USAID ORORA WIHAZE: Raising awareness on the benefits of Animal Sourced Foods
BACKGROUND
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) awarded the 5-year Feed the Future Orora Wihaze (Raise Animal for Self-Sufficiency) Activity in October 2019 to develop an inclusive, profitable market to sustainably increase the availability of, access to, and consumption of animal-sourced foods (ASF) in Rwanda. Land O’Lakes Venture37 and its consortium members, Catholic Relief Services, Market Share Associates, the Manoff Group, and Urunana DC, in partnership with Rwanda livestock industry leaders, use a market systems development (MSD) approach to achieving this goal by both transforming the chicken, fish, pig, sheep, and goat value chains while simultaneously cultivating local demand for ASF, focusing particularly on increasing consumption of ASF among women of reproductive age and children from 6- 23 months of age.
The Feed the Future Rwanda Orora Wihaze Activity (Orora Wihaze) was conceived by USAID to sustainably increase the availability of, access to, and consumption of animal-sourced foods. Under the leadership of Land O’Lakes Venture37, Orora Wihaze will focus on its two objectives: 1) strengthen inclusive private-sector-led ASF value chains, specifically goats and sheep, fish, pigs, and chicken, and 2) increase the demand (desirability) for and consumption of ASF by women and children. Project activities will be concentrated in eight districts – Burera, Gakenke, Nyamagabe, Nyamasheke, Rutsiro, Ngororero, Kayonza, and Ngoma – with a focus on households that produce ASF and consumer households. Orora Wihaze will purposefully engage households led by women, youth, and persons with disabilities (PWD).
Orora Wihaze uses the MSD approach by partnering and working with existing ASF market actors to implement innovative ideas and improve the availability of, accessibility to, and desire to consume ASF for men, women, and children in Rwanda. Critical to the success of the MSD is a robust Social and Behavior Change (SBC) element that supports the Activity’s focus on changing production and consumption behaviors around small ruminants (goats and sheep), pigs, fish, and chickens of both producer and non-producer households in Rutsiro, Ngororero, Nyamasheke Districts in the West Province, Gakenke and Burera Districts in the North Province, Nyamagabe in the South Province, and Kayonza and Ngoma Districts in the East Province of Rwanda.
The Rwanda Orora Wihaze SBC element cross-cuts the Activity enabling the prioritized behaviors of both market actors and consumers by meeting their needs for change and ensuring that the project uses the best human-centered design techniques. To support all Orora Wihaze behavior outcomes the SBC team will establish relevant local partnerships from diverse sectors including the for-profit private sector, governmental agencies, CSOs, and other NGOs that form the “nutrition extension networks” of Rwanda. In this regard, Urunana DC is one of the ROW consortium members that will contribute to ROW SBC strategic and implementation efforts through communication intervention, principal among them, radio programming. Urunana DC support will extend from 2020 – 2024, with specific work programs being developed each year to meet the needs of the ROW Activity.
OBJECTIVES
The purpose of this partnership is to bring to the ROW Activity a successful communication provider to support SBC’s strategic directions principally through radio programming. It is anticipated that Urunana DC SBC programming will focus primarily on boosting ASF demand and consumption among families within the ROW districts. ROW and Urunana DC partnership will move towards achieving the following specific objectives:
- Promoting social change themes, i.e. those attitudes that are critical to achieving the prioritized ROW behaviors towards improving the consumption of ASFs thus realizing improved nutrition in Rwandan households
- Contributing to the effective coordination and diversification of community-based channels for a wider reach of ASF-related messaging amongst targeted beneficiaries.
Why the focus on ASF
Boosting the consumption of ASF is a critical element to support Rwanda’s development goals. The consumption of animal-sourced foods plays an important role in a healthy diet, particularly among the segments of the population experiencing rapid physical and mental development such as young children and women during pregnancy. ASF are nutrient-dense foods that when consumed in small amounts provide quality protein (amino acids), vitamins, and minerals, all nutrients critical for growth and development. Evidence supports that ASF contributes to improving the linear growth of children, a marker not only of physical growth but of general cognitive and social development. A review of data from Demographic and Health Surveys in 49 countries showed that eating more than one type of ASF was associated with a 2.3% reduction in stunting (Headey et al 2018). Thus, improving the daily consumption of ASF in families’ diets is important to human capital development and Rwanda’s vision. FAO Global Consumption Data places Rwandans as some of the lowest per capita consumers of protein, primarily due to low consumption of ASF; this is especially true when compared to countries with similar economic profiles. Consumption of ASF varies widely depending on household income, although overall only 21% of Rwandan households consume heme-rich iron foods (ASF) even once a week. In households with poor or borderline consumption scores (24% of the population), 3% of families consumed food that is a source of heme iron once a week. In 2018, an analysis of women’s diets in the previous 24 hours showed that 17% had consumed a flesh food, 13% milk or a dairy product, and 2% eggs. Children’s diets mirror women’s diets. There is an important dietary gap that even small amounts of ASF can fill.