From Aid to Investment

This morning started with an Introduction by the Country Director of Zambia, mister Pablo Recalde. He inspired us by the saying that the mission of WFP in Zambia has shifted from providing aid to investing in the country. This means that helping the vulnerable will still continue but new activities are initiated like investing in the agriculture of the country (Zambia has the potential to become a net-exporting country instead of a net-importer due to stability and central location) as well as improving the nutrition education.
Then we have visited one of the two Warehouses of WFP in Lusaka which contain grains, oil, sugar etc provided by International donor statesHere everything is done manual, including moving of 25kg bags from the one end to the other. Total storage space is about 500.000mt and stock turnaround is about two months. The warehouse was very clean, well organized and safety measures all around.
The food chain in Zambia starts at the farmers who sell their food to a government agent for a minimum support price, which sells it to millers who sell it to the market including WFP. Farmers would like to organize for better conditions but they have difficulty due to remote areas with bad road conditions which makes them hard to reach and also since always some will be get nervous and sell to the government anyway to secure income.

The shift of WPF therefore aims at improving the conditions for the farmers in this case by improving the infrastructure in Zambia to also be able to reach these farmers and to set fair fixed prices, set volume agreements and educate how to invest for the future by planting the right seeds and equipment to secure future income and development.

So far background on the agricultural part of Zambia, the basis of nutrition. From tomorrow on we will focus on Nutrition education, our challenge!