Case Study Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance (VEGA) Tanzania Dairy Development Project By: Kathleen Barnett
Case Study Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance (VEGA) Tanzania Dairy Development Project Partnership of Land O Lakes International with the Tanzanian National Artificial Insemination Center and Local Dairy Cooperatives By: Kathleen Barnett Background and Introduction The following focuses on local capacity development for gender integration in the work of VEGA-member Land O Lakes International Development with its partners the Tanzania National Artificial Insemination Center (NAIC) and local dairy cooperatives. This research documents the success of Land O Lakes International Development in developing capacity for gender integration and lessons learned which can be scaled up or replicated in other programs. The methodology was a review of reports and documents produced by Land O Lakes, VEGA, USAID, and interviews with key personnel from Land O Lakes, both in headquarters and the field, and NAIC. The case study seeks to contribute to USAID s goal to serve as a thought leader on both LCD and gender integration, as embodied in the Policy Framework 2011-2015, the USAID FORWARD reform agenda, the Policy on Gender Equality and Female Empowerment, and the October 2013 draft document Local Systems: A Framework for Sustainable Development. Tanzania Dairy Sector Tanzania is East Africa s second largest economy and has experienced steady economic growth of 6 to 7% since 2009, which is expected to continue in 2014. However, this growth is concentrated in a few capitalintensive sectors, without creating jobs or raising the income for most of the population, and failing to reduce poverty according to a November 2012 interview with the World Bank s director for Tanzania Philippe Dongier. 75% of the population is rural, relying on agriculture despite poor arable land; mass poverty remains a major issue. In Tanzania, 75% of the population is rural, and reliant on agriculture. Tanzania possesses Africa s third-largest cattle herd and nearly two-thirds of the poor own livestock. Livestock, however, is an important asset for the poor. Tanzania possesses Africa s third-largest cattle herd and nearly two-thirds of the poor own livestock. According to the Ministry of Livestock, Development and Fisheries, livestock is a key sector of the economy, and the dairy subsector is one of the most important as a source of animal protein, income, and employment. Since the 1990s, The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have invested in assistance to Tanzania to develop the rural dairy industry and especially local dairy cooperatives, as a source of household income, nutrition, and economic growth. 2
Land O Lakes International Development and the Tanzania Dairy Development Project (TDDP) Land O Lakes International Development draws from its founding company s 92 years as a leading farm-to-market agribusiness to provide capacity development for low-income countries. Since 1981, Land O Lakes has applied an integrated approach to building the capacity of farmers and cooperatives through market-driven business solutions that relieve poverty and generate economic growth. In 2012, Land O Lakes managed 35 agricultural development projects in 25 countries, which benefited 100,000 rural households, 60% of whom are women. The Land O Lakes approach of creating and strengthening local cooperatives is an especially successful mechanism for local capacity development (LCD) and a means to promoting sustainable economic activity and local empowerment. In 2012, Land O Lakes provided capacity building assistance to 300 cooperatives, producer groups, and enterprises with 61,000 farmer-members. Land O Lakes has a strong institutional commitment to gender integration. In 2012, USAID commended Land O Lakes for its gender analysis and strategic development work. In Tanzania, Land O Lakes has managed TDDP since 2010 under a USDA Food for Progress grant. TDDP follows on prior work by Land O Lakes in Tanzania under the USAID Cooperative Development Programs I and II from 1999 2009 and the Tanzania Dairy Enterprise Initiative (TDEI) from 2003 2005. The aim of TDDP is to improve capacity for economic activity that generates household livelihoods, improves nutrition, and builds the sustainability of the Tanzanian dairy sector. TDDP partners are milk cooperatives in Northern Tanzania and the NAIC. The aim of TDDP is to improve capacity for economic activity that generates household livelihoods, improves nutrition, and builds sustainability of the Tanzanian dairy sector. According to Giselle Aris, Land O Lakes International Development s Senior Technical Advisor: [Dairy] cooperatives serve as a democratically-managed structure for people to work together toward common goals and, in doing so, they help reduce poverty levels through enhanced income generation. In a group, [owners of dairy cows] have increased access to technologies and trainings that improve [milk] production and quality, and increased access to markets where they can sell their products at competitive prices. Land O Lakes has a strong institutional commitment to gender integration it is not merely a program goal, but is fully integrated throughout the organization by an institutional Gender Policy, an internal Gender Task Force, a suite of gender tools used for educating and training staff, and the recent publication of Integrating Gender throughout the Project Life Cycle, which was officially launched in December 2013. In a 2012 report, USAID commended Land O Lakes for gender analysis and strategy development (that) is integral to its work with or without donor funding. 3
INNOVATION AND LOCAL CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT (LCD) Through its internal organizational commitment to gender integration and the institutional mechanisms it has created for synthesizing and sharing gender experience and knowledge, Land O Lakes has been able to capture gender-related lessons learned and apply these lessons to maximize gender integration impact in new projects. Efforts to ensure local capacity development that facilitate gender integration into TDDP were enhanced by lessons on gender that were learned through Land O Lakes projects in Tanzania and other countries. For example, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-funded Mozambique Gender, Agriculture and Assets Program (GAAP), implemented by Land O Lakes in partnership with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), found that in the USDA-funded, Land O Lakes implemented Mozambique Smallholder Dairy Development Project participants in dairy development trainings were initially all men. Program staff innovated a requirement that there be two members per household in attendance at each training, and this requirement increased women s participation dramatically. They also found that women s inclusion in these trainings led to increased day-to-day management decisions, as well as increases in milk yields, milk quality, and household income. Photo: Land O Lakes International Development Tanzania Dairy Development Program 4
In TDDP, staff undertook a landscape analysis and found that women s participation was high as cooperative members and in co-op leadership, but low as owners or employees of private sector businesses providing services and supplies to the dairy industry. TDDP staff undertook an analysis of three key input supply sectors supporting the industry: feed manufacturing, veterinary services, and breeding services. Through focus group discussions with co-op partners and community groups, Land O Lakes found strong local support for the inclusion of women in breeding services as artificial insemination (AI) technicians. Although cattle breeding is traditionally a male-dominated field, cooperatives seeking to expand their herds and/or enhance their milk yields and quality recognized that the best cattle breeders are the ones that are punctual, give extra attention to hygiene, and form a strong rapport with customers, and the cooperative members recognized that women often possess these qualities. Many also recognized that artificial insemination services are an ideal business for many women because client appointments can be scheduled to accommodate women s daily family and household responsibilities. In an innovative step, Land O Lakes arranged with the Tanzania NAIC to conduct artificial raining and asked dairy cooperatives to select a person man or woman to be trained as an AI technician Although cattle breeding is traditionally a male-dominated field, cooperatives seeking to expand their herds and/or enhance their milk yields and quality recognized that the best cattle breeders are the ones that are punctual, give extra attention to hygiene, and form a strong rapport with customers, and the cooperative members recognized that women often possess these qualities. for their community. Women made up approximately half of the people selected to be trained, with four weeks of technical skill training followed by one week focused on managing a business. Initial evaluation results showed that the women AI technicians had higher rates of successful inseminations than their men counterparts, and the communities serviced considered the women AI technicians to be better workers and more reliable than the men. IMPACT The focus of Land O Lakes International Development and TDDP on building local capacity in gender integration has had impact in various ways. First, as seen in the innovation of training women as AI technicians, the gender integration focus enables individual women to gain skills, opportunities, and income. In another example of impact on women s livelihoods, the program helped to re-organize and register a dairy cooperative of women that had floundered previously under government control, AGAPE. Reflecting on the experience, Anna Ismael Dally, Founder of AGAPE, said: One of the most important things we ve learned from Land O Lakes through TDDP is how to function as a business, keeping accurate records of what we receive and what our expenses are, how to become a viable enterprise, and how to increase our incomes. There is also a positive impact on the cooperative as a whole, since gender integration strengthens a cooperative s functioning, sustainability, and ability to meet diverse market needs. In the case of AGAPE, men have joined women as members in the cooperative. According to AGAPE participant Simon Kilutna Mbise, The reason I decided to join AGAPE was that I saw that women were the most successful when it came to money and business. A third important impact is a change in attitudes regarding gender roles and norms and an increase in malefemale cooperation to improve economic conditions for all. According to a local agricultural official, Umago 5
Chifurai, the growth of dairy cooperative(s) has also played a key role in improving gender equity and supporting women s leadership roles in the community. Men are.helping their wives to plant grass for the cattle, women are more respected in society, and they also have greater economic power, Chifurai said. Fourth, TDDP s local partner NAIC gained sustainable gender integration experience. Although NAIC had previously trained women who had been very successful in their work, according to Issuja Ramadhani of NAIC, there was a lapse in training women AI technicians. Since their collaboration with Land O Lakes began, he reports that NAIC has continued to train women as AI technicians, with two-to-four women trained each month since 2010. Ramadhani regularly liaises with AI technicians, both women and men, who service TDDP cooperatives, and monitors and evaluates their performance. Commenting on the women technicians, he noted that he is very impressed. These women are doing just as well and, many times, even better than the men. They submit their records on time, they have good positive pregnancy rates, and the customers are very happy with them. Finally, there is an impact on the economy as a whole. According to an August 2013 article in The Guardian newspaper, Livestock and Fisheries Development official Yakobo Msanga believes that in order to increase milk production in the country, it will be necessary to have three million dairy cattle by 2025, and in order to achieve [that] goal, the major method... is expected to be artificial insemination using improved dairy breeds. Msanga also said that the demand for crossbred dairy heifers has risen, but the supply is low due to inadequate crossbreeding activities and, especially, the low use of AI. Under TDDP, all 85 dairy small and medium cooperatives plan to train and facilitate more AI technicians to increase the adoption of AI services among small dairy farmers, so as to improve animal breeds. Thus, the Land O Lakes International Development innovation of capacity building for gender integration in TDDP increased women s livelihoods and incomes, strengthened sustainability of dairy cooperatives, changed gender norms and stereotypes, enhanced the capacity of NAIC, and contributed to the Tanzanian goal of increasing AI in order to increase production in the dairy sector. LESSONS LEARNED The institutional commitment to gender integration by Land O Lakes International Development is critical to its ongoing programmatic success in local capacity development for gender integration. Program strength in gender integration is achieved through: specific Land O Lakes gender policies, guidelines, and tools; the training and sensitization of all staff; and the rigorous capture of gender lessons learned across programs and countries. Institutional gender policies, procedures, and tools supported TDDP staff in their initial assessment of women s roles in dairy production and in designing an innovative approach to expand program opportunities for women. By working with and through local partners such as the dairy cooperatives and the Tanzanian NAIC, Land O Lakes International Development has strengthened local capacity for sustainable gender integration. 6
CONCLUSION The goals of the TDDP effort implemented by Land O Lakes International Development include focus on market development objectives such as increases in milk production, key inputs, market linkages, and consumer awareness, along with improvements in key operating systems and quality control. Program monitoring and evaluation reports indicate success in meeting these objectives. Land O Lakes has also been successful in meeting two important overall goals of USAID: local capacity development and gender integration. It innovated an approach to building capacity for gender integration through TDDP that increased women s livelihoods and incomes in a sustainable way through new entrepreneurial opportunities; made new services available to dairy cooperatives to expand production; challenged gender norms and stereotypes; and contributed to Tanzania s goal to expand the dairy sector through increased use of AI to improve milk-producing breeds. A key factor in the success of capacity development for gender integration in TDDP is that both capacity development and gender integration are fundamental to institutional policies of Land O Lakes - they are not implemented because of an external demand to meet a project deliverable, but because Land O Lakes brings this perspective to its work and trains and supports its staff accordingly. Although LCD and gender integration are important successes of TDDP, there are no measures for these impacts among TDDP s monitoring and evaluation indicators, which focus on quantitative measures of market supply and production objectives. Land O Lakes and USAID should discuss how best to capture the impact of TDDP on LCD for sustainable gender integration so that this can be reflected in the final program assessment. 7
Tanzania dairy development program (TDDP) Case Study Author: KATHLEEN BARNETT Dr. Kathleen Barnett is a consultant in gender and economic development. She has worked on gender assessments of economic and trade projects, policy reports, program design and management, technical assistance and training, and strategic business development in countries around the world, including USAID projects in Bulgaria, Egypt, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, South Africa, and Indonesia. She has also worked for the African Development Bank in Tunisia, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in Ethiopia, Burkina Faso and Liberia, and the World Bank in Brazil. Previously she was senior vice president at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) for eight years. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics and an M.P.A. in Public Finance, both from New York University. She is fluent in Portuguese and conversant in Spanish and French. about the vega alliance The Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance (VEGA) vegaalliance.org is the world s largest member-directed consortium of nonprofit economic growth organizations that designs and delivers high impact programs, facebook.com/vegaalliance incorporating skilled volunteer professionals into its work with donors, philanthropic institutions, private twitter.com/vegaalliance enterprise, and developing country organizations. VEGA was established as a 501(c)3 organization in 2004 through a United States Agency for International Development s Leader with Associate Award. When it began a decade ago, VEGA was established as a rapid and efficient mechanism that utilized a competitive process to award USAID funding to its member organizations. Now, VEGA continues to champion its model and its alliance members breadth of expertise to other partners. VEGA supported the research and publication of this case study as part of its commitment to knowledge management and sharing lessons learned among its member organizations and the international development community. 8