ISSUE 7 PURCHASE FOR PROGRESS JULY UPDATE ISSUE 46 JULY 2012 HIGHLIGHTS OF THE MONTH Two convenings organised by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) during July stimulated increased interaction between BMGF grantees and made good progress in improving productive collaboration at the country level and understanding the range of monitoring, learning, and evaluation activities underway across the grants. The Structured Demand Convening in Seattle from 10-12 July brought together the Alliance for the Green Revolution (AGRA), United Nations Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Partnership for Child Development (PCD), SNV and WFP (Centre of Excellence, School Feeding and P4P) - working from different perspectives on issues related to structured demand. The WFP delegation included P4P Country Coordinators from Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Mali, Rwanda, and Tanzania. The following week, P4P Zambia participated in BMGF’s Agriculture Development’s Measurement Learning and Evaluation (MLE) community of practice meeting in Arusha, Tanzania for major grantees working in east Africa. This included AGRA, the Ethiopia Agricultural Transformation Agency ATA, East Africa Diary Development (EADD) and P4P. Key areas discussed related to the most effective methods and tools to be used in M&E, the most cost effective way of doing M&E, how to plan and conduct for meaningful impact evaluation and effective ways of building a learning culture in an organization. P4P Burkina Faso organized an exchange visit to P4P Rwanda from 10 to 15 June 2012 for 7 Senior Government officials, four WFP staff, two partners and three farmer organisation representatives. The purpose of the visit was to learn from Rwanda’s P4P experience. (see page 4) Under the South-South knowledge-sharing, the Government of Brazil (CGFome and MDS), WFP Centre of Excellence and FAO Brazil organized the Purchase from Africans for Africa (PAA) Programme Inception Workshop that took place in Brasília and Alagoas State (Northeastern region). The event brought together officials from Ethiopia, Niger, Mozambique, and Senegal, Brazilian consultants and representatives of FAO and WFP country offices (including P4P) to discuss potential ways forward for the implementation of the Programme. Country cases on existing local food purchase initiatives were presented, followed by working group sessions in order to promote debate between stakeholders involved in country initiatives and international consultants, during these sessions participants discussed the opportunities to implement the PAA Africa pilot projects and to support scale-up strategies. PAA Africa draws on the expertise accumulated by Brazil from its own food purchasing programme. Supported by FAO and WFP the project extends financing for food purchases to be linked to home-grown school feeding projects, aiming to benefit smallholder farmers and vulnerable populations. P4P El Salvador arranged for 5 farmer organizations (IZALCALU, GARUCHOS, ACOPASAM, ACALESE and the TABUDOS) to participate in a study tour to Costa Rica, in coordination with IICA, where they visited 3 cooperatives producing and marketing basic grains and exchanged experiences. New Containerised High-Energy Biscuit Factory en-route to Afghanistan. WFP’s food technologists from Kabul and Rome and representatives of a Jalalabad-based Afghan supplier of High-Energy Biscuits for WFP’s school feeding programme spent several days in Verona, visiting an Italian engineering company. V-Bake was tasked by WFP to build a self-standing and mobile biscuit factory, to comprise as few shipping containers as possible and have the maximum capacity to produce biscuits. Together with the machine technicians, the delegation examined every step of the production process, from tasting the dough to the steadiness of the packing process to ensure quality specifications were met (see page 3). On the operational front, a major milestone has been reached by P4P Ethiopia, with the signing of multiple Forward Delivery Contracts (FDC) for the purchase of 28,200 tonnes of maize from 16 Cooperative Unions (CUs). A group of partners in the Ethiopian maize sector have agreed to implement an integrated approach that links maize producing smallholder farmers with secure markets and are supporting the 16 P4P targeted CUs to increase their production and deliver food to WFP. WFP serves as the client, providing forward delivery contracts to the CUs. Partners such as ACDI/VOCI, ATA, TechnoServe, Sasakawa Afrika Association and the Center for Development Initiatives (CDI) will extend the required capacity building activities to enable the unions execute their contracts successfully. Food deliveries are expected from February to May 2013 depending on the quantity awarded. 21 P4P pilot countries Asia: Afghanistan, Laos Africa: DRC, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Burkina Faso, Liberia, Mali, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia Central America: El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua
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PURCHASE FOR PROGRESS JULY UPDATE · The creation of a mobile miniature biscuit factory has been developed under WFP’s Purchase for Progress (P4P) initiative, which in Afghanistan
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ISSUE 7
PURCHASE FOR PROGRESS
JULY UPDATE
ISSUE 46
JULY 2012
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE MONTH
Two convenings organised by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) during July stimulated increased
interaction between BMGF grantees and made good progress in improving productive collaboration at the country level
and understanding the range of monitoring, learning, and evaluation activities underway across the grants.
The Structured Demand Convening in Seattle from 10-12 July brought together the Alliance
for the Green Revolution (AGRA), United Nations Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Partnership for
Child Development (PCD), SNV and WFP (Centre of Excellence, School Feeding and P4P) - working from
different perspectives on issues related to structured demand. The WFP delegation included P4P Country
Coordinators from Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Mali, Rwanda, and Tanzania.
The following week, P4P Zambia participated in BMGF’s Agriculture Development’s Measurement
Learning and Evaluation (MLE) community of practice meeting in Arusha, Tanzania for major
grantees working in east Africa. This included AGRA, the Ethiopia Agricultural Transformation Agency
ATA, East Africa Diary Development (EADD) and P4P. Key areas discussed related to the most effective
methods and tools to be used in M&E, the most cost effective way of doing M&E, how to plan and conduct
for meaningful impact evaluation and effective ways of building a learning culture in an organization.
P4P Burkina Faso organized an exchange visit to P4P Rwanda from 10 to 15 June 2012 for 7 Senior
Government officials, four WFP staff, two partners and three farmer organisation representatives. The purpose of the
visit was to learn from Rwanda’s P4P experience. (see page 4)
Under the South-South knowledge-sharing, the Government of Brazil (CGFome and MDS), WFP Centre of Excellence
and FAO Brazil organized the Purchase from Africans for Africa (PAA) Programme Inception Workshop
that took place in Brasília and Alagoas State (Northeastern region). The event brought together officials from Ethiopia,
Niger, Mozambique, and Senegal, Brazilian consultants and representatives of FAO and WFP country offices (including
P4P) to discuss potential ways forward for the implementation of the Programme. Country cases on existing local food
purchase initiatives were presented, followed by working group sessions in order to promote debate between
stakeholders involved in country initiatives and international consultants, during these sessions participants discussed
the opportunities to implement the PAA Africa pilot projects and to support scale-up strategies. PAA Africa draws on
the expertise accumulated by Brazil from its own food purchasing programme. Supported by FAO and WFP the project
extends financing for food purchases to be linked to home-grown school feeding projects, aiming to benefit smallholder
farmers and vulnerable populations.
P4P El Salvador arranged for 5 farmer organizations (IZALCALU, GARUCHOS, ACOPASAM, ACALESE and the
TABUDOS) to participate in a study tour to Costa Rica, in coordination with IICA, where they visited 3 cooperatives
producing and marketing basic grains and exchanged experiences.
New Containerised High-Energy Biscuit Factory en-route to Afghanistan. WFP’s food technologists from
Kabul and Rome and representatives of a Jalalabad-based Afghan supplier of High-Energy Biscuits for WFP’s school
feeding programme spent several days in Verona, visiting an Italian engineering company. V-Bake was tasked by WFP to
build a self-standing and mobile biscuit factory, to comprise as few shipping containers as possible and have the
maximum capacity to produce biscuits. Together with the machine technicians, the delegation examined every step of
the production process, from tasting the dough to the steadiness of the packing process to ensure quality specifications
were met (see page 3).
On the operational front, a major milestone has been reached by P4P Ethiopia, with the signing of multiple Forward
Delivery Contracts (FDC) for the purchase of 28,200 tonnes of maize from 16 Cooperative Unions (CUs). A group
of partners in the Ethiopian maize sector have agreed to implement an integrated approach that links maize producing
smallholder farmers with secure markets and are supporting the 16 P4P targeted CUs to increase their production and
deliver food to WFP. WFP serves as the client, providing forward delivery contracts to the CUs. Partners such as
ACDI/VOCI, ATA, TechnoServe, Sasakawa Afrika Association and the Center for Development Initiatives (CDI) will
extend the required capacity building activities to enable the unions execute their contracts successfully. Food deliveries
are expected from February to May 2013 depending on the quantity awarded.
Afghanistan — mobile factories on their way From the outside they look like seven ordinary white shipping containers, the ones WFP uses to transport food consignments, trucks or satellite gear. But step inside, and you discover a miniature biscuit factory that can be taken apart. The containers will be shipped to Afghanistan, and then reassembled to produce high energy biscuits for Afghan school children. It is already steamy at the industrial park near the Italian city of Verona and the temperature is set to rise further. It’s final testing time for one of WFP’s latest innovations, a mobile “factory in a box” that will soon be producing the High Energy Biscuits used in school feeding and other programmes. Aimed at processing various basic humanitarian commodities like High Energy Biscuits directly in the countries where they will be distributed, using locally available resources, they promote local development and capacity building.
The factory’s generator is humming, providing the independent power for the machines mixing the nutritious biscuit dough before it is cut into perfect round discs for baking. Just three short steps from the mixing machines, you are already at the ovens in the central container, where a sophisticated air circulation system keeps the temperatures bearable. WFP’s food technologists and the machine technicians examine every step, from tasting the dough to the steadiness of the packing process, along with the representatives of the Afghan company that will run the factory in Jalalabad. Biscuits in the first batch vary from pale yellow to gold in colour. “We need some tweaks to ensure the temperature throughout that oven is equal,” notes Henri Chouvel, WFP’s Kabul-based P4P food technologist. A few steps further down, at the packaging line, another team assesses how fast they can run the machine without damaging the biscuits which are fortified with micronutrients vital for children’s growth.
The creation of a mobile miniature biscuit factory has been developed under WFP’s Purchase for Progress (P4P) initiative, which in Afghanistan is focused on bolstering the food processing industry to provide secure markets for farmers. P4P in Afghanistan is funded by Canada, which also supports the implementation of P4P in Ghana and Guatemala. So far, WFP has been able to buy over 900 tons of locally produced high energy biscuits from Afghani manufacturers that receive support through P4P. V-Bake, an Italian engineering company, was tasked with making the plans a reality; the factory had to be free-standing and mobile, to comprise as few shipping containers as possible and have the maximum capacity to produce biscuits. “The biggest challenge was the dimensions. We normally create machinery for big industrial plants with heaps of space. Here we had to shrink everything and make it fit into seven containers each measuring 6 x 2.5 metres,” explains V-Bake director Paolo Andreis. It also has to take into account Afghanistan’s climate, intense summer heat and sub zero winters. Under the agreement, which is part grant, part credit, the Afghan partner company will have a secure market selling High Energy Biscuits to WFP. “We will start with just one shift, employing around 25 local men and women, and once that is working well, we will double it,” says Haider Baig from the Omar Farooq Group. “We are very excited because we get to sell products to WFP to help Afghan children, but we can also sell to other clients and in the process we pay back the investment.” In 2013, WFP plans to distribute 8,700 tons of High Energy Biscuits in the school meals programme in Afghanistan, representing a total value of roughly US$ 12 million. Over 900 schools have been targeted, with almost half a million school girls and boys receiving High Energy Biscuits. WFP plans to buy at least 95% of the biscuits required locally from three factories in Herat and Kabul (learn more about P4P purchases from the-se factories here: http://www.wfp.org/purchase-progress/blog/afghanistan-first-purchase-under-p4p) and from two containerized factories in Jalalabad and Fayzabad. A containerized factory will be able to provide 1 ,400 tons o f H igh Energy B i scu i t s per yea r . Tahir Aslam, a consultant for the Omar Farooq Group, is enthusiastic about having high quality machinery. “We already produce cake, but learning from this will also help our other production processes.” The company will be using many local ingredients, thereby boost farmers’ incomes as well. In the next few weeks the factory will be dismantled and each of the seven containers will be transported to Jalalabad to be reassembled. Options include an adventurous road and rail journey from Italy to Iran and Uzbekistan into Afghanistan, or a sea voyage to Pakistan’s main port and then by road up and across the Afghan border.
“Common P4P” is a joint programme between P4P and the government of Rwanda to support the governments effort in reducing post-harvest losses, strengthen its agricultural sector and develop smallholder friendly public procurement systems for the new Rwanda Strategic Grain Reserve. It builds on the experience WFP gained by piloting P4P and aims to extend the programme to cooperatives nationwide.