Presented by Emily Ouma, ILRI at the
Livestock Innovations Lab Virtual General
Meeting on 11 September 2020
Enhancing
production, quality
and consumption of
milk for income and
improved nutrition
in Rwanda
January 2017 − September 2020
Principal Investigator
• Dr. Emily Ouma, International
Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)
Co-PI and Collaborators
• Dr. Valerie Flax, RTI International
• Dr. Eugene Niyonzima, University of
Rwanda
• Mr. Ben Bizinde, TechnoServe
• Dr. Nadhem Mtimet, International Livestock
Research Institute (ILRI)
• Ms Mary-Ann Schreiner, Three Stones
International
• Mr. Lambert Izerimana, International
Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)
Objectives
1) Evaluate the impact of a nutrition education
intervention on ASF consumption and nutrition
outcomes among children 12-29 months of age
and pregnant and lactating women
2) Assess and enhance performance and capacity of
dairy cooperatives to improve market access for
smallholder milk producers
3) Evaluate the costs and benefits to value chain
agents of supplying milk that meets the Seal of
Quality (SOQ) standards, currently referred to as
Dairy Best Practices program
Insert project related photo here

Put a photo of
yourself here
What most excites or inspires me about my LSIL related work is:
Close collaboration with partners
What keeps me awake at night about my research is:
Timely implementation of the project and ensuring due diligence
processes
My main area of interest beyond my LSIL related work is:
Implementation of institutional innovations in value chain
research
Emily
Ouma
E.Ouma@cgiar.org
Kampala, Uganda
Senior Scientist,
Agricultural
Economist
International
Livestock Research
Institute
RWA_Ouma_ILRI (Reach)

Put a photo of
yourself here
What most excites or inspires me about my LSIL related work is:
Working with collaborators across sectors
What keeps me awake at night about my research is:
Getting ethical and other approvals in time
My main area of interest beyond my LSIL related work is:
Implementation research
Valerie
Flax
vflax@rti.org
Chapel Hill, NC
Senior Nutrition
Research Advisor
RTI International
RWA_Ouma_ILRI (Reach)

What most excites or inspires me about my LSIL related work is:
Friendly collaboration between the project team members
What keeps me awake at night about my research is:
Assuring that all project activities are smoothly implemented
My main area of interest beyond my LSIL related work is:
Quality, Safety and Processing of Animal Source Foods
Eugene
Niyonzima
eugeneniyonzima@gmail.c
om
Kigali , Rwanda
Researcher
RWA_Ouma_ILRI (Reach)

Put a photo of
yourself here
What most excites or inspires me about my LSIL related work is:
Being part of relevant research that feeds directly into policy here
in Rwanda.
What keeps me awake at night about my research is:
My main area of interest beyond my LSIL related work is:
Professionally, social behaviour change intervention design and
implementation.
Mary-Ann
Schreiner
Maryann.schreiner@threestonesi
nternational.com
Kigali
Director of Programs
Three Stones
International
RWA_Ouma_ILRI (Reach)

Put a photo of
yourself here
What most excites or inspires me about my LSIL related work is:
Working with researchers from different fields of research
What keeps me awake at night about my research is:
Collecting good quality data for a better future
My main area of interest beyond my LSIL related work is:
Collection of data and production of statistics to support decision
making and strategic planning processes.
Lambert
Izerimana
laizerim@gmail.com
Musanze, Rwanda
Research Assistant
International Livestock
Research Institute
RWA_Ouma_ILRI (Reach)

Future opportunities OR: We wish we
had known:
• The small effect sizes show that
the study may have been able to
detect effects on milk
consumption with a larger sample
size
• The effects of the intervention
might be larger if it lasted for
longer
• Future opportunity: What
supports do Girinka households
need to increase milk intake and
further increase frequency of milk
consumption?
Results or key insights:
• Participation in the Girinka
program increases child growth
• Community health workers
delivered an ASF SBCC
intervention with good coverage
• The ASF SBCC intervention
increased knowledge and
awareness, but had little impact on
child nutrition outcomes
• The percentage of children
consuming milk on the previous
day increased in both study arms,
but was still only 25-30% at
endline
• Many of the households were
selling their milk
Human Health and Nutrition
RWA_Ouma_ILRI (Reach)
RWA_Ouma_ILRI (Reach)

Future opportunities OR: We wish we
had known:
• Catalyzing financial service
providers to design favorable
financial products for the POs to
enable them address financial
capability gaps
• Assessing the cost effectiveness
and sustainability of the in-kind
support provided to the POs and
analyze its impact on milk quality
Results or key insights:
• 89% of the dairy producer organizations
(POs) showed a significant improvement in
performance as compared to baseline. The
dimensions that POs did well included
engagement with output market, effective
and transparent leadership and
management as well as member loyalty.
• Although there was considerable
improvement in knowledge among the POs
due to the CapDev and mentoring
intervention, there was still need to provide
targeted in-kind support to effectively close
the identified capacity and capability gaps.
Human and Institutional Capacity
Development
RWA_Ouma_ILRI (Reach)RWA_Ouma_ILRI (Reach)

Future opportunities OR: We wish we
had known:
• Continuous coaching and
mentoring of women and youth
leaders needed to empower them
to engage in PO operations as well
as vying for top leadership
positions.
• Integrating women empowerment
efforts in nutrition interventions
• Utilization of women
empowerment tools such as WELI,
especially if there is a shorter
version.
Results or key insights:
• There was an improvement in
integration of gender and youth in
the dairy producer organizations
(POs).
Gender and / or Youth
RWA_Ouma_ILRI (Reach)RWA_Ouma_ILRI (Reach)

Future opportunities OR: We wish we
had known:
• Training and certification program of milk
traders on milk handling to improve milk
quality
• Using Girinka program as a platform for
bundling other interventions to improve
milk productivity and nutrition outcomes
Results or key insights:
• Girinka program participation is positively
correlated with household land size and
domestic asset index
• Participation in the Girinka program
increases child growth
• Consumption of Shisha Kibondo (which
contains powered milk) by children <24
months constitutes a major portion of their
ASF consumption
• Levels of milk contamination, by hygiene
indicator bacteria and salmonella prevalence
is relatively high.
• Milk contamination was largely associated
with lack of a cold chain and lack of
knowledge hygienic handling
Policy
RWA_Ouma_ILRI (Reach)
RWA_Ouma_ILRI (Reach)

We collaborated with the
National Early Childhood
Development Program to
develop and implement the
ASF SBCC intervention and
they have incorporated a new
counseling card on ASFs into
the set used by community
health workers nationally
We showed that participation
in the Girinka program has a
beneficial effect on child
growth
We collaborated with the
Rwanda Dairy Development
Project to fund the installation
of an electric water pump and
construction of a water
reservoir to support efforts of
one of the POs to ensure
hygienic handling of milk at
the MCC
We generated evidence on the
high levels of milk
contamination by hygiene
indicator bacteria and
Salmonella prevalence to
inform future food safety
efforts
RWA_Ouma_ILRI (Reach)
RWA_Ouma_ILRI (Reach)
RWA_Ouma_ILRI (Reach)
RWA_Ouma_ILRI (Reach)
Contact: RWA Ouma_ILRI (Reach) -
E.Ouma@cgiar.org
This document is licensed for use under the Creative Commons
Attribution 4.0 International Licence. 2020