A Long Way for a Cup of Coffee

In Sept. USAID Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator for Latin America and the Caribbean Mark Silverman visited Pitalito area coffee producers, a major target group under our Colombian Specialty Coffee Program. Besides providing equipment and specialized training in growing, harvesting and post-harvest handling of the crop, the program also provides training in the art of cupping to enable farmers to gauge quality. The program has sent 28 of them to the Coffee Quality Institute (CQI) in Long Beach, California for advanced cupping training. Back to top.

Tsunami Project Ends

The KPMG Foundation-funded project to restore the Lampulo Boat Building and Repair Facility in Aceh, Indonesia, was carried out by ACDI/VOCA through the VOCA Foundation and in cooperation with CHF International. Since the Aceh economy, which was devastated by the tsunami, is largely based upon fishing, CHF had begun repair of a large boat hangar with a boat launch run by a cooperative called Panglima Laot. A portion of the KPMG funds ($25,000) was dedicated to the repair of the ramp, general site upgrades, purchase and installation of upgraded boat repair and building equipment, and local technical assistance. The additional resources were used to provide an ACDI/VOCA volunteer experienced in boat building and workshop management. The facility is now up and running and will be self-sustaining, since there is a large market for repair and maintenance of boats on a fee basis. According to ACDI/VOCA VP Sue Schram, who secured the grant, the KPMG Foundation-funded project shows how we can help respond to tragic situations like the Tsunami and incorporate its volunteers in those efforts.
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ACDI/VOCA’s Anderson Speaks at AGOA Conference

Egypt Country Representative Doug Anderson served on two panels at the October 11-12  Southern Africa AGOA Regional Workshop in Cape Town, South Africa. AGOA, which stands for The African Growth and Opportunity Act, hosted the meeting to explore “Expanding Processed Food Exports to the United States.” In one workshop, on “How to Export Food Products to the United States,” Doug discussed strategies for selecting and approaching appropriate distributors of specialty foods. The second workshop was on “Product Positioning, Branding and Design.” Prior to joining ACDI/VOCA Anderson served as vice chairman of the National Food Company/Kato Group in Egypt and before that as a senior associate on the USAID-funded Agriculture-Led Export Businesses (ALEB) Project in Egypt. Anderson also ran his own agribusiness consulting firm in Bakersfield, California, which specialized in worldwide project design and product development. Back to top.

Senate Committee Visits ACDI/VOCA-Uganda

Staff of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee on Food Aid (Agriculture Subcommittee), including Fitz Elder, Stacy McBride, Graham Harper, Dianne Preece, Galen Fountain and Jessica Frederick, visited our Uganda program during their October 16-19 East Africa tour. They saw our office complex and warehouse, where they participated in a discussion on monetization and traveled to internally displaced people (IDP) camps in northern Uganda. This was the first time any of the staff delegation had been to Africa and the first time they had seen food aid delivery in action. They were interested in ACDI/VOCA’s approach to monetizing, our program's effect on people living with HIV/AIDS and the developmental impact of PL 480 Title II. USAID’s Dale Skoric stressed the importance of project and USAID staff speaking out about monetization’s positive impacts, especially now that the Food Aid Coalition has disbanded and monetization is on the table at the Doha talks. Four USAID/Washington and USDA staff accompanied the tour. ACDI/VOCA was recently awarded a new Title II program, valued at over $70 million over five years, to shift its activities to address the needs of the more food insecure regions in northern and eastern Uganda. Back to top.

3rd Annual SUCCESS Alliance Conference held in Vietnam

ACDI/VOCA's Buzz Guroff addresses the 3rd Annual SUCCESS Alliance International Conference in Vietnam.

The 3rd Annual SUCCESS Alliance International Conference, “Strengthening the Smallholder Link in the Cocoa Value Chain,” was held in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, October 31-November 3, 2006. The conference was sponsored by ACDI/VOCA as part of its USAID-funded cocoa development program in Vietnam and the Philippines. Over 150 participants from various cocoa-producing countries in Asia and Latin America attended. In addition to SUCCESS Alliance partners, numerous stakeholders throughout the cocoa value chain were represented, including farmers, donors, Vietnamese, Filipino, Indonesian and Papua New Guinean government representatives, NGOs, industry representatives and academia. ACDI/VOCA's Ross Jaax, Chief of Party in Vietnam, commented, “This year’s conference is especially exciting because it has grown so much in size and scope. We are fortunate to have all the current and future leaders of the Asian smallholder cocoa industry involved.” Highlights of the conference included remarks by Carl Leonard, president of ACDI/VOCA, Bui Ba Bong, Vietnamese deputy minister of agriculture and rural development, David Brunell, chief technical officer, USAID/Hanoi, and Tracey Duffey of the World Cocoa Foundation.

ACDI/VOCA Presents E-Readiness to MCC

ACDI/VOCA's Lee Babcock and Donald Taylor gave a presentation to the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) on e-readiness at the invitation of Senior Agricultural Advisor Felipe Manteiga. The audience included Thomas Campbell, senior director, financial and private sector development, and Dr. Noreene Janus, adviser in USAID’s Office of Information Technology for Development. Dr. Babcock focused on examining the correlation between the May 2001 McConnell International e-readiness assessment survey and the 2004 MCC selection methodology for candidate countries. He said future research into the correlation appears warranted and may suggest incorporating e-readiness as an MCC indicator. India Chief of Party Don Taylor spoke about the use of IT in our India GMED project through the e-Choupal model, which gives smallholders access to market prices, weather and other information through local internet kiosks. Back to top.

ACDI/VOCA Annual Meeting

A national hat competition was a topping event.

ACDI/VOCA held its first companywide annual meeting Oct. 3-6, drawing 82 staff from 34 countries and all practice areas. One attendee expressed the view of many when he stated that he previously "had no idea what richness this company possessed." Chairman Vern McGinnis helped set the positive tone of the meeting by affirming the Board's support and speaking of his recent trip to review our $40 million Community Revitalization through Democratic Action project in Serbia. We celebrated successes over our 43-year history, reviewed our mission, values, and strategic framework and learned about an important restructuring of our HQ offices. Various sessions throughout the week delved into topics from fragile states and vulnerable populations to competitive markets in the global economy, from the Millennium Challenge Corporation's effect on our business to security. An evening cruise on the Potomac rounded out the agenda.

Pastoralist Livelihood Initiative

In an effort to cope with widespread drought which has severely affected pastoralists, ACDI/VOCA-Ethiopia has been publishing a weekly Livestock Market Monitoring Bulletin. The publication, which features situation analyses, weather information, market prices in various locations, data from the Global Livestock Early Warning System and the Livestock Information Networking Knowledge System, news updates, economic indicators and even classified ads, has been well-received by beneficiaries and partners, according to former Chief of Party Jim Dempsey. He said, "Our biggest challenge is resisting pressures to make it into an emergency bulletin in general rather than livestock marketing focused. It is a good example of what has to be done fast to respond to changing markets in the emergency." Back to top.

Farmer-to-Farmer, Machine-to-Farmer

Thanks to the dedication of ACDI/VOCA Farmer-to-Farmer (FtF) volunteer Tom Dobler and the generosity of a Pennsylvanial John Deere dealership, large green silage choppers are now enabling six Kenyan farmers to rapidly harvest the local maize crop in order to better support their dairy enterprises.

Dobler identified the need on a volunteer assignment, helped organize the effort and even sought out and found used equipment from the Deere dealer which, at prices ranging from $5,000 to $11,000, was affordable to the smallholder farmers. ACDI/VOCA’s FtF program, funded by USAID, helped with the planning, facilitated Tom’s shopping and the shipping, assisted in reassembling the machines and trained the farmers on their use. However, the Kenyan farmers themselves scraped together the money for shipment. The Deere dealer threw in spare parts free of charge along with some tools and cow magnets. Dobler noted, “I am a dairyman, a simple cow man that has been able to find a group of wonderful men who want to make Kenya a better place….They want to see the children have the ability to drink a glass of healthy milk every day!.... I cannot let them stall.” Back to top.

ACDI/VOCA currently needs short-term volunteer experts for the following assignments:

331709 Russia-Sunflower Seed De-hulling: 17 days, flexible timing.

524031 Paraguay-Organizational Improvement Plan and Financial Analysis: 10 days, Spanish language skills required.

441086-B Uganda-Savings and Credit Cooperative Procedures: 3 weeks ASAP

If you are interested in these assignments, please email us at: volunteer@acdivoca.org. Back to top.