This process has several steps, and ideally will involve consultation with a nutritionist with expert knowledge of local foods. In some settings, previous survey tools may be excellent resources, provided they were well adapted. Adaptation involves the following steps, which are described in detail in Section 4 of Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women – A guide to measurement:

• Decide whether to use the open recall or list-based method for querying respondents about foods consumed.
• Decide whether or not to include optional categories of foods, which are not “counted” in the Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women of Reproductive Age (MDD-W) indicator, such as sugar-sweetened beverages, sweets, fats and oils, and savoury and fried snacks.
• Make an initial translation of the MDD-W model questionnaire into (one of) the main survey language(s); model questionnaires are provided for both list-based and open recall methods in Appendix 3 and Section 3 of Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women – A guide to measurement, respectively.
• Refine the questionnaire through linguistic and cultural adaptation. This process can involve the nutritionist, the survey designers, trainee enumerators and – where resources permit – additional key informant interviews or focus groups to generate complete examples for the foods listed in each group.
• Translate into additional languages as needed.

The adaptation process should be followed by field/pilot testing and further refinement, as indicated in Section 4 of Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women – A guide to measurement.