ACDI/VOCA Responds to Global Food Crisis
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On May 5 ACDI/VOCA President Carl Leonard called for the formation of a Global Food Crisis Team and urged the company to “think boldly regarding how ACDI/VOCA might muster an enhanced response to the crisis.”
He said, “In a sense the food crisis is not new to ACDI/VOCA. Food shortages, high prices and inefficiency in the world food economy have been 45-year preoccupations. However, while our proficiency in agricultural development and food aid gives us uncomfortable insight into the crisis, it also may give us opportunities to help alleviate it.”
After delineating the factors causing the crisis and indicating how profound it is, Leonard acknowledged that many ACDI/VOCA projects are already effecting remedies, especially those that address the long-term challenge of increasing the food supply. But he pointed out that the quest for solutions should be companywide, since “all our projects stand to suffer as beneficiaries’ assets dwindle and they lose faith in an integrated global food economy.”
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ACDI/VOCA Conducts Value Chain Workshop in Ecuador
ACDI/VOCA’s Local Business Development Program—Programa de Desarrollo de Empresas Locales (PRODEL), as it is known locally—in collaboration with the Academy for Education Development organized and conducted a value chain workshop in Quito, March 26-28. This workshop, facilitated by Dr. Elizabeth Dunn of Impact LLC, brought together 35 PRODEL, USAID/Ecuador and Plan Ecuador (USAID’s Ecuadorian counterpart) staff along with private sector partners to discuss the value chain approach and its application to the project. The workshop was based on the value chain curriculum developed by ACDI/VOCA for USAID under the Accelerated Microenterprise Advancement Project—Business Development Services (AMAP BDS) project. Participants discussed key concepts, tools and guidelines for value chain development, including strategies for addressing bottlenecks, promoting private sector ownership of the competitiveness process and catalyzing improved performance.
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ACDI/VOCA Helps Create First Warehouse Receipt System in Kenya
 The Eastern African Grain Council (EAGC), in conjunction with ACDI/VOCA’s Kenya Maize Development Program (KMDP) and USAID’s Regional Agricultural Trade Expansion Support program (RATES), launched the first warehouse receipt program in East Africa at the Nakuru Wheat Silos on April 21. Over 100 guests and stakeholders attended the event. USAID/Kenya Mission Director Erna Kerst spoke at the event and reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to the maize sector through KMDP support to maize producers and farmers associations. Following her presentation, Kerst cut a ceremonial ribbon officially launching the pilot warehouse activity. The warehouse receipts program is an innovative public-private sector approach to boost the Kenyan grain sector and help farmers gain increased access to credit. Producers store their grain in warehouses and use the warehouse receipts as collateral for obtaining credit. A certified warehouse management firm keeps the maize secure so that farmers can sell later in the year when prices are likely to be higher, thereby increasing their incomes and protecting their harvest from rot and pests. More.
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Volunteers Recognized at VEGA Ceremony
Several ACDI/VOCA volunteers were honored as leading "citizen diplomats" April 30 at a ceremony and reception in the elegant rotunda of the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C. Retired food technologist Art Fischer, agricultural economics professor emeritus Jerry Nolte and food science and nutrition professor Poul Hansen were recognized during the fifth anniversary celebration of Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance (VEGA), a consortium of leading economic development organizations that use volunteer experts in program implementation. The event coincided with National Volunteer Week. Awards were presented to 22 individuals by USAID Acting Deputy Administrator James Kunder and VEGA Board Chairman Spencer King. More.
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ACDI/VOCA's Work Acknowledged in Washington Post
 A front-page article in the May 16 Washington Post on Rwanda's woman-led economic revival refers to coffee cooperatives "...organized with the help of international nonprofit organizations and aid agencies...." ACDI/VOCA is proud to have been a significant part of that effort, particularly in the Maraba district of Butare province that was highlighted in the article. Furthermore, in the context of today's food crisis, ACDI/VOCA's Rwanda programming is instructive in the way it has melded short-term food security with long-term economic development. ACDI/VOCA’s USAID-funded Title II food security program in Rwanda has operated since February 2000. It was designed to address local food needs, natural resource management, agricultural productivity and agribusiness development. In 2001, ACDI/VOCA volunteer David T. Walker developed a business plan for 2,000 beneficiaries in the Maraba area, based on local agronomic, social and economic realities, that targeted gourmet and specialty markets in the U.S. and Europe. He was greatly responsible for orienting USAID's subsequent development efforts around coffee, a crop that had languished for years but which Rwanda has the altitude and soil to produce at a high level. More.
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U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Visits SUCCESS Alliance
 U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Michael Michalak, U.S. Consulate Political Officer Katia Bennett and a delegation of Vietnamese provincial government officials visited ACDI/VOCA’s SUCCESS Alliance program in Vietnam’s Central Highlands on March 18. The Central Highlands of Vietnam has a high incidence of rural poverty and a large population of indigenous ethnic minorities. ACDI/VOCA’s SUCCESS Alliance program improves the economic well-being of smallholder cocoa farmers in the Central Highlands’ Dak Lak province through the development of a sustainable, economically and environmentally sound cocoa industry. The ambassador visited a cocoa club headed by a female farmer in Bong Krang commune. Bong Krang, one of the poorest communes, has a high percentage of indigenous minorities who make their living on short-cycle crops such as cassava and corn. Most of their soil has become depleted due to overcropping. In 2007, SUCCESS Alliance provided each farmer who joined the project 150 cocoa seedlings to begin growing cocoa. Ambassador Michalak was impressed with the enthusiasm and success of the cocoa club farmers, who received training from ACDI/VOCA along with the seedlings. Although the visit took place at the end of the dry season, the cocoa trees planted by the members were found to be in good condition. More.
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Four New Value Chain Briefing Papers Published
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ACDI/VOCA Participates in Iraq Conference
ACDI/VOCA HQ staff members Sally Iadarola and Daniel Wortman traveled to Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan, to attend the April 9-11 Iraqi Community Action Program (CAP) National Conference. Hugh Brown, Melinda Witter and Dr. Suzanne Saulniers of our field office also participated in the conference, along with 7 Iraqi staff members and 33 citizens from assisted communities, including 7 mayors. Over 200 participants in the 2-year CAP project from all regions of Iraq, including local government officials, community action group members, USAID officials and representatives of other partner implementing agencies, CHF, IRD and Mercy Corps, attended the conference at the Erbil International Hotel. Participants shared best practices in order to strengthen cooperation and improve project operation. The CAP project is distinguished by its organization and support of community groups to facilitate cross-community dialogue. The resulting collaboration helps build a stable and prosperous society. More.
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Kyrgyz Cochran Fellows Visit ACDI/VOCA  A group of seven Kyrgyz officials and cooperative leaders visited ACDI/VOCA on May 2 as part of a USDA Cochran Program study tour designed to expose them to U.S.-style cooperative development and agricultural marketing. Their tour of Minn., N.D. and Washington, D.C., was led by Dr. William C. Nelson of Mid-America Consultants International, an associate member of ACDI/VOCA based in Fargo, N.D. While in Minnesota the group visited CoBank, CHS and Land O’Lakes, also members of ACDI/VOCA. Represented in the Kyrgyz group were an agricultural economist from the ministry of agriculture, a board member from the Seed Association of Kyrgyzstan, the president of the Union of Cooperatives of Kyrgyzstan and the heads of various cooperatives. More.
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