Enhancing milk quality and consumption for improved income and nutrition in Rwanda Project inception workshop report

Transcription

1 Enhancing milk quality and consumption for improved income and nutrition in Rwanda Project inception workshop report Compiled by Emily Ouma and Brian Kawuma

2 Introduction The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) together with its collaborators RTI International, University of Rwanda and TechnoServe convened an inception workshop on 7th March 2017 at Galaxy hotel in Kigali for the new Feed the Future-funded Livestock Systems Innovation Lab project, Enhancing milk quality and consumption for improved income and nutrition in Rwanda. The project addresses three objectives: To evaluate the impact of a nutrition education intervention on Animal Source Foods (ASF) consumption and nutrition outcomes among children months of age and pregnant and lactating women To assess and enhance performance and capacity of dairy cooperatives to improve market access for smallholder milk producers To evaluate the costs and benefits to value chain agents of supplying milk that meets the Seal of Quality (SOQ) standards The project is expected to run for 3 years and draws upon the work and lessons of a previous Government of Rwanda (GoR) program- the One Cow per Poor Family (Girinka), and recently ended USAID Feed the Future funded program, Rwanda Dairy Competitiveness Program (RDCP II) to achieve the project s specific objectives. Objectives of the workshop and approach The objectives of the workshop were to: Share information about the project with stakeholders for buy-in and support Obtain feedback from participants on project relevance for Rwanda Identify opportunities for synergy with previous and ongoing efforts (content focus and sites) Agree on criteria for project site selection The workshop was attended by 31 participants representing the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI). Rwanda Agricultural Board (RAB), University of Rwanda, IFAD, CRS, Society for Family Health (SFH), former RDCPII staff, Heifer International, Agri-TAF-MINAGRI, Rwanda National Dairy Platform (RNDP), Rwanda Biomedical Center, among others (see list of participants in Annex 1). The approach was participatory and involved presentation of the project by the project team to stakeholders followed by plenary discussions. In addition, partners were invited to give presentations on complementary projects in order to identity synergies. Refer to the workshop program in Annex 2.

3 Synthesis of proceedings Opening remarks Participants were warmly welcomed to Kigali by Ms Verena Ruzibuka the agriculture and food security specialist at the USAID Rwanda mission office. She was glad that Rwanda was selected as one of the Livestock Systems Innovation Lab countries. She highlighted the importance that livestock play in eliminating malnutrition in children and creation of employment. The livestock sector is crucial in the efforts of the Government of Rwanda to achieve Vision Despite its importance, the sector is faced with several challenges, some of which the project will address. The workshop was officially opened by Theogene Rutagwenda, the Director General of MINAGRI. He thanked USAID for having made the project possible and indicated the long collaboration that MINAGRI has had with LSIL, and the efforts made to establish the Rwanda national innovation platform that has since borne fruit. He prefaced his opening speech saying we take livestock and particularly dairying as an important sector especially in the fight against malnutrition. He indicated that the sector had been affected by the genocide and cattle numbers declined considerably. The situation is different now, with a significant rise in cattle numbers and milk production through several government and nongovernment organisations programs, such as the One cow per poor family program. In addition, milk collection centers have been built with more than 100 of them run by cooperatives. However, levels of malnutrition still remain high despite an increase in milk production and a rise in cattle numbers. Mekuriaw Zeleke, the East Africa regional coordinator for the Livestock Systems Innovation Lab then gave a brief overview of the LSIL and the different types of grants. He summarised the focus of the 1 reach grant and 2 focus grant projects funded for Rwanda. Introduction of the project Enhancing milk quality and consumption for improved income and nutrition in Rwanda The project principal investigator (PI) Emily Ouma introduced the project pointing out some of the challenges and constraints that still exist in the dairy value chain despite several efforts (Annex 3). These include: Low production of high quality milk achieving competitiveness in milk market channels governance of dairy cooperatives and low value proposition to members lack of an evidence base linking dairy value chain interventions to nutrition outcomes She then invited each of the project team members to present the different components of the project. Valerie Flax, the project co-pi from RTI International presented the approach to be used for the evaluation of the impact of a nutrition education intervention on ASF consumption and nutrition outcomes among children aged months and pregnant and lactating women. A cluster randomized control trial with 3 arms (a) beneficiary households of Girinka, (b) non-beneficiaries of Girinka but in the same vulnerability category as

4 beneficiaries (c) beneficiaries of Girinka obtaining nutrition education) will be used for the evaluation of the nutrition education intervention. The nutrition outcomes of focus include dietary diversity, ASF consumption, and minimum acceptable dietary intake, among others. Julie Kariuki from TechnoServe, presented the approach to be used to assess and enhance performance and capacity of dairy cooperatives to improve market access for smallholder milk producers. She indicated the application of POSA (ILRI/TechnoServe) and AgroPro (Land O Lakes) tools to evaluate the performance and sustainability of cooperatives based on different dimensions including: engagement with output market financial health effective and transparent leadership and management member loyalty access to production inputs and services Olivier Kamana from the University of Rwanda presented the approach for the evaluation of the costs and benefits to value chain agents of supplying milk that meets the Seal of Quality (SOQ) standards as below: in order to determine the feasibility of SOQ technologies/practices for milk producers, processors and retailers, capital budgeting methods such as benefit-cost ratios and NPV will be applied. ex ante determination of the distribution of costs and benefits of SOQ along the chain will be done using system dynamics modeling in order to assess the effect of Rwanda s seal of quality certification scheme on the cost structure of smallholder dairy farms, econometric estimation of total cost and factor cost share equations will be done. demand for safe milk - health risk reduction and willingness to pay for Rwanda s seal of quality certification will be done by analyzing reduction in health risks from consumption of SOQ certified milk and assessing consumer WTP for SOQ certification The participants had a chance to reflect on the project and raise questions. Several questions were raised around: the site selection and whether the 3 project objectives were integrated such that all would be tested in the same sites consideration of attribution and heterogeneity of communities in the RCT design monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of the project whether the project was also taking into consideration quality of feeds and zoonosis.

5 Presentation of complementary projects Several partners gave presentations on the complementary dairy and nutrition projects as follows: Overview of the One cow per family & One cup of milk per child Programs Fabrice Ndayisenga from RAB Rwanda Dairy Competitiveness Program II (RDCP II) Dennis Karamuzi, from RDCPII Gikuriro program Integrated Nutrition and WASH activity Alemayehu Gebremariam from Catholic Relief Services (CRS) Rwanda Dairy Development Project (RDDP) Aimable Ntukanyagwe from IFAD Dairy Hub model approach Charles Kayumba from Heifer International The presentations were centred on the project content and some of the challenges and learnings that should be taken into consideration by the new project. Some of these included: collaboration with local government alignment with Government of Rwanda programs Site selection The preliminary criteria considered by the project for selection of project sites was presented by Edgar Twine of ILRI. This included: districts with high levels of child malnutrition (for project objective 1) milk production levels per district (project objective 1) former RDCPII districts (for project objectives 2 and 3) The participants had a chance to reflect on this and provide additional criteria that should be taken into consideration. Additional criteria raised by participants included: food security status poverty levels location of milk collection centres The participants pointed out resources that may be useful in obtaining the site selection data.

6 Annexes Annex 1: List of participants

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8 Annex 2: Workshop program FEED THE FUTURE INNOVATION LAB FOR LIVESTOCK SYSTEMS Reach project inception workshop: Enhancing milk quality and consumption for improved income and nutrition in Rwanda Galaxy Hotel, Kigali 7 th March, 2017 Time Activity Facilitator 08:30 09:00 Opening remarks and welcome USAID representative LSIL East Africa regional coordinator MINAGRI/RAB 09:00 09:20 Introductions and ice breaker Angelique Tuyisenge, TechnoServe 09:20 09:30 Objectives of the workshop Emily Ouma (ILRI) 09:30 10:10 Presentation of the LSIL project: Enhancing milk quality and consumption for improved income and nutrition in Rwanda Emily Ouma (ILRI) Valerie Flax (RTI International) Julie Kariuki (TechnoServe) Olivier Kamana (UR) 10:10 10:30 Q&A Moderator: Mekuriaw Zeleke 10: 30 10:40 Group photo 10:30 11:00 Coffee/Tea Break 11:00 12:30 Complementary projects/initiatives including sites - RDCP II (15 min) Dennis Karamuzi - Girinka program (15 mins) Pascal Nyabinwa - One cup per child (15 min) Christine Kanyandekwe - IFAD Dairy project (15 min) Aimable Ntukanyagwe - INWA - CRS (15min) - Alemayehu Gebremariam - Dairy Hub project (Heifer) (15 min) Charles Kayumba Moderator: Olivier Kamana (10 minutes for each presentation, and 5 minutes Q&A) 12:30 14:00 Lunch break 14:00 14:20 Preliminary project site selection criteria Edgar Twine 14:20 15:00 Group work: Other criteria for site selection Moderator: Julie Kariuki 15:00 15:30 Mapping exercise complementary projects geographical Moderator: Emily Ouma coverage 15:30 15:40 Project site selection wrap up Edgar Twine 15:40 15:50 Wrap up Valerie Flax 17: 50 16:00 Closing remarks MINAGRI/RAB

9 Annex 3: Project presentation

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