietary intake depends on behavioural parameters obtained from the best available studies of similar changes in similar contexts, as specified in Table 5