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Initiative to End Hunger in Africa
The Initiative to End Hunger in Africa (IEHA), announced by President Bush in August 2002, seeks to reduce hunger in Africa by half by 2015, in keeping with the UN Development Goals of the Millennium Declaration. IEHA's key principles include building regional dynamism, synergies, and spillovers; building alliances and broad-based political and financial commitment among public and private development partners in Africa and elsewhere; and focusing investments on core activities designed to eliminate hunger in Africa. IEHA's investments are concentrated in 1) science and technology, 2) agricultural trade and marketing systems, 3) human and institutional capacity, 4) producer organizations, 5) protecting the vulnerable, and 6) environmental management. In FY 2004, IEHA supported efforts in six countries and from three regional platforms. With the FY 2004 expansion of the program to three additional countries, IEHA's reach was extended to cover Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, Uganda, and Zambia, as well as the three regional missions that support multicountry efforts in east, west, and southern Africa.
- 116,353 men and 98,422 women (more than twice the number targeted) have received training over a broad range of topics, including biosafety, market analyses and development, record keeping, crop quality control, postharvest handling, product grading, and aggregation of commodities.
- 157 public and private partnerships have been formed, facilitating improved access to knowledge, markets, and better technologies for member organizations, as well as improved consultation needed to improve strategic planning and management.
- 231,701 vulnerable households (three times the number targeted) have benefited from IEHA-funded interventions including households of HIV/AIDS sufferers and those affected by drought and conflict.
Interventions Help Farmers and Protect the Environment
In Mali, interventions in the Niger Upper Valley zone contributed to a near doubling in the production of onions, green beans, and sesame over the past four years. Part of this increase can be attributed to increased sales of treadle pumps to smallholders. USAID support has also established 220 gardens, benefiting approximately 9,000 producers, of whom 82 percent are women. In addition, the number of farmers in the Niger Upper Valley zone adopting improved natural resource management practices has expanded, leading to higher agricultural production and protection of the natural resource base. Enterprise Works Worldwide's (EWW) program to increase the use of efficient, wood-burning stoves expanded in 2002 and 2003 by 14,000 units. EWW estimates that the sale of 73,500 stoves during the life of the project has saved 24,000 hectares of forest and reduced carbon dioxide emissions.
- Where a USAID mission already has an integrated strategy that contributes to IEHA goals and objectives, implementation can quickly begin and performance results are more easily measured. For others, preparing action plans, establishing IEHA activities that complement mission priorities, and developing partnerships take time and considerably slow progress toward IEHA goals.
- Due to the long-term nature of biotechnology research, impacts are not measurable in annual increments.
- It is critically important to focus on building the capacity of regional institutions because these partnerships are essential to the sustainability of the initiative as well as to program buy-in and ownership.
- It is essential to maintain a realistic sense of the existing capacity of local associations, including what they can accomplish in the short term. It is important to realize that it may be some time before local institutions develop the capacity to function as businesses.
Note: Results for this initiative were reported through USAID's consolidated reporting system
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