Cumulative Project Report: Food Aid Commodity Management Workshops

Agency for International Development (USAID) Food for Peace (FFP) office. The primary aim of the workshops was to improve the capacity and skill sets of personnel working in the field of food aid commodity management. The workshops were designed to address the spectrum of stakeholder needs with regard to food aid commodity management, including PVO headquarters staff, field staff, and FFP personnel in Washington. The purpose of the workshops was to strengthen participants' understanding of the general tenets of USAID/DCHA/FFP commodity management and enhance their ability to ensure food aid commodities successfully reach their targeted beneficiaries. The five workshops built upon a pilot workshop implemented by the CAP team for 20 commodity managers in Lusaka, Zambia, in August 2009. The curriculum developed and lessons learned from that pilot workshop became the starting point for the Food Aid Commodity Management (FACM) workshops implemented under this award. Each workshop was designed to emphasize the primary processes – programmatic, managerial, reporting, and financial – needed to effectively protect, manage, and distribute food aid commodities. The workshops were held in various locations, including Dakar, Senegal; Washington, DC; Chittagong, Bangladesh; and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The dates and locations of the five food aid commodity management workshops were as follows: Dakar, Senegal – March 14-18, 2011; Washington, DC – May 2-6, 2011; Washington, DC – August 22-25, 2011; Chittagong, Bangladesh – October 16-20, 2011; and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – February 13-17, 2012. The workshops provided an opportunity to strengthen international and local NGO networks tied to food security and food aid programs. The sections of this cumulative project report describe the research, design, and development of content, the selection of speakers and participants, the agendas and modules for each workshop, changes in level of knowledge as a result of workshop participation, lessons learned, and how commodity managers have integrated workshop material into their jobs. The workshops' learning objectives were designed so that, after participating in a workshop, participants would be able to apply the knowledge and materials discussed and operationalize best practices in food aid commodity management. To reinforce the learnings, participants were asked to develop short presentations on commodity management to train home-country staff. The workshops were designed to emphasize the primary processes – programmatic, managerial, reporting, and financial – needed to effectively protect, manage, and distribute food aid commodities. The workshops provided an opportunity to strengthen international and local NGO networks tied to food security and food aid programs. The cumulative project report assesses the use of various teaching techniques to increase the knowledge level of workshop participants. The report also evaluates the effectiveness of the workshops in improving the capacity and skill sets of personnel working in the field of food aid commodity management.