Action - Feed the Future: The U.S. Government’s Global Hunger and Food Security Initiative - Multiple micronutrient powder (point-of-use fortification) - Infants and young children|Lactating women (LW)|Pregnant women (PW)|Preschool-age children (Pre-SAC)

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:

January
2015
Area: 
Urban
Rural
Peri-urban
Place: 
Nationwide
Target group: 
Infants and young children
Lactating women (LW)
Pregnant women (PW)
Preschool-age children (Pre-SAC)
Delivery: 
Community-based
Implementation details : 

While nutritional value was a key criteria in selecting priority value chains, planned value chain investments will be designed to ensure their nutritional benefits are maximized. Increasing the focus of post-harvest investments on the household level, as noted above, and targeting women with the Integrated Improved Livelihoods Program are expected to contribute to the FTF nutrition objective and are part of the NSEM’s plan to strengthen and scale-up CBNP.

Interestingly, recent evaluative evidence suggests access to microfinance may contribute more to maintaining basic food security and nutrition than raising incomes due to its consumption-smoothing effects and the flexibility it offers in dealing with unexpected health emergencies.58 Research also suggests that integrating microfinance with nonfinancial services, such as education on improved feeding and consumption practices, as is planned in the Integrated Improved Livelihoods Program, offers great potential to address the multiple needs of the poor in a more efficient manner.

It is important to note that achieving the FTF nutrition objective in Rwanda will require investments beyond those which can be integrated into investments in priority value chains. Illustrative activities and expected results in each of these areas are as follows:

  • Strengthen and scale-up CBNP to prevent and manage malnutrition in children under five, with particular focus on those under two, and in pregnant and lactating mothers: The NSEM anticipates that all villages nation-wide will have begun implementation of CBNP during the first year of the strategy. FTF assistance will help prevent and improve the management of moderate malnutrition at the community level through growth monitoring, individual and group nutrition counseling, the promotion of kitchen gardens, modeling a local tradition in which caregivers kept special food aside for infants and young children to feed themselves whenever hungry, and promoting behaviors practiced by mothers or caretakers of well-nourished children at the community level.
  • Elimination of micronutrient deficiencies: FTF assistance will support the development of sound legislation and policy on fortification, including point-of-use fortification and the possible introduction of available products, such as “sprinkles.” Support may also be provided for the purchase of seeds to grow vitamin- and mineral-rich fruits and vegetables in kitchen gardens. As local markets develop and consumption expands to include food beyond that which is produced at home, FTF assistance may support the development of a local food fortification industry, specifically targeting maize flour and dairy products. Such efforts will contribute to the NSEM’s targets of reaching all children under five with micronutrient supplements and half of all children under two with fortified food complements.
  • Multi-sectoral District Plans to Eliminate Malnutrition: FTF assistance will strengthen GOR capacity at the district level to undertake analysis for, formulate, and execute multi-sectoral nutrition plans. All districts will have draft plans completed in 2011.
  • Behavior Change Communications (BCC): The NSEM expects all districts to incorporate BCC in their multi-sectoral plans to eliminate malnutrition and all villages nation-wide to receive behavior change messages. FTF assistance will therefore assist the GOR with the formulation of standardized BCC nutrition messages and associated communication tools and training materials (e.g., counseling cards, pamphlets, suggested interpersonal messages, and public speeches for local leaders) with the aim of triggering voluntary changes in dietary behavior and practices that improve nutrition. A survey that can inform the prioritization and design of interventions, as well as an M&E plan, may be undertaken through community health and agriculture extension workers.
Target population size : 
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.
Coverage level (%): 
.
Outcome indicator(s): 
  • Health and social welfare promoted
  • Health service delivery improved
M&E system: 

FTF assistance will support improvements in the quality of routine reporting to monitor mild, moderate, and acute malnutrition among young children and pregnant and lactating women. For example, the Ministry of Health has introduced a system for providing community health workers with health and nutrition information and promptly reporting cases of malnutrition via mobile phone.

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: 
Vulnerable groups
Sex

Revision log

DateUserLogState
Thu, 10/08/2015 - 11:37ginaContribEdited by engesveenk. Changed "Nationwide" to "Rwanda" for geocoding (otherwise the action showed up in the US)published