Quarterly Progress Report: July – September, 2012: Kenya Feed the Future Innovation Engine

- International Development Division under a hybrid fixed price contract with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Kenya Mission. The program aims to harness innovation for cutting-edge results through private sector-oriented strategies to generate significant measurable increases in household income and/or nutrition through efforts in selected agricultural value chains. The KFIE contract requires Land O'Lakes to submit quarterly progress reports to USAID. This report describes the implementation progress made towards rolling out KFIE during its second calendar quarter period (1st July to 30th September 2012) following contract signature. The overarching goal for KFIE is to support innovations through various stages from "proof of concept" (Stage 1) through "pilot roll-out" (Stage 2) to "transition to scale-up" (Stage 3). KFIE will select promising innovations, coach and cultivate selected innovations to support their development and adoption, apply evidence-based testing to determine movement from one stage to another, leverage USAID resources with other public and private resources to grow innovations to scale, and benefit local Kenyan institutions by cultivating and broadly disseminating innovative practices. Land O'Lakes has facilitated a rapid program start-up by mobilizing key personnel for the KFIE program team. The Chief of Party, Milton Lore, and the Engagement Manager, Carlo Chege, have been engaged, and Dr. Mutuku Kavoi joined the program team as Assessment and Evaluation Specialist at the beginning of September. Dr. Paul Orengoh was engaged as Outreach, Communications and Events Coordinator in a consulting capacity during the same month. The KFIE mobilization plan was reviewed at a post-award meeting with USAID at the end of May 2012, during which contract-related questions, deliverables, and reporting requirements, communication, and other program elements were addressed. The program has made significant progress in its second quarter, with key personnel engaged and the mobilization plan reviewed. The KFIE program will focus on selected agricultural value chains, including horticulture (fruits and vegetables), maize, ruminant livestock (dairy and non-dairy), and staple food crops such as cassava, millet, pulses, sorghum, and sweet potato. The program will also support the business case for nutrition by catalyzing the private sector to produce nutrient-dense foods, encouraging households to adopt healthy practices, and sourcing innovations that promote local-level processing of fortified foods. The KFIE program will apply evidence-based testing to determine movement from one stage to another, leveraging USAID resources with other public and private resources to grow innovations to scale. The program will benefit local Kenyan institutions by cultivating and broadly disseminating innovative practices, ultimately contributing to significant measurable increases in household income and/or nutrition.