"programme_id","programme_title","programme_language","programme_type","other_program","iso3code","country_name","program_location","area","status","start_date","end_date","brief_description","references","related_policy","new_policy","partner_gov","partner_government_details","partner_un","partner_un_details","partner_ngo","partner_ngo_details","partner_donors","partner_donors_details","partner_intergov","partner_intgov_details","partner_national_ngo","partner_nat_ngo_details","partner_research","partner_research_details","partner_private","partner_private_details","partner_other","partner_other_details","cost","fsector_0","fpartner_0","fdetails_0","fsector_1","fpartner_1","fdetails_1","fsector_2","fpartner_2","fdetails_2","fsector_3","fpartner_3","fdetails_3","fsector_4","fpartner_4","fdetails_4","fsector_5","fpartner_5","fdetails_5","fsector_6","fpartner_6","fdetails_6","fsector_7","fpartner_7","fdetails_7","fsector_8","fpartner_8","fdetails_8","fsector_9","fpartner_9","fdetails_9","fsector_10","fpartner_10","fdetails_10","fsector_11","fpartner_11","fdetails_11","fsector_12","fpartner_12","fdetails_12","fsector_13","fpartner_13","fdetails_13","fsector_14","fpartner_14","fdetails_14","fsector_15","fpartner_15","fdetails_15","fsector_16","fpartner_16","fdetails_16","fsector_17","fpartner_17","fdetails_17","fsector_18","fpartner_18","fdetails_18","fsector_19","fpartner_19","fdetails_19","fsector_20","fpartner_20","fdetails_20","fsector_21","fpartner_21","fdetails_21","fsector_22","fpartner_22","fdetails_22","fsector_23","fpartner_23","fdetails_23","fsector_24","fpartner_24","fdetails_24","fsector_25","fpartner_25","fdetails_25","fsector_26","fpartner_26","fdetails_26","fsector_27","fpartner_27","fdetails_27","fsector_28","fpartner_28","fdetails_28","fsector_29","fpartner_29","fdetails_29","fsector_30","fpartner_30","fdetails_30","fsector_31","fpartner_31","fdetails_31","fsector_32","fpartner_32","fdetails_32","fsector_33","fpartner_33","fdetails_33","fsector_34","fpartner_34","fdetails_34","fsector_35","fpartner_35","fdetails_35","fsector_36","fpartner_36","fdetails_36","fsector_37","fpartner_37","fdetails_37","fsector_38","fpartner_38","fdetails_38","fsector_39","fpartner_39","fdetails_39","fsector_40","fpartner_40","fdetails_40","fsector_41","fpartner_41","fdetails_41","fsector_42","fpartner_42","fdetails_42","fsector_43","fpartner_43","fdetails_43","fsector_44","fpartner_44","fdetails_44","fsector_45","fpartner_45","fdetails_45","fsector_46","fpartner_46","fdetails_46","fsector_47","fpartner_47","fdetails_47","fsector_48","fpartner_48","fdetails_48","fsector_49","fpartner_49","fdetails_49","action_id","theme","topic","new_topic","micronutrient","micronutrient_compound","target_group","age_group","place","delivery","other_delivery","dose_frequency","impact_indicators","me_system","target_pop","coverage_percent","coverage_type","baseline","post_intervention","social_det","social_other","elena_link","problem_0","solution_0","problem_1","solution_1","problem_2","solution_2","problem_3","solution_3","problem_4","solution_4","problem_5","solution_5","problem_6","solution_6","problem_7","solution_7","problem_8","solution_8","problem_9","solution_9","other_problems","other_lessons","personal_story","language" "11456","Infant and Young Child Nutrition Project","English","Multi-national","","LSO","Lesotho","Lesotho","Rural","completed","01-2007","01-2010","
From 2007 to 2010, the US Agency for International Development’s Infant & Young Child Nutrition (IYCN) Project supported Lesotho’s Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MOHSW) to improve the nutrition of mothers and their children younger than two years of age, with a focus on those affected by HIV. The project strengthened national nutrition and prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) policies and programs and conducted supportive activities at health facilities and within communities. As a result of the project, there is now a strengthened referral system, which allows community health workers to refer mothers and children to providers at facilities and providers to refer their patients back to community health workers for followup. Building the capacity of a wide range of community workers resulted in supportive networks for improved feeding practices in many communities, including among village chiefs, traditional healers, and men’s groups.
","Enhanced national nutrition guidelines
IYCN helped to set a countrywide standard for improved feeding practices by supporting the revision of Lesotho’s National Infant and Young Child Feeding Policy and incorporating the World Health Organization’s guidelines on HIV and infant feeding into national PMTCT guidelines. In February 2010, IYCN assisted the MOHSW with presenting the infant and young child feeding guidelines to the Minister of Health.
Facilitated multisectoral collaboration
To effectively reach communities with information about optimal feeding practices, the project fostered collaboration among three government ministries to develop joint training and supervision activities. A cascade-style approach to training community workers enabled IYCN to reach more caregivers with nutrition support. For example, IYCN supported the MOHSW to train 29 trainers at the Ministry of Agriculture, who then conducted “step-down trainings” with 496 home economists and other workers. IYCN also trained trainers at the Ministry of Education, who then trained early childhood care and development teachers. Both sets of trainees gave health talks at local clinics. The home economists showed mothers how to prepare food for their children and the teachers led discussions about good nutrition. Additionally, IYCN collaborated with each ministry to train 246 traditional healers in villages and 30 mentor mothers from mothers2mothers about how to counsel HIV-positive mothers on infant feeding.
Increased community support
Over the life of the project, IYCN supported the training of nearly 750 community health workers to counsel mothers on infant and young child feeding. Trained community health workers increased community support for optimal infant feeding practices and improved social norms, individual attitudes, and infant feeding behaviors. Through household visits, community health workers reached pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers two to four times each month. Community health workers also helped health workers create breastfeeding Masoabicommittees in some villages, which included traditional healers, grandmothers, and priests. By sensitizing village chiefs, traditional healers, community councils, grandmothers, and men’s groups, community health workers broadened support for infant and young child nutrition, which led to more public discussions about the issue. The project informally integrated traditional healers into the referral system, through which they referred mothers to community health workers.
By performing supervisory visits with 270 health providers trained by the project, IYCN monitored the two-way referral system between facilities and community health workers. Project staff also monitored community activities initiated through the project, such as growth monitoring and promotion, health talks, the creation of keyhole gardens, and cooking demonstrations. Health workers reported significant improvement in community-based growth monitoring and promotion sessions and said they were better able to detect and refer children who were growth-faltering, while keyhole gardens became a user-friendly, inexpensive, local source of vegetables.
","Growth
","","","","","","","Vulnerable groups","","Infant feeding for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV>>>Infant feeding for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV>>http://www.who.int/elena/titles/hiv_infant_feeding","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","","Mamorena’s story: helping babies grow up healthy and strong
It wasn’t until Mamorena volunteered to be a community health worker in rural Lesotho that she learned why her first child was frequently ill as an infant. After she gave birth to her son, she only gave him water for the first seven days, delaying breastfeeding until his umbilical cord fell off—a common cultural practice in Lesotho. She eventually added breastmilk and soft porridge to his diet.
While in an IYCN training to be a community health worker, she learned that the addition of foods and liquids—even water—during the first six months of life puts infants at risk of illness, infection, stunted growth, and death.
After the training, when Momorena gave birth to her second son, she began breastfeeding immediately and exclusively. As a community health worker, she continues to share what she learned with people in her village.
Lesotho: Connecting communities with health care facilities to prevent malnutrition
At the Litsoeneng Health Centre, a small clinic in a remote area of Lesotho, Adelina, 40, a nurse, and Mabeata, 62, a community health worker in the nearby village of Khopolo, proudly tell the story of Tsepo. He’s a healthy 17-month-old boy who is learning how to walk and loves playing with other children. Mabeata and Adelina meet monthly to monitor his growth and make sure he stays healthy.
But this wasn’t always the case for Tsepo. When he was 8 months old, Mabeata visited his home to monitor his growth and discovered that he wasn’t gaining weight at a normal rate. Immediately, she encouraged his mother, Malehloa, only 16 years old, to take him to the clinic to correct the problem. After participating in a training workshop conducted by the Infant & Young Child Nutrition (IYCN) Project, the community health worker knew that it was critical to send babies with growth problems to the clinic as soon as possible. She even walked with Malehloa and Tsepo from Khopolo to visit the clinic.
“I was very concerned about Tsepo. I wanted to be there to help Malehloa understand the problem and coordinate with the nurses to follow up after the visit,” Mabeata explained.
At the clinic, Adelina—one of a small staff that includes three nurses and two counselors—asked the young mother questions about how she was feeding Tsepo. Malehloa, who stopped going to school once she was pregnant, had practiced exclusive breastfeeding since Tsepo was born. As a result, he had hardly been sick during his first six months and he was growing normally.
The problem with his growth probably started after that. Malehloa didn’t know that Tsepo needed complementary foods (other foods and fluids) in addition to breast milk to keep him well nourished now that he was older than 6 months.
To improve Tsepo’s nutrition, Adelina and Mabeata helped Malehloa identify foods she already had at home—like enriched porridge and fruits—that would be good for Tsepo. They encouraged her to continue to breastfeed in addition to feeding Tsepo enough nutritious complementary foods at the right frequency. To help him catch up on his growth as quickly as possible, Adelina gave Tsepo a nutritional supplement.
“I learned that breastfeeding alone does not satisfy the baby after six months, so I have to add other foods that are good for Tsepo,” said Malehloa.
Now, Mabeata makes frequent home visits to check Tsepo’s growth and ensure that Malehloa feeds him enriched porridge and other good foods several times a day. She smiles when she talks about how happy and healthy Tsepo is now. She has seen steady improvements in his growth.
“I am very proud. It gives me strength to see how Tsepo is growing,” she said.
Mabeata’s quick actions and persistent follow-up probably prevented Tsepo from becoming severely malnourished. In Lesotho, many babies, even those who have grown well for the first six months of life, do not receive adequate complementary foods—putting them at risk of malnutrition and making them more susceptible to severe childhood illnesses, stunted growth, developmental delays, and death. Volunteers like Mabeata are the critical link between communities and the life-saving prevention and treatment available at health facilities.
To prevent malnutrition, the IYCN Project is working to improve the links between health facilities and communities like Khopolo. IYCN provides infant and young child feeding training workshops for community health workers, emphasizing increased collaboration with health facilities. Since IYCN conducted a training workshop at the Litsoeneng Health Centre for Mabeata and 30 other community health workers—one for each village in the area—the clinic staff have seen an increase in referrals for growth-faltering from community health workers.
Adelina believes that community health workers are vital to improving the health of mothers and children served by the clinic. She says it’s not always easy to get families to the facility. They often prefer to go to traditional healers in their villages or they do not have time to walk—sometimes more than six miles to the clinic
“We cannot afford to go house to house. If we need to get information to the villages, the community health workers are there on our behalf,” Adelina said.
Mabeata has all of the qualities necessary to go door to door to teach mothers about good feeding practices. She is well respected, empathetic, and a responsible mother—that’s why everyone at a village council meeting pointed to her when the clinic needed a volunteer to promote good health in the village 19 years ago. Her advice goes a long way toward making sure children have a chance for a healthy life.
“Now I tell other moms about Tsepo’s story and how we helped him. I think it motivates them to improve feeding practices for their babies,” Mabeata said.
","English" "11637","Purchase for Progress (P4P) Pilot Initiative ","English","Multi-national","","AFG|BFA|COD|SLV|ETH|GHA|GTM|HND|KEN|LAO|LBR|MWI|MLI|MOZ|NIC|RWA|SLE|SSD|UGA|TZA|ZMB","Afghanistan|Burkina Faso|Democratic Republic of the Congo|El Salvador|Ethiopia|Ghana|Guatemala|Honduras|Kenya|Lao People's Democratic Republic|Liberia|Malawi|Mali|Mozambique|Nicaragua|Rwanda|Sierra Leone|South Sudan|Uganda|United Republic of Tanzania|Zambia","","Rural|Peri-urban","on-going","01-2008","01-2013","As the world’s largest humanitarian agency, WFP is a major staple food buyer. In 2012, WFP bought US$1.1 billion worth of food – more than 75 percent of this in developing countries WFP buys locally in developing countries when its criteria of price, quality and quantity can be met. P4P is a logical continuation of this local procurement with the intent to achieve a higher developmental gain with WFP’s procurement footprint by buying increasingly in a smallholder-friendly way.
Through P4P, WFP’s demand provides smallholder farmers in 20 pilot countries with a greater incentive to invest in their production, as they have the possibility to sell to a reliable buyer and receive a fair price for their crops. It is envisioned that in the wake of WFP purchasing in a more smallholder-friendly way, other buyers of staple commodities including Governments and the private sector will also increasingly be able to buy from smallholders.
P4P at the same time invests in capacity building at country level in areas such as post-harvest handling or storage, which will yield sustainable results in boosting national food security over the long term. The five year pilot P4P (2009 - 2013)[1] rests on three pillars:
WFP usually buys food through large competitive tenders. Through P4P, WFP is testing new procurement approaches more suited to smallholder farmers and:
Country approaches to P4P are tailored to suit the opportunities and constraints within each country. Generally, however, each programme has applied one or more of the general approaches:
Approach #1: Farmers’ organisations and capacity building partnerships:
Approach #2: Support to emerging structured trading systems
Approach #3: Small and medium traders
Approach #4: Developing local food processing capacity
.
","M&E system specifies data collection and analysis methods designed to track a number of indicators of programme performance.
The M&E system collects data from a number of sources including:
The M&E system also incorporates peer review to identify and validate best practices. At the country level, these include stakeholder meetings, workshops, and annual reviews. At the regional level, WFP is using writeshops and regional workshops to consolidate and validate learning. At the global/programme level, a Technical Review Panel meets annually to review and help interpret results and to guide implementation. Peer review meetings, annual reviews, internal (to WFP) stakeholder groups, and external evaluations also serve to validate results.
Managing the learning process for a programme with the scope and scale of P4P has been challenging and the design and evolution of the M&E system reflect these challenges. In particular:
Economic Research Consortium (AERC) to manage collection and analysis of the quantitative data.
Since P4P's launch in September 2008,
Stories From the Field: Ethiopi
Women farmers face many obstacles that they need to overcome to become successful business women. But the example of Mashuu, from Chefo Umbera, southern Ethiopia, shows that with the right support, female farmers can become independent market players.
When she left school, Mashuu noticed her peers marrying early, sometimes to men who took more than one wife. Mashuu saw her future differently, and together with two sisters and a sister-in-law, formed a women’s group, hoping to empower women through family planning education and HIV/AIDS awareness. They started with four members – today, there are 165.
“As the group started to grow, I realized we needed to become strong and independent economically,” said Mashuu. And that was how Jalela Primary Cooperative was born. Women bring their cereal harvests to Jalela, and the cooperative then sells it to Mira, their local cooperative union. The union sells the aggregated commodities to buyers such as WFP.
The 2011 drought-induced crop failure led to high market prices and a shortage of marketable produce in Ethiopia. This caused most cooperatives to default on their contracts with WFP. But Jalela still sold 30 metric tons of maize to WFP. The net profit of about US$170 was in part kept for the cooperative and in part distributed to the co-op members. Mashuu still has high hopes for the future despite the difficulties with the 2011 drought. She has plans to build a grain mill, start dairy production, and even bring electricity to the Jalela co-op. “We are going to change our lives,” she concludes.
The Experience in Guatemala
In Guatemala, P4P focuses on sales beyond WFP for two reasons: to promote long-term sustainability and to provide alternative outlets for farmers’ surplus production. Since WFP in Guatemala distributes only a few thousand metric tons (mt) of food every year, the quantities it can purchase from smallholder farmers’ organizations is relatively small, as illustrated in the table below.
P4P assisted Farmers’ Organizations (FOs) are located in northern and eastern regions of Guatemala as well as on the Pacific Coastal plain. A market study examined potential alternative buyers for both bulked and processed grain, including regional and national buyers such as the food industry, private traders, exporters, NGOs and the Government of Guatemala. According to information collected between 2008 through 2012, approximately a third of the P4P supported FOs have sold maize or beans to buyers beyond WFP. Of the total of 6,800 mt sold, 70% was maize (4,800 mt) and the rest beans (2,000 mt).
A maize processor in Guatemala that produces tortilla flour purchased 59% of the total tonnage. The second biggest buyer was Wal-Mart, which purchased 918 mt of beans. Sales to other national supermarkets, large traders and exporters represent 11% of the total (750 mt). Some 739 mt of maize and beans were sold on local markets (local grocery stores, municipal markets and traders). Small amounts were also purchased by NGOs, FAO and other P4P supported FOs.
With support from FAO, some FOs have developed the capacity to produce seed as well as grain. This represents 1.3% of the tonnage sold, but 4.2% of the income generated through collective sales beyond WFP. Such a successful focus on higherincome options has motivated the FOs to explore other markets such as retail packaging of beans, production of red beans specific to the El Salvador market, and fresh corn on the cob.
The P4P team works with the FOs to encourage sales beyond WFP. Commercialization committees are formed in the FOs and a roster of identified potential buyers in the market is shared with all. Training on effective negotiation t e c h n i q u e s a n d t h e development of business plans also begins this year.
Potential buyers are invited to the field to see the production of the grains, post-harvest management and quality control. This also allows them to become familiar with the maturity of the organization, increasing the confidence of buyers in the capacity of the FOs to establish commercial relations. This is complemented by demonstrating tools such as the “Blue Box”1, which is both a training tool and a field laboratory, which separates produce that does not meet specifications. Through partnering with P4P, FOs gained the trust of the commercial sector and confidence in their own abilities to reach a broad range of markets.
Farmers organizations’ experience steady progression in Mozambique
In Mozambique, farmers’ organizations (FOs) were created by both national government and nongovernmental organizations to facilitate technical assistance in agricultural production and marketing. This was especially important in the recovery period that followed the 1992 General Peace Agreement.
Most FOs gradually evolved from the village level to linking with other FOs at a district level. The district level is often represented by an ‘umbrella’ association of FOs, the tier with which P4P in Mozambique works directly. There are currently 10 such “umbrella” FOs in Mozambique participating in P4P. As of 2012, WFP has bought almost 10,000 metric tons (mt) of maize, beans and pulses from these FOs, valued at $5.8 million.
Apart from selling to WFP, P4P is helping FOs to identify sustainable and fair markets for sales beyond WFP. Prior to participating in the P4P initiative, many farmers had limited or no experience in selling collectively to markets. In 2009, sales beyond WFP were only 644 mt, tripling by 2012 to 1,800 mt. The table below summarizes crops sold by all 10 FOs under P4P in Mozambique and the income generated from sales per year.
P4P’s support to smallholder farmers in accessing markets for crops such as maize, beans and pulses has had a positive impact. When P4P began in 2009, soybean was the mostsold commodity by P4P supported FOs (2,480 mt). Maize was second at 926 mt, sesame third with 699 mt, followed by pigeon peas at 538 mt of sales. The possible profit margin for growing and selling maize is beginning to compete with the profits available in the soy and sesame trade, although commercial maize value remains low compared to other commodities. Buyers that are purchasing commodities from these FOs are:
The volume of products marketed in relation to the number of buyers demonstrates that the market in Mozambique is neither structured nor stable. There are often a high number of buyers intervening at the same time in more than one crop. Quality issues are often secondary for many buyers, as product availability is often considered more important.
While marketing platforms still have a long way to go in Mozambique, participating in P4P has helped with sales to markets beyond WFP. The relative consistency of having WFP as a buyer and the training provided by P4P and partners has helped many FOs meet the demands needed for selling to other buyers of quality.
Malawi – How a farmers’ organization is progressing
Kafulu Smallholder Farmers Organization (FO) was established in 2003. At the time of its establishment, Kafulu had two clear objectives: to achieve food security in the area and to find markets for their surplus. Currently the FO has 1,400 members (of which 500 are women) and with assistance from the National Agricultural Smallholder Farmers Association of Malawi (NASFAM), they have been able to build a warehouse. Kafulu had experience of selling maize collectively before P4P started in Malawi, however, since joining P4P they have been given the opportunity to learn the skills needed to achieve better deals with buyers.
A Challenging Beginning
Though Kafulu has progressed in their ability to connect to markets, the process has not been without difficulty. When the FO decided to participate in P4P it obtained credit in the 2008/2009 season, allowing them to expand their inputs loan scheme. In the 2009/2010 season, the organization again had access to credit, but faced severe problems in repayment. Loans were given to individuals and not directly to the FO and as a result, some individuals were unable to meet repayment obligations causing tensions among members. In addition, Kafulu signed a contract with WFP for the sale of 526 metric tons (mt) of maize, but was not able to deliver anything at all due to quality problems. The FO then had to sell the maize to other buyers who were not looking for high quality and they received a lower price.
In spite of these difficulties, Kafulu persevered. They managed to retain most of the membership despite the credit repayment issue, and tried to sell to WFP once again. In the 2010/2011 season, Kafulu delivered 100 mt of maize to WFP, this time with no quality issues.
Towards Graduation
By then, Kafulu farmers saw a clear way ahead: “We want to sell to people like WFP, because they are able to get a lot of money at one time and they offer fair prices for quality produce”,
stated one of the members of the Executive Committee. Although Kafulu farmers did not know then, they were completing the first step towards graduation - they had learnt how to condition their crop for higher quality standards and they had managed to aggregate at least twice. This placed them in a better position to compete with other FOs.
In the 2011/2012 season, Kafulu managed to aggregate 460 mt of maize, which they deposited into the warehouse receipt system (WRS) at the beginning of the season. From this deposit, they managed to get 70 percent of the receipt value as credit, which allowed them to wait until later in the season to sell when better prices were available.
Market Experience Today
In February 2013, Kafulu was awarded a contract for almost 230 mt of maize from WFP. They competed directly with medium and big traders in the Malawi market. By that time, they had already sold half of their maize to other buyers, at prevailing prices of around 90 MWK/kg (USD 0.27), making a good profit and enabling them to repay the credit and fees for the warehouse.
Kafulu FO still has problems with its membership stemming from past individual loan defaults and it is now dealing with the challenges of managing a WRS on its own. However, the FO has more knowledge of markets and is now prepared to engage competitively in them.
","English"