Action - Feed the Future: The U.S. Government’s Global Hunger and Food Security Initiative - Women's education - Adult men and women

Programme: Feed the Future: The U.S. Government’s Global Hunger and Food Security Initiative

Programme description

Feed the Future, the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative, is a $3.5 billion commitment to support countrydriven approaches to address the root causes of poverty, hunger and undernutrition. A whole-of-government initiative led by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Feed the Future leverages the strengths of multilateral institutions, civil society and the private sector. Globally we aim to assist 18 million vulnerable women, children, and family members – mostly smallholder farmers – escape hunger and poverty. Together, we will increase agricultural productivity, decrease poverty, drive economic growth, and reduce undernutrition to improve millions of lives.

Over the next five years in Rwanda, Feed the Future aims to help an estimated 713,000 vulnerable Rwandan women, children and family members—mostly smallholder farmers—escape hunger and poverty. More than 174,000 children will be reached with services to improve their nutrition and prevent stunting and child mortality. Significant numbers of additional rural populations will achieve improved income and nutritional status from strategic policy engagement and institutional investments.

To meet its objectives, Feed the Future Rwanda is making core investments in three key areas: 

1. Systems Transformation

Sustainable Market Linkages

  • Privatization of Rwanda’s Fertilizer Import and Distribution System
  • Beans/Maize Value Chain Development
  • Dairy Value Chain Development
  • Pyrethrum Value Chain Development
  • Development Credit Authority
  • Access to Finance Rwanda
  • Integrated Improved Livelihoods Program

Infrastructure

  • Rwanda Rural Feeder Roads Improvement Program
  • Land Husbandry, Water Harvesting and Hillside Irrigation Project
  • Rwanda Integrated Water Security Program
  • Information and Communications Technology for Agriculture

Nutrition

  • Support to Sustainable Market Linkages
  • Other Support to National Multi-sectoral Strategy to Eliminate Malnutrition (NSEM)

2. Innovation. Research Capacity Building Program

3. Policy

  • Sector Program Assistance
  • Famine Early Warning System
  • Agriculture Sector Capacity Building Program

Programme type

Multi-national

Cost

USD 3.5 billion

References

Status: 
On-going

Start date:

January
2011

End date:

December
2015
Area: 
Urban
Place: 
Nationwide
Target group: 
Adult men and women
Delivery: 
Other
Other delivery: 
Academic
Implementation details : 

It is well known that research generates some of the highest average returns to public investment in agriculture.60 In Rwanda, where research capacity is extremely limited – it is estimated there are only about 30 people actively engaged in agriculture-related research with PhDs61 – the returns are likely to be even higher. As a result, the country is not adequately prepared to meet the demands of producers for improved agricultural inputs and respond to emerging threats to agricultural productivity and food security, such as crop disease and climate change. Developing such capacity is all the more important in light of the GOR’s policy to encourage land use consolidation. FTF assistance will therefore invest in strengthening Rwandan research capacity, with priority given to actionable, demand-driven research in support of priority value chains and nutrition objectives, such as maize and bean varieties that are more resistant to extreme weather events and post-harvest technologies that can be commercialized.

The program will aim to strengthen the capacity of the Rwandan Agriculture Research Institute (ISAR) to produce relevant research and develop systems, in cooperation with Belgian assistance, to ensure research results are disseminated to the field through an improved extension network. Drawing on USAID’s extensive experience with higher education partnerships in Africa, the program will also provide cost-effective, long-term degree training by forging partnerships between U.S. and Rwandan universities so that the country begins to produce a steady stream of qualified agricultural researchers and extension agents. Consistent with the recommendations of the gender strategy for the agriculture sector, special efforts will be made to encourage female enrollment in agricultural universities as a means of ensuring the different needs of women are considered in the country’s agricultural research and extension agendas.

Target population size : 
.
Coverage level (%): 
.
Outcome indicator(s): 

Improved agricultural productivity

M&E system: 

PERFORMANCE MONITORING
USAID’s existing Performance Management Plan (PMP) for its Economic Growth SO already includes several FTF indicators or indicators closely related to them. Efforts to strengthen the PMP’s alignment with the initiative are underway while FTF nutrition indicators will be incorporated into the GHI/BEST PMP. USAID has developed a web-based performance monitoring tool that facilitates reporting from its implementing partners as a key element of its M&E system. This same system will be utilized to collect activity-level data on FTF indicators.

For many of the high-level FTF indicators, baselines will be established through two national surveys currently underway. Results from the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), for which the U.S. Government is providing focused technical support to the National Institute of Statistics (NISR), will be available in late 2011 while results from a household survey, providing data on poverty levels, are scheduled to be released in early 2012. Consideration is being given to the regular application of an adapted version of USAID’s Poverty Assessment Tool in order to obtain some indication of poverty trends between household surveys, which typically only take place every five years, while an interim DHS planned for 2013/14 and a Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices survey will document changes in nutritional status and feeding practices. Efforts will also be made to utilize the Ministry of Health database to which community health workers report cases of malnutrition via mobile phone.

As previously noted, given identified gaps in data collection and performance monitoring in MINAGRI, the U.S. Government will seek to strengthen its M&E capacity through the establishment of a FEWS field presence and additional M&E technical support. Other donors, including DFID, the EC, and the World Bank, are helping to strengthen the NISR, including its collection and analysis of agricultural data. Improvement of agricultural statistics is a core element of the GOR’s PSI program with the IMF, as data collection procedures that systematically over-estimated agricultural production were thought to compromise the reliability of the GOR’s national income accounts data.

Given Rwanda’s limited size and population, as well as planned U.S. Government engagement on several key policy issues that will have broad, national impact on agricultural development and nutrition, FTF assistance can be expected to substantively contribute to reductions in Rwanda’s rural poverty and malnutrition rates. Through FTF in Rwanda more than 174,000 children will be reached with services to improve their nutrition and prevent stunting and child mortality. An estimated 713,000 vulnerable Rwandan women, children and family members will receive targeted assistance to escape hunger and poverty.

IMPACT EVALUATION
Periodic impact evaluations conducted over the course of the strategy period will help identify the contributions of FTF investments to progress observed through regular performance monitoring, as well as programmatic adjustments that may be required. As an example, a recent impact evaluation of the U.S. Government’s investments in the coffee sector over the past decade was used to inform a decision about whether continued support to the sector was warranted under the FTF initiative.66 An evaluation of USAID’s dairy competiveness program, undertaken in early 2011, likewise informed a decision to re-compete the program.

In addition, the Integrated Improved Livelihoods Program was selected for inclusion in USAID’s FY 2012 Evaluation Initiative, requiring a rigorous impact evaluation of the program’s central hypothesis that integrating microfinance with non-financial services, such as health and education, has the potential to address the multiple needs of the poor with greater efficiency and impact. The evaluation’s design will commence with program start-up to ensure the necessary baseline data is collected from treatment and control groups. The evaluation itself is planned to take place during the program’s third year of implementation so that lessons learned can be applied during its remaining two years.

Outcome reported by social determinants: 
Sex

Revision log

DateUserLogState
Fri, 09/20/2013 - 10:53engesveenkEdited by engesveenk. Changed "Nationwide" to "Rwanda" for geocoding (otherwise the action showed up in the US)draft
Mon, 04/15/2013 - 13:28AnnaLarteyEdited by AnnaLartey.draft
Fri, 04/12/2013 - 17:23AnnaLarteyEdited by AnnaLartey.draft
Fri, 04/12/2013 - 17:12AnnaLarteyCreated by AnnaLartey.draft