Who we are
The Alliance for Inclusive and Nutritious Food Processing (AINFP) is a partnership between USAID, TechnoServe, and Partners in Food Solutions (PFS) that aims to create a more competitive food-processing sector.
TechnoServe, the implementing partner, works with enterprising people in the developing world to build competitive farms, businesses, and industries. We are a non-profit organization that develops business solutions to poverty by linking people to information, capital, and markets. Our work is rooted in the idea that given the opportunity, hardworking men and women in even the poorest places can generate income, jobs, and wealth for their families and communities. With more than four decades of proven results, we believe in the power of private enterprise to transform lives.
The Alliance for Inclusive and Nutritious Food Processing (AINFP) unlocks potential by providing technical assistance and sector-wide training to food processors in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia. The five-year, $20 million public-private partnership leverages the power of the private sector to create better nutritional outcomes for vulnerable consumers and more profitable market opportunities for local farmers.
AINFP is co-funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, as part of the U.S. Government’s Feed the Future initiative, and by the non-profit Partners in Food Solutions, through private funding and in-kind contributions of employee time from its corporate partners. TechnoServe, a non-profit specializing in business solutions to poverty, is leading project implementation on the ground.
Employee volunteers from Partners in Food Solutions’ member companies – General Mills, Cargill, DSM, Bühler, The Hershey Company, Ardent Mills and The J.M. Smucker Company – and TechnoServe staff apply their expertise to help processors of nutritious foods, including supplementary and therapeutic foods, address the manufacturing and business challenges that limit their growth. The program aims to provide training on best practices to an additional 500 food processors by 2023. Additionally, ISF Advisors, a project partner, works with financial institutions and other actors to help food processors access the financing they need to grow.
AINFP also helps strengthen food processors’ linkages up and down the value chain. The project works with food processors to develop strategies to profitably source more crops from local farmers, opening up a more stable market for those growers. The initiative additionally works with the food processors to ensure that their nutritious products get into the hands of vulnerable consumers by developing new marketing strategies and sales channels.
Boosting Nutrition and Opportunity
What drives us?
The inability to access safe, nutritious, and affordable food is a problem for many people across East and Southern Africa. In Kenya and Tanzania, more than a quarter of children under the age of 5 exhibit stunting – evidence of undernutrition – while that figure rises to 40 percent in Ethiopia and Zambia. At the same time, millions of smallholder farmers struggle to find profitable markets for their food crops, and sub-Saharan Africa imports $50 billion of food every year. A more effective local food processing sector would help to address both challenges, increasing the supply of nutritious food available for consumers and providing a profitable and stable market for the region’s farmers.
Partners
