Yes, you read correctly. But no, I did not get the what-I-imagine-would-be-fabulous opportunity to meet her myself. In May of this year, DAI won a USAID-funded contract to deliver the program, Integrating Nutrition into Value Chains, a three-year effort in Malawi with the goal to enhance food security and nutrition and reduce rural poverty through an agriculture-led, integrated economic growth and nutrition strategy. The INVC program is expected to:
1. Increase the competitiveness of select agricultural value chains, especially food staples, to mitigate food insecurity and increase incomes of the rural poor;
2. Facilitate improvements in productivity (land, water, labor), through soil and water management practices (taking long-term stress due to climate change into account);
3. Reduce chronic undernutrition;
4. Foster innovation and adaptive technologies and techniques that improve agricultural value chain competitiveness and nutritional outcomes, while increasing participation of the poor in agriculture-led growth; and
5. Develop the capacity of local organizations and systems to promote sustainability and climate change resilience.
In basic terms, the program is expected to increase the efficiency of the legumes and dairy sectors all the way from production (the field) to consumption (our mouths) with the aim of producing better quality produce, expanding employment along the value chains, and increasing incomes of the smallholder producers, 73% of who live below the $1.25 a day poverty line. The program will also promote a third value chain --- groundnut. Through the promotion of nutritious crop production and biofortification, the program also aims to improve household access to diverse and nutritious foods and nutrition-related behaviors that will reduce child-stunting and malnutrition in Central Malawi. On my second day on the job, this fascinating program was added to my technical management portfolio, and I look forward to heading to the program site in the near future. Malawi’s newest president, Joyce Banda, attended the program launch in early June, and last week, we had the pleasure of hosting Hillary Clinton at one of the program sites during her whirlwind 5-country tour in Sub-Saharan Africa. The full story is below, or click here to access it on the
DAI website.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week praised a community managed dairy enterprise in Malawi that is strengthening small farmers to increase their incomes and communities to live more nutritiously.
“For the past decade, the United States has been supporting Malawi’s dairy sector, including this center,” Clinton said during a stop at the Lumbadzi Milk Bulking Group. “And thanks to your work and the support we have given you, Malawi’s milk production has increased 500 percent. Thousands of farmers have benefited.”
The Lumbadzi center—supported by the Malawi Milk Producers Association (MMPA)—is being upgraded and strengthened further through the recently launched Feed the Future’s Integrating Nutrition in Value Chains (INVC) project, a three-year effort implemented by DAI and funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). As part of her visit, Clinton donated Emanuel, a purebred dairy bull to contribute to the community’s dairy cattle breeding program.
“These kinds of projects might not always get the kind of attention that they deserve, but they are making a difference in the lives of so many men and women and children here in Malawi,” Clinton said. “We can point to lives we have saved and changed, and in the long run, I am so proud of that, because that’s what matters.
“Government-to-government relations are, of course, very important, and historically, traditionally, that’s what we’ve worked on. But in the 21st century, it’s people-to-people relations. It is how we reach out and get to know somebody and build relationships and learn and then perhaps help if possible.”
The INVC project is led by DAI in partnership with Save the Children and Michigan State University. The team is taking a comprehensive, market-driven approach to support the dairy, groundnuts, and soya value chains and increase the competitiveness of related farms, firms, and industries. By integrating agricultural investments with nutritional programming, INVC is enhancing agricultural productivity, agro-enterprise profitability, and nutritional outcomes for 275,000 households over three years.
“We want to help agriculture in Malawi get even stronger, so that all the children will have better lives,” Clinton said. “And I particularly thank the women farmers for their hard work, and their families, their husbands, and their children for being part of this successful program.”
