Our newest board member from AgriBank, Don Theuninck, turns out to be an old hand. He received an award in June 1993 for helping to reform Russian farm credit as an ACDI Farmer-to-Farmer (FtF) volunteer. As an AgriBank officer, he had been team leader for one of the first groups of volunteers we sent to Russia. Hundreds of U.S. volunteers placed by ACDI and ACDI/VOCA under the FtF/NIS project have had an instrumental role in developing what is now a robust Russian rural credit system. Another interesting aspect of this bit of history: The award was presented by then-Congressman Tim Penny, who is today also on our board. In January Theuninck assumed the AgriBank seat on the board from retiring AgriBank CEO, Bill Collins. A resolution honoring Mr. Collins was passed by the board, which particularly recognized his stalwart service as chairman of the audit committee. More.

On Mar. 1, U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Francis J. Ricciardorne visited the Zein El-Deen dairy association in Sohag. The association is being assisted by ACDI/VOCA's Agricultural Exports and Rural Incomes (AERI) project. Doug Anderson, ACDI/VOCA's chief of party, welcomed the ambassador and introduced local officials including Mohamed El-Sayed Mohamed, association chairman, and Ms. Gamalat, board member and secretary, who ably guided the tour. More.

Senior VP for Food Security and Specialty Crops, Avram "Buzz" Guroff, helped launch the Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa’s new report, "Reconsidering Food Aid; The Dialogue Continues," Feb. 12, at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars in Washington. Report author Emmy Simmons, former USAID assistant administrator, gave an overview of the report, followed by a panel discussion in which Guroff participated in a Q&A with food aid experts and senior officials. His contribution to the discussion revolved around ACDI/VOCA's work in monetizing food aid to yield investments in sustainable development. More.

ACDI/VOCA's USAID-funded, $6.3 million Growth-Oriented Microenterprise Development Program (GMED) in India is partnering with the Nandani Cooperative in Maharashtra to increase smallholder vegetable and fruit farmer incomes by enhancing the domestic and international competitiveness of fresh produce industry value chains. GMED will help the co-op teach production and post-harvest technology and techniques to its 5,400 farmer members, leading to improvements in productivity and produce quality, by establishing linkages with organized retail and export markets and by assisting the co–op to obtain ancillary value chain services. More.

For the first time in 25 years, agriculture and its role in fighting poverty will be the focus of the World Bank's World Development Report (WDR), due to be released in October 2007. At the forum held at ACDI/VOCA headquarters on Feb. 1, Alain de Janvry and Derek Byerlee, WDR co-directors, spoke with over 40 representatives of international development NGOs. The dialogue took place at the invitation of the U.S. NGO Working Group on the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Rural Poverty. Susan Schram, working group chair and ACDI/VOCA vice president for outreach and cooperative programs, chaired the discussion. More.

ACDI/VOCA was a prominent participant at the USAID Farmer-to-Farmer (FtF) implementers workshop in Cairo, Egypt, Feb. 19-22. Cairo was chosen as the location so that the former ACDI/VOCA FtF Egypt program could be showcased. Other attending implementers included Winrock International, Land O'Lakes, CNFA, Partners of the Americas and several minority-serving universities. This was a golden opportunity for USAID and implementers' staff to meet and discuss the attributes, challenges and opportunities of the FtF Program. More.

Two New Reports Published under AMAP-BDS

ACDI/VOCA's consortium has published two new value chain analyses on microLINKS under ACDI/VOCA's $10 million, USAID-funded Accelerating Microenterprise Advancement Project Business Development Services (AMAP BDS) Knowledge and Practice Task Order. The first, Ghana Baskets for Export: Case Study, illustrates the effect of strong international competition on the Ghanaian baskets-for-export value chain. The second publication, Azerbaijan Beef and Dairy Value Chains: Case Study, explores the critical role that supporting markets can play in value chain growth.

ACDI/VOCA's longtime partner, the Kenyan Agricultural Commodity Exchange (KACE), was featured on National Public Radio's Marketplace program for its work in connecting farmers to global markets through technology. Cutting out the middleman, ACDI/VOCA and Safaricom, a local wireless phone service provider, collaborate with KACE to disseminate market prices and other information via mobile phone as well as radio, which has never been done before in Kenya. The Marketplace report examines how this increased access to information has put Kenyan farmers on the same playing field as commercial farmers in the U.S., Europe and Brazil, gaining valuable bargaining power to increase their profits as much as 25 percent. As Dr. Adian Mukhebi, founder of KACE, says, "A small farmer producing here in Kenya is actually competing with farmers all over the world!" More.

ACDI/VOCA's innovative project to develop economic opportunities for rural Tanzanians is featured on microLINKS as part of its “Notes from the Field” initiative. The feature, called Note from Tanzania: A Sea of Entrepreneurial Opportunities, showcases the successes of ACDI/VOCA's recent USAID-funded Tanzania Smallholder Empowerment and Economic Growth through Agribusiness and Association Development (SEEGAAD) project, which has helped to train local Tanzanian seaweed farmers in environmentally sound farming of commercially viable seaweed to develop an extra income source. More.

ACDI/VOCA's Paul Guenette, VP Africa, was guest lecturer on Feb. 12 in Georgetown University professor Richard F. America's class Investing in Africa. Guenette spoke to second-year MBA students of the remarkable transformation in African agribusiness over the last 20 years. He drew examples from the Kenyan cut flower and Eastern African fruit and vegetable industries. Competitiveness is pervasive now, and international standards prevail. Market drivers, he said, include ready-to-eat, pre-cut, processed and prepared foods, "big box" stores, closer links to buyers, prevalent EurepGAP and other standards, increasing industry concentration and an array of technology applications. Guenette pointed out that Kenya now exports 30 fruits and 27 vegetables. His advice for investors: it's about relationships. It's less what you grow than who/what you know. Also, he advised to use buyer infrastructure for outputs and inputs; invest in strategic alliances, finance technology, management and marketing; build full value chain relationships; aggregate or fail; create a niche and be a category leader. He pointed out to the students today's substantial financial flow to South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana as bright investment spots in today's African agriculture.

ACDI/VOCA Helps Host AIARD Capitol Hill Forum

The Association for International Agriculture and Rural Development (AIARD) hosted the "Agriculture in a World of Conflict and Violence: Investing in Our Future Security" forum, sponsored in association with its 14 university, foundation, private sector and NGO partners on Jan. 31. It was the latest installment in an ongoing effort to acquaint policymakers with critical issues in international agriculture and rural development, according to ACDI/VOCA Vice President of Outreach & Cooperative Programs Dr. Sue Schram who organized the event in cooperation with the AIARD board of directors. Former Ambassador Christopher Goldthwait spoke to a packed Rayburn House Office Building AIARD during the event. More.

ACDI/VOCA Basketball Team Places Second in Tournament Playoffs

Congratulations to the ACDI/VOCA basketball team on an outstanding season and playoff run. In the local league championship game on Mar. 26, they lost a hard-fought match to the Skadden Raiders despite the rabid cheers of over 30 of their colleagues in the stands. It was only their third loss in a total of 11 season games. As ACDI/VOCA President Carl Leonard said, "The squad played with great heart and conviction last night, and we are all proud of their efforts."

Ethiopian poet (and ACDI/VOCA staff member) stages reading

ACDI/VOCA's own Alex Gebrehiwot will read from his new book of poetry at 7:30 p.m., Fri., Mar. 30, at the Unification Church, 1610 Colombia Rd. N.W., Washington, DC 20009. Alex will read poems (most in Amharic but some in English, too) from his book entitled "Etalem," which in Amharic means "My Sister," also the title of one of the collection's 126 poems. Alex, who serves ACDI/VOCA as an international development assistant, has worked at the company since January 2005. He came to the U.S. in 2003 from Addis Ababa, where he studied English literature in graduate school. Previously, he served as director of the Bureau of Culture, Tourism and Information in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. He lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, where he and his wife Tobia Atnafu are raising two children, Kidist and Yared. In addition to Alex's reading poetry, Ethiopian comic Meskerem Bekele will entertain. All are welcome.

From the book:

What's the Good of Food?!
Yes! That's the pinnacle
of nourishing the Spirit
with beauty, art,
creation,
the Trade of Truth.
As to the belly?
Balled up, full
Or stuffed,
It's ever insistent
It's never a flash, a minute's life
Before it gears up for yet another feast

Were it only a daily meal
of dawn and of night
Such a banquet, buffet of art!

What's the good of food, what's with chow entering the mouth?!

We Need You: Industry Technical Persons
For Long-term Overseas and Consultant Positions: As ACDI/VOCA continues to evolve into a provider of technical expertise, the skill sets of our senior technical advisors are increasingly important. They tend to reflect strong experience, often from the private sector, in highly specific areas, e.g., propagation and post-harvest handling of the MD-2 pineapple. Recently the most important areas for us have been:

• horticulture (fruit and vegetables)
• specialty crops (cocoa, coffee, spices)
• cereals
• value chain or subsector analysis and value chain development

We have a particular need for high-level candidates with agricultural market development experience.

For more information, please visit our website for more career opportunities.

For Short-term Volunteer Positions: In addition to the above, we have additional needs for volunteers with the following skills:

• horticulture, specifically relating to tomatoes and fruit trees
• dairy production and processing
• poultry production and processing
• strategic planning for ag associations and cooperatives

For more information, please visit our website for more volunteer opportunities.