Addressing Food Security In Tanzania - Joint Nutrition Initiative Workshop (Morogoro, Tanzania - March 2014). A look at how GSC are addressing the issue of Food Insecurity in Tanzania, Africa. The aim of GSC's work is to increase agricultural productivity at a household level and also to improve education and nutrition. As a result, we hope to boost the income and health of rural families. Ultimately, our aim is to reduce the prevalence of hunger & poverty in Tanzania by improving food security.

1. Global Service Corps
Addressing Food Security in Tanzania
Joint Nutrition Initiative Workshop
Morogoro, Wednesday 26th March

2. Who is Global Service
Corps (GSC)?
• Tanzania based NGO
• Working in Sustainable Agriculture &
HIV/AIDS prevention since 2001
• Working closely with local partner
organizations, ministry of agriculture,
ministry of food security and
cooperatives, plus related ministries
• Overall aim is to improve food security

3. GSC Vision Statement
GSC-TZ envisions increased international
understanding and mutually supportive
relationships, leading to prosperous,
healthy food-secure Tanzanian
communities, based upon vibrant and
sustainable smallholders, a Tanzania with
health, through local and international
cooperation, caring & sharing.

4. Mission Statement
• Empower vulnerable Tanzanians to
improve their livelihoods through
sustainable agriculture and health
education, using local and international
resources.
• Provide life-changing cross-cultural
service-learning experiences for visiting
and local program participants, leading
to greater international understanding
and community support.

5. What problems are we
trying to address?
• Hunger and food insecurity
• Related health issues: malnutrition,
child stunting, anemia and more
• Gender equality
• Misinformation and a lack of education
about nutrition, HIV/AIDS prevention
and sustainable agriculture methods
• Lack of money and resources
• Climate change and drought
• Lack of access to clean water

6. What do we want to
achieve?
Much like feed the future, we’d like to
see a future where “people no longer
face the agony and injustice of
extreme poverty, undernutrition and
hunger”
http://www.feedthefuture.gov/about

7. What we need to do to
achieve this
• Feed the future’s solution is closely aligned
with ours in that we are working “to develop
Tanzania’s agriculture sector and break the
cycle of poverty and hunger, thus promoting
global prosperity and stability”.
http://www.feedthefuture.gov
• We want to increase agricultural productivity
at a household level and improve education
and nutrition. As a result, we hope to boost
the income and health of rural families.

8. Solution
• Sustainable Agriculture and the
introduction of innovative and
appropriate technologies
• Education in the areas of HIV/AIDS,
Nutrition and Life Skills

9. HIV/AIDS, Nutrition & Life
Skills Education
• The aim is for participants to be
equipped with the skills and
knowledge necessary to promote
good health, and prevent HIV/AIDS.
Our trainings in nutrition and life
skills help translate knowledge into
behavioral change

10. HIV/AIDS, Nutrition & Life
Skills Education
Areas covered by our trainings:
• HIV/AIDS awareness & prevention
• Information for those living with
HIV/AIDS
• Health information for pregnant women
and children
• Nutrition (Safe food preparation and
appropriate foods to eat)
• Sex education, human anatomy &
puberty
• Life Skills (responding to peer pressure,
decision-making, communication,
relationships and goal setting)

11. Our approach to
education
• We visit rural community groups,
church groups, youth detention
centers and schools
• Don’t offer money as a reward for
attendance
• Encourage group participation and
questions
• Adjust our trainings to suit the
audience and their level of literacy
and knowledge

12. Sustainable Agriculture
• By introducing innovative appropriate
technologies at a household level, we
can help to improve access to water,
diversity in plants grown, income (and
therefore financial stability), nutrition
and overall health.
• These technologies are also aimed at
empowering women and overcoming
issues faced by inconsistencies in the
climate

13. Sustainable Agriculture
The technologies that we have
implemented include:
• Keyhole gardens
• Water Hafirs
• Sack Gardens
• Grain Storage
• Chicken Vaccinations
• Tree nurseries

14. Keyhole Gardens
• Made only with available resources
(rocks, sticks etc.)
• Can use dirty water to feed plants
• Allows a variety of plants to be
grown
• Made to ensure maximum water
retention

15. Hafirs
• In East Africa food insecurity is highly
correlated to rainfall & water availability.
• Hafir = household water harvesting
technology that stores up to 10,500L
• Low-cost: Approx. $9 per 1000L Capacity.
• Creates a home water source to reduce
women/children having to haul water long
distances
• Enables water to be harvested from field
run-off or the roofs of houses
• During the rains, they collect and store water
for various uses during the dry season i.e.
watering home gardens

16. Urban Gardens
Sack gardens designed for use in
households of those with HIV or those
with insufficient land as well as those
lacking labor & resources
Benefits:
• Easy to build
• Cost effective
• Can be built using only
available resources

17. Grain Stores
• Household grain stores reduce 40%
of post-harvest losses
• They encourage exchange of
livestock for grain
• Cost effective
• Easy to build

18. Rural Poultry
Vaccinations
• Chickens are the most commonly owned
species of livestock in Africa
• Chicken production is important because:
• Cost efficient, labor efficient and
environmentally friendly
• Provides petty cash, high quality protein,
pest control solution, plays a social
function and are usually managed by
women & children
• Newcastle Disease kills an average of 70% of
the chicken population in Tanzania and can
only be controlled by vaccinating chickens.

19. Benefits of the vaccine
• Thermo-stable
• Affordable (30-100Tsh per chicken)
• Produced in Tanzania
• Easy to administer
• 70% annual losses can be reduced to less
than 10%
• Allow chickens to live longer. This means they
produce more eggs & grow to a larger size for
consumption = increased nutrition and sources
of income for families
• GSC trains and mobilizes community
vaccinators who generate an income from
vaccinating chickens

20. Other sustainable
agricultural projects
• Composting
• Seed saving
• Integrated pest management
• Tree nurseries

21. How to ensure success?
• Whilst the combination of our
education/training program and the
introduction of various technologies proved to
be effective, we found progress was too slow
• Furthermore, the level of community
engagement was disappointing and larger
scale change was required.
• We needed to come up with a more effective
approach
• The
was developed

22. Rapid Results Multiplication
(RRM)
• While our technologies have been
successful, we came to realize that
motivation is needed to keep them alive
• In 2012, we introduced the RRM
approach to increase adoption and use of
food security technologies through
community mobilization, training,
competition & awards

23. Rapid Results Multiplication
(RRM)
• Essentially developed to improve
community engagement and therefore
to improve food security at a
household level whilst ensuring the
quality is not compromised.
• Wanted to ensure that results are on a
large scale and therefore more
adequately addressing the issue of
food insecurity in Tanzania.

24. Volume
Results
Community
Mobilization
Business
Methods
Human
Psychology
Sports/Competitive
Approach

25. How it works
• Complete ownership and buy-in of community
leaders, and those trained
• Work with leaders to establish ambitious but
achievable output goals.
• Set a limited “campaign” period, usually 30
days per village.
• The first five day training is held in initial village
selected. A min. 10 keyhole gardens are built &
a vegetable seedling nursery is est. at each
garden for transplant into keyhole gardens

26. How it works
• During this training, GSC identifies existing
groups or organizes small groups of 5 ppl to
work in teams, geographically distributed over
the village & sub-village areas
• Leaders are selected for each group & a
specific number of households are assigned to
each group.
• The competition awards and criteria are
explained, indicating that the GSC team will be
determining winners during
follow up visits.

27. How it works
• The authorities select 1 Sub-Village Promoter per
sub-village. GSC works with these leaders &
teams during the training and follow up visits to
facilitate the construction or application of specific
agriculture & food security technologies in their
area. A nominal payment is given if the min. goals
are achieved within 30 days.
• GSC ensures quality control during keyhole
garden construction & planting of tree seedlings
• At the conclusion of the 30 day period, agricultural
awards are provided for the
winners.

28. For best results
This approach brings rapid results over a limited
time. It is best used with technologies that:
• Are easy to teach and therefore easy
to replicate
• Are inexpensive or free to construct
• Are useful technologies for the
households
• Can improve availability of nutritious
foods
• Can be completed in a short period of
time

29. Evidence of RRM success
• The RRM was first trialled by GSC-TZ in the
villages of Maweni and Maroroni with surprising
results. Within just two months, keyhole gardens
and tree nurseries had been constructed in
nearly 400 households.
• In 2013 GSC partnered with Fintrac to work on
the TAPP 60 project. At Mulama village in
Kilimanjaro, 40 keyhole gardens were built in just
one week.
• This provides a great case study for the success
of GSC’s Nutrition & Sustainable agriculture work
and for the RRM approach that we use

30. TAPP 60 – A Case Study
• June 2013 – December 2014
• Expected to reach 13,500 people
• Working in 60 villages selected from four regions:
Tanga, Kilimanjaro, Arusha & Manyara.
• 35 villages have been trained so far:
• 735 keyhole Gardens
• 6 Hafirs
• Follow up research includes: visiting households
for Quality control
• Examples/evidence of success –watch the clip

31. TAPP 60 – Project Details
• Main Activity: Training & Mobilizing communities
in the areas of HIV/AIDS, Health, Nutrition & life
skills plus sustainable agriculture.
• Community engagement has been achieved
through local leaders using small groups and
farmer groups, mainly TAPP farmers.
• Key Interventions used:
• SA: keyhole gardens, tree nurseries & Hafirs
• HA: Practical life skills and prevention skills.
Lessons on living with HIV plus education on
hygiene and gender roles in relation to
HIV/AIDS PHMTC, Nutrition & Decision
making skills.

32. TAPP 60 – Project Details
• How Nutrition & HIV/AIDS education &
Sustainable Agriculture trainings are integrated:
• Hafirs provide water for the keyhole gardens.
• Keyhole gardens help to bring food closer to
homes & anyone can attend to & managed
them with ease. In doing so, they allow
families to improve their eating habits,
seeing as a variety of fresh vegetables are
now readily available to them. This in turn
leads to better health & nutrition which is
reiterated in education sessions.

33. GSC – The key to our success
• Highly educated and experience staff
• Local knowledge & understanding of community
needs
• Ongoing relationship with communities
• Introduction of innovative agricultural technologies
• Education in the area of Nutrition & HIV/AIDS
• RRM approach = behavior change in communities
• Exceptional reputation
• Volunteers from the US help to educate and
spread the word.
• Donor & Partner contributions

34. Conclusion
• By integrating cost-effective Sustainable
Agriculture practices with Nutrition education,
GSC hopes to improve food security and
subsequently reduce the rate of poverty in
Tanzania
• The RRM approach helps to increase the rate at
which we meet our goals and helps build
momentum and motivation to do so.
• By taking a capacity building approach to our
work, we hope to make ourselves redundant in
these communities and see a continuing reduction
in poverty within Tanzania.
• The TAPP60 project provides evidence of
our success

35. Thanks & Goodbye
• Please visit our demo plot outside
• Find either Anna or Simon with any questions
• Visit our website (www.globalservicecorps.org) for
more information
• Thanks & Goodbye