The East Africa regional mission of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID/East Africa) recently awarded the ACDI/VOCA Support for Food Security Activities (SFSA) team a $3.16 million contract to strengthen the technical capacity and operational systems of first-time USAID awardees in East Africa. Through USAID/East Africa’s African Institutions Innovation Mechanism-Assist (AIIM- Assist), ACDI/VOCA will bolster the efforts of regional public, private and civil society actors to innovate, scale up successes and share learning to reduce poverty through agriculture.

 
Strengthening Organizations to Combat Cyclical Food Insecurity 

Every year, East Africa experiences widespread food insecurity, punctuated by periodic emergency-level food shortages triggered by conflict and drought. Average yields are low, but even when adequate food supplies are available in the region as a whole, inadequate market and transportation infrastructure, trade barriers and opaque information channels prevent the flow of food from surplus areas to deficit areas. To combat this cyclical food insecurity, the USAID/East Africa mission’s regional Feed the Future Strategy works to increase the access, availability, and utilization of African-grown staple foods in regionally integrated markets.

 The African Institutions Innovation Mechanism (AIIM) was established to engage regional partners in innovative programs that support this strategy. New partners will be brought on through a competitive process that is restricted to indigenous East African organizations. Through its support to these regional partners, AIIM-Assist will increase the impact of AIIM programs, strengthen institutions to take on greater leadership roles in regional agriculture and integration, and enable USAID/East Africa to move toward a key goal of USAID FORWARD: increasing the number of direct grants and contracts with African firms and organizations.

 Through AIIM-Assist, ACDI/VOCA will also provide technical support to USAID bilateral missions and regional partners to help break the cycle of food insecurity. It will support USAID/East Africa’s application of the USAID FORWARD reforms as a means to strengthen regionally integrated markets and increase the competitiveness of targeted food value chains. The specific objectives of AIIM-Assist are to:

·         Strengthen local capacity. ACDI/VOCA will nurture a new generation of diverse indigenous implementing partners by strengthening their technical capacity; operational, financial and management systems; and monitoring, learning and reporting mechanisms.

·         Deliver technical services. Through key personnel and specialized short-term consultants, AIIM-Assist will conduct assessments and studies, and provide targeted technical assistance to USAID missions and regional partners.

·         Provide management support. AIIM-Assist will provide efficient and tailored support to USAID missions as they fulfill their commitment to providing direct assistance to new regional partners, resulting in smaller, more numerous awards—many to first-time recipients of U.S. government funding.

“Empowering East African organizations and institutions to play leadership roles in advancing food security in the region is vital to ensuring long term, sustainable development, beyond donor funded projects” said Irene Karimi, Chief of Party for the AIIM-Assist project.

ACDI/VOCA AIIM-Assist Partners

ACDI/VOCA is partnering with several organizations to fulfill AIIM-Assist activities. Local partner, Act Change Transform (Act!) specializes in strengthening the organizational capacity of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and governments in East Africa. Act! will monitor and evaluate AIIM-Assist’s impact on behalf of USAID.

Media Contact:
Anja Tranovich, ACDI/VOCA
+1 202 469 6095, atranovich@acdivoca.org