Trip Report
Traveler: Paul B. Green, Marketing Consultant
Steve Wickes, Chair NAMA International Trade Committee (Uganda and Rome)
Dates: May 2-16
May 2-6 Nairobi, Kenya
May 7-11 Kampala, Uganda
May 14/15 Rome, Italy
Purpose: To consult with PVOs, USAID and WFP regarding NAMA’s products use in food aid programs in Uganda, the potential for use of blended foods in microenterprise food products in developing countries and the status of nutrition as a goal in WFP’s programs.
Summary
Nairobi-
- Mr. Green met several local NGOs as well as the normal PVOs whom we usually meet with in Africa. In preparation for the GBI seminar on protein-containing US foods products, NAMA has had an interest in researching a pilot project on small scale food production with microenterprise and micro credit partners using NAMA products as the ingredients. The idea would be to use these small-scale production facilities to test the hypothesis that high nutrition products from the US can generate some commercial sales of our products.
- NAMA has more confidence in its role in the GBI East Africa Seminars during the summer of 07. There is still a very large question whether NAMA’s goals of using blended foods as an ingredient in a microenterprise food initiative can reach fruition, but we have requested input from several local and US based NGOs to give the idea a full vetting. The input gathered will allow us to participate in the June seminars in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam and in Addis Ababa in September with a fuller sense of purpose.
- Kenya Family Charities, a cooperating NGO with CRS in Nairobi has projects for economic empowerment that sponsor micro projects and the Sisters were eager to experiment with NAMA products to see what type of foods could be prepared. I promised them that we would send them samples of products for their hospital kitchens to do experimental cooking tests prior to the June Seminars.
- CRS was encouraging but cautious on the possibility of microenterprise. They warned of the need for sustainability after the subsidized input and that the extra nutrition should be a clear benefit to the poor customers. They often buy lunch from kiosks in the slums, but they will not pay anything extra for nutrition. Mendazi, a fried dough product like a doughnut, but without the sweet coating is a possible product for WSB use. It is likely that a pushcart could be used, but a kiosk is possible.
FOLLOWUP: NAMA staff will send samples of CSB, soy fortified bulgur and WSB to Sisters at Kenya Family Charities
- AID’s regional office (REDSO) informed us that they would have very little development programming in the region, with the exception of Uganda as follow-up to the peace process. The only expansion they see is in the use of food in conjunction with PEPFAR HIV/AIDS programs, but that food is not likely to be from Title II and is more likely WFP or other locally procured food.
- Most of the Food for Progress projects in the region are monetizations, so NAMA prospects are slim.
- Our meeting with the GBI seminar organizer was productive. She was concerned about the format for the seminar, as she did not believe the private sector entities would return after lunch. We agreed to propose to the rest of the sponsors that the program go from an early start until a late (1:00 or 1:30) lunch, with a tea break at mid-morning. We suggested the inclusion of a presentation on micro credit should be encouraged. The contacts I was told about are:
FAULU (Lydia Karos, CEO Lydiak@faulukenya.com) , KADET (former World Vision sponsored) , K Rep in Kibera.
- Other topics of interest are SPS issues and possibly the WTO.
Kampala-
- Timing of this trip was very fortuitous as several US based PVOs are preparing to submit proposals for Title II MYAPs (Multi-year development programs) against the FFP deadline in January 2008. The USAID Food for Peace office is very supportive of projects to impact HIV/AIDS and nutrition. So most of those proposals will include a nutritional component and the designers will soon be deciding on the proposed rations and products that will be distributed to the recipients. In meetings with Catholic Relief Services, Food for the Hungry International, Save the Children and World Vision, we were able to engage their country directors or program leads in detailed discussions of NAMA’s products and what role our products could play in their MYAP plans. We also understand Mercy Corps and Medical Corps International may be considering a proposal, but we were not able to make contact. (Africare may also be submitting a proposal and NAMA staff will follow up with them to determine whether they will include a nutrition component or if it is primarily a monetization proposal.)
- Uganda is one of the Title II priority countries, so AID is expected to favor at least some of these programs for funding. Many of the proposed projects are being planned to take place in the Northern part of Uganda, taking advantage of expected repatriation of IDP’s (Internally Displaced Persons) who are expected to return from camps to their original homes, as peace talks restore stability to the conflict areas. WFP has been working in those areas, providing school lunch and other supplemental feeding programs to the IDPs in camps maintained by the UN. As the IDPs return to their homes, donors to WFP anticipate less need for daily rations and have reduced their donations. WFP has subsequently reduced rations to the recipients, while putting out more urgent appeals to the donors for more support. With some response by donors, they hope to return to normal rations by summer.
FOLLOWUP: Meetings will take place in Washington, DC with Save the Children, FHI and World Vision to determine plans for the MYAP deadline in January of 08 for both Uganda and other priority countries. If successful, approach other PVOs.
- This leads to the inevitable “competition” between development PVOs and WFP regarding service to the recipients. USAID bias in the past has been to award development programs to the PVOs for transitions from emergency to development and we can expect that to be the MO in this case, as well. Individual recipients will be tracked and “handed off” from WFP to the PVO’s distributions.
- The team was hosted and our schedule arranged by ACDI-VOCA’s Kampala office and we could not have had as productive a visit, without their invaluable assistance.
- We were able to visit a food distribution managed by Save the Children in Nakasangola province, North of Kampala about 2 hours. About 80 families were being given rations for a month in this site and the qualifications were that they were “vulnerable families”. The vast majority of those households are headed by orphans due to AIDS and receive a ration of lentils, vegoil and soy fortified corn meal. Additional rations of CSB are given to families with children under 5 who are undernourished. Each recipient is tracked monthly and ration cards are strictly tracked. At the site we observed, there was no HIV criteria for recipients. In total, there are 25 SAVE sites and distributions are made two per day for about two weeks per month. During the distribution, recipients are engaged in nutrition education and posters encourage balanced diets.
- Bags- Both poly and paper bags reused. Plys of paper for schoolwork. Poly for charcoal, produce etc. All product bags are slit open prior to leaving distribution site to prevent reselling.
We observed two types/sizes of CSB bags. One was 16X 4X33 and was navy blue in markings and the other was 16X4X36 and was lighter blue in ink. There were numerous other differences including the color of markings, the presence of the flag, the inkjetted contract number location and the AID logo. The warehouse managers were particularly concerned about the ability to stack the different sized bags. (see pictures)
Many bags had inkjetted dates, numbers etc. that were smudged or double-typed beyond recognition.
- Staging warehouse- secure and relatively clean, some damage to products but no major rebagging evident. SAVE’s soy fortified corn meal pipeline was suffering from a delay in shipments (probably due to the continuing resolution) but they were managing with ration adjustments and borrowing from other Cooperating Sponsors. Some soy fortified corn meal bags did not have BUBDs, but it was not clear whether that is an issue. With the inability to assure the final destination of much of our product, the most useful date to give warehousing managers information would be the month of manufacture. Many lots are mixed by the time they reach the field warehouses and it appears the only time the BUBDs are an issue is when there is a suspicion on the quality of individual bags.
- ACDI warehouse-
Extremely neat and well kept. David Hay Smith, AID’s regional expert on logistics and shipping says it’s the best food warehouse in East Africa. Rail siding, but deterioration of RR has lessened its usefulness. 4-8 week transit times from Mombasa make rail less attractive, although cheaper. Alot of CSB in warehouse that will be left over from the past DAP (Development Program) and will carryover to the newly funded MYAP.
14 tons of CSB was awaiting destruction after being hand separated from 120 tons of product that was rebagged and will be used for human consumption. This product was “lumpy” and darker yellow in color from other products. We were told the product came by container and was transshipped in the Middle East on a Maersk vessel and was delayed for some time. ACDI confirmed that recipients will not accept “clumpy or lumpy” products, as they fear it is past the BUBD. There was no damage reported to the bags, but the warehouse was suspicious due to the transit and exposure to heat over an extended period. Although the clumps break up in your hand, we were shown a lab test showing the product high in vitamin A and Iron. The lab, which David Hay Smith said was a high quality operation said the levels were high enough to prevent use as human food. Diversion to animal feed is not possible, due to fear that it will be redirected to humans.
We received a sample of the clumps and the certificate of analysis from the local lab. We understand that this was reported to the manufacturer.
- Sorghum Products-
Sorghum is a staple food in Northern Uganda, along with millet, corn and cassava. We received varying information on its method of use, including as grits and flour, stand alone and blended with other products to make bread. WFP is distributing whole sorghum, (24,000 MT last year) but we were told that much whole sorghum ends up in beer. Our experience reinforced earlier observations that some of NAMA’s products are not well known to Cooperating Sponsors. Many of the Cooperating Sponsors were interested in further dialogue and samples of soy fortified sorghum grits for consideration in their rations. We will provide those and provide samples to continue this engagement.
- CSB Comments-
PVOs like quality of CSB vs. local unimix. Specifically, the shelf life and bag quality. Kenyan Unimix higher quality and higher in price than Ugandan, but shelf life is still an issue. Local unimix is cheaper and quickly available, but quality monitoring is necessary. No lingering resentment or concern over green CSB evident. Issues most of concern to the PVOs are: bitter taste, caking and lumps, (locals used it for beer), coarseness and infestation. We were questioned how CSB could be infested, if bags were intact. These concerns are worthy of notice, but generally our product remains the most respected and useful malnutrition intervention.
- Locally produced unimix procured by UNICEF is mixed with sugar, but that further shortened shelf life.
- In our discussion with PVOs about Nutrition and HIV/AIDS, we were told of recent evidence regarding Mother-Child Transmission of the virus. The study showed that if the mother is HIV positive, she can breast feed for the first six months of the baby’s life, without passing on the virus. However, weaning must take place “cold turkey”, since the combination of outside food and mother’s milk makes the child susceptible to HIV. This indicates the need for a “creamy grain based food” that can completely substitute for mother’s milk at 6 months. It’s not a large demand, but it is a critical product for this use.
- Local Procurement-
WFP does a lot of local and regional procurement, including 170,000 MT of corn, smaller amounts of unimix, corn meal,
Their bias is to buy locally whenever possible to provide a market to local farmers. They buy primarily from traders under tenders and have a 10% goal for direct procurement from smallholder farmers. However, they only hit 7% last year and have to continually give waivers to let those farmers out of strict contract regulations. They compare prices of local products with import prices to assure they’re not overpaying. It is very concerning to many parties that WFP constitutes over 50% of the local corn market, particularly over what will happen to the market when WFP’s role is diminished.
- Aflatoxin in their corn purchases can be a very serious issue and they constantly have to monitor to assure that they don’t have a food safety crisis.
- The travelers brought samples of all eight products that NAMA produces for food aid in the spice bottle displays that we anticipate sending to our cooperating partners. Both the format and the products were well received, since many of our contacts were not familiar with all the products available. We are proceeding with that project and expect it to be a success.
- Djibouti Prepo-
The facility is likely to have first shipments next month. The managers have scaled back the number of products eligible for warehousing to avoid the spoilage issues, but we did not get a list of products eligible. Expect it to be full by the end of the summer with a maximum tonnage of 20-30,000 MT. Transit 2 weeks from Djibouti to Mombasa and 1 more week Mombasa to Kampala by truck.
Followup: NAMA to visit Djibouti in connection with the GBI project in Addis Ababa in October.
Rome-
- WFP GFEI (Global Food for Education Initiative) officials told us they are now making a distinction between school feeding in emergency settings and those in development contexts. They are feeding over 20 million beneficiaries in 71 countries and over half those activities are in emergency settings. In particular, they are seeking ready to eat foods such as nutri-biscuits for emergencies, so they will not have to invest in food preparation kitchens etc. for a hopefully temporary setting. They have already contracted with some local bakers to supply locally produced and packaged goods that can be distributed to schools. We discussed whether blended foods could be the source ingredient of such foods. WFP agreed that there should be a study of alternative ingredients to assure nutritional value of such school lunch foods.
FOLLOWUP: NAMA will consider whether we should look into using blended foods as ingredients in locally produced school lunch “biscuits” or other good products.
- We asked whether the World Bank report that school lunch was actually too late to help with children who are stunted under the age of 2 and are damaged beyond redemption. WFP said they have engaged the Bank and they all agree that school lunch is a good educational intervention, even though it can’t make up for nutritional deficiencies from early childhood. WFP does not claim that school lunch is primarily a nutritional intervention (not targeted enough or measurable) but is an educational attraction tool.
- We were shown recent publicity garnered by WFP’s television production facilities for famous chefs using CSB as an ingredient in upscale recipes. The idea is to provide awareness of hunger and the use of high nutrition foods to provide life-giving sustenance. WFP has contacted a group called Chefs for Humanity and we could use them for a fund-raising effort, if we have the interest.
FOLLOWUP: NAMA will determine if we want to support fundraising and attention-gathering efforts using blended food and upscale chefs.
- WFP’s gender and Maternal Child Health division have interest in the effort to reevaluate formulations for blended foods. SUSTAIN has been suggesting to them a milk based formulation for children from 6 months to 2 years that sounds like a CSM type formula. We cautioned that milk powder based products had several drawbacks:
-Inconsistency of supply
-Cost
-Possibility of criticism of infant formula substitution for breast-feeding.
We discussed the efforts to review formulations and agreed we’d revisit the discussion with SUSTAIN. These nutritionists were less enthusiastic about CSB as a generalized ration than the field office personnel, but it can be expected as they have very specific targets in mind and haven’t yet confronted the economic realities of trying to formulate different foods for each target group.
- The US Mission to the UN Food Agencies (Formerly known as FODAG) has newly assigned Ambassador, Mr. Gaddi Vasquesz the former head of the Peace Corps. Messrs. Wickes and Green met him in Kansas City at the IFAC and found him to be open to our arguments in favor of nutrition. Mr. Vasquesz was not in Rome during our visit, but we did meet with Rich Newberg and the new DCM at the Mission, Lee Brudvig.
- In their briefing, the Mission informed us that the emergency situation in Ethiopia looks better going forward, but Sudan/Darfur and Somalia will continue to take immense resources.
- The Mission reconfirmed their feeling that WFP’s expertise lies in speedy response to emergency food needs, rather than in development contexts. Their feeling is that chronic hunger is too complex a subject to be responded to simply with food and that other agencies (particularly PVOs) have the expertise to provide a more integrated approach to chronic food insecurity.
- We were informed that Secretary Johannes has interest in leading a food aid mission to Africa in the fall. We were encouraged to approach the USDA (FAS) with suggestions on how to approach the subject in a manner that would provide clarity on the relative merits of USDA and USAID programming.
FOLLOWUP: NAMA staff will approach FAS regarding this trip and suggest a briefing with the Secretary on the strengths of the USDA programs. NAMA should consider suggesting that a member join the Secretary’s delegation.
In previous meetings with FAO, we reported that they had offered to fill a role as a convener of information for the successor to the CSSD (Coordinating Subcommittee on Surplus Disposal) for food aid. They now tell us that the EU continues to block any plans for such a succession and it is not clear whether FAO will have any role to play post-WTO on food aid.
Prabhu Pinghali, Director of the Division of FAO responsible for their annual State of Food and Agriculture publication took full responsibility for what he agreed was an inaccurate press release during the unveiling of the FAO food aid publication. He apologized for the misperception created by the press release, as he had not read it prior to release. He agreed that the report itself was a balanced report that acknowledged the need for both cash and in-kind food aid.
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