USAID Advancing Food Fortification Opportunities to Reinforce Diets (USAID AFFORD) Semi-Annual Progress Report

The project aims to safely and sustainably reduce micronutrient inadequacies and improve diets, particularly for women and children, through large-scale food fortification (LSFF) of staple foods and condiments. USAID AFFORD seeks to increase the coverage of fortified foods to cost-effectively improve the quality of diets and contribute to safely reducing micronutrient deficiencies among populations in targeted countries. The project applies USAID's LSFF Results Framework and LSFF Programming Guide to address the greatest barriers that inhibit scale and sustainability of LSFF programs. Strategic engagement with public, private, and civil society actors at national, regional, and global levels will drive USAID AFFORD's scaling and success beyond the life of the project. During the first six months of the project, a refinement period included the development of metrics for measuring the four intermediate results (IRs): IR 1, Strengthened LSFF enabling environment through the public sector; IR 2, Expanded and sustained LSFF interventions through private sector engagement; IR 3, Strengthened effectiveness of LSFF interventions and increased public and private sector accountability through civil society engagement; and IR 4, Mobilized global commitment, leadership, and investment in support of LSFF. The project confirmed Senegal for country-level activities in Project Year 1 (PY1) and initiated an assessment in Haiti in support of the Mission request. In the second half of PY1, USAID AFFORD will continue to implement activities in Senegal and Haiti while working with USAID to identify one additional country for country-level activities. Key accomplishments during the reporting period include the completion of the Marking and Branding Plan, Annual Work Plan, Data Management Plan, Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Plan, Accountability and Feedback Plan, Knowledge Management Assessment, and Knowledge Management Plan. The project also refined its staffing structure and began initial lead activities in Senegal, while exploring prospects in Haiti. The project spent $768,970 against a year-one budget of $4,164,366. Spending was slow during the mobilization and six-month refinement period and has grown month on month as new staff were onboarded and lead activities kicked off in Senegal. Project spend is expected to continue increasing as additional country interest grows and other lead activities get underway. Key lessons during this reporting period include adapting the staffing structure to meet emerging gaps in operational support, the benefit of early engagement with local partners to strengthen local ownership, the addition of product sample testing to validate industry assessments, and combining assessments occurring in the same market to prevent multiple meetings with overlapping stakeholders. The project team hosted a kickoff meeting with USAID AFFORD staff and USAID representatives between October 4-5, 2022, and a team retreat with project leadership was held from December 14-16, 2022, at UC Davis, California. The retreat provided an opportunity to begin developing team rapport and go over the PY1 work plan and objectives.