Coherence of food and agricultural policies with NCD prevention in South Africa: the case of fruit and vegetable policies study: methodology & fieldwork report

This report presents the progress made on the IDRC-funded study, titled: The coherence of agro-food policies with NCD prevention policies in South Africa: The case of fruits and vegetables. This progress report focuses on the project milestones achieved to date, the research design, the data collected to date and the initial findings emerging from the different data sets. Since commencement in March 2019, the study has accomplished several milestones, as shown in the milestone summary below. Ethics approval was received in June 2019, and the first draft instruments were designed in July 2019. Several introductory workshops were done across the three selected provinces in September 2019, aimed at (a) introducing the project and securing buy in; (b) soliciting for inputs on the study instruments; and (c) sharing of the initial findings from the review of literature and policies. The research team revised the instruments using inputs from stakeholders, planned for the fieldwork, and proceeded to recruit and train fieldworkers for each of the regions. Focus group discussions (FGDs) across three provinces were completed in December 2019, months ahead of schedule.