Food Aid Quality Review Phase III: Quarterly Technical Report No. 21

21, covering the period from January to March 2021, documents progress of the Food Aid Quality Review (FAQR) activity overall, as well as detailing outputs and impacts of Phase III work in particular. The FAQR's goal is to support the U.S. Government's humanitarian agenda by establishing evidence-based information systems, tools, and data-gathering and evidence-sharing platforms on food aid for nutrition. The FAQR team submitted a series of Option Year 2 Deliverables to the United States Agency for International Development's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (USAID/BHA), including reports and data related to supply chain optimization, data mining, commodity incident management, and knowledge sharing activities. The Supply Chain Optimization team organized a series of trainings for designated BHA representatives on basic supply chain modeling principles, including simplified Excel models that will build up to an exploration of the complex model developed by the FAQR team for BHA. The Cost-Effectiveness team supported the first BHA-led training on the Food Assistance Cost-Effectiveness Tool for Specialized Nutritious Foods (FACET4SNF) for members of the BHA nutrition team and revised training materials based on trainee feedback. The FAQR team hosted meetings of the domestic and international Interagency Harmonization working groups in January and March 2021, respectively, for 90 working group members and invited guests to discuss cross-cutting issues related to food assistance products, programming, and processes. The FAQR team finalized two Essential Nutrient Fortification technical notes and hosted an interagency call to discuss the ratio of essential fatty acids in ready-to-use therapeutic foods. The team also helped establish a sub-working group to promote interagency collaboration related to Contaminants Testing. A manuscript published during the period, titled "Biomarkers of environmental enteric dysfunction are differently associated with recovery and growth among children with moderate acute malnutrition in Sierra Leone," was published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The FAQR team supported a training on the Food Assistance Cost-Effectiveness Tool for Specialized Nutritious Foods (FACET4SNF) led by BHA team members on February 2, 2021. The training was attended by 11 members of the BHA nutrition team and was designed to help future FACET4SNF users gain familiarity with the interface by participating in a live demonstration and a roundtable discussion. Following the training, FAQR team members participated in a feedback session with trainees and other BHA nutrition team members. The FAQR team hosted the 12th meeting of the USAID/United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Interagency Food Assistance Technical Working Group from January 12 to 13, 2021, which was attended by 50 working group members from USAID and USDA, FAQR team members, and invited guests from MANA Nutrition and other organizations. The meeting focused on cross-cutting issues related to food assistance products, programming, and processes. The FAQR team also began planning a Dialogue on Research and Innovation for Future Food Assistance to build on the 2020 Evidence Summit II and developing a final report on FAQR achievements and impacts from Phase I to the present. The team finalized two Essential Nutrient Fortification technical notes and hosted an interagency call to discuss the ratio of essential fatty acids in ready-to-use therapeutic foods.