Banner Image: Orora Wihaze local partners/businesses showcase animal-source food innovations at the final event.

On December 5, 2024, the Feed the Future Rwanda Orora Wihaze Activity (Orora Wihaze) hosted its final event in Kayonza District, Rwanda. The event drew a diverse turnout, with around 500 attendees from across the agriculture sector, such as private sector investors, development implementers, local businesses, financial institutions, and accelerators. The day-long celebration included speeches, product exhibitions and site tours. 

Since 2019, Orora Wihaze has convened local partners and private-sector actors in Rwanda to strengthen private-sector-led value chains and increase demand for animal-sourced foods (ASF). Funded by USAID through Feed the Future, the U.S. Government’s global hunger and food security initiative, Orora Wihaze helped people gain access to nutritious food — with a focus on increasing the nutritional status of women of reproductive age and children. The project used evidence-driven approaches to source, incubate, scale, and replicate innovative solutions to address root constraints in the market system that hamper ASF production and consumption, while boosting market access to rural areas.

Orora Wihaze worked closely with various public-and private-sector partners across eight districts in Rwanda to address constraints affecting the production of ASF, such as small livestock’s vulnerability to disease, lack of quality inputs, and limited skills and knowledge in animal husbandry practices. In addition, the project supported the design of market-oriented solutions while establishing market linkages and business relationships among ASF producers that have ultimately expanded markets for consumers. 

Leveraging an integrated social behavior change strategy to increase community awareness on the importance of ASF consumption, Orora Wihaze has improved women and children’s nutritional status by increasing their knowledge of the nutritional and health benefits of animal-sourced foods. Meanwhile, it also expanded access to affordable products and empowered women to make informed nutrition decisions in their households.

Orora Wihaze improved aggregation and retail models for ASF products distribution, which increased ASF product variety and availability in rural and semi-urban markets. Smallholder farmers and cooperatives improved their livelihoods and economic returns as they were empowered to pursue profitable market prices and stronger business relationships. Furthermore, the project worked with commercial banks and microfinance institutions to adapt their loan products to the needs of livestock producers, dispelling the myth that smallholder livestock farmers are risky borrowers. By partnering with financial institutions such as Reseau Interdiocesain de Microfinance (RIM), Bank of Kigali, Equity and Association of Microfinance Institutions in Rwanda (AMIR), Orora Wihaze promoted innovative financing and technology to facilitate access to finance for market actors in ASF production and processing. This partnership drove the disbursement of affordable loans for smallholder producers to enable further investment and expand production and processing, contributing to stronger linkages between financial institutions and ASF value chain actors.

“We are incredibly proud of Feed the Future Rwanda Orora Wihaze’s impact over the past five years,” said John Ellenberger, Executive Director at Land O’Lakes Venture37, the lead implementing partner. "We’ve seen animal-sourced food production in Rwanda increase significantly over the past few years, as well as meaningful innovations emerge, setting a new standard for what is possible in the livestock sector. These accomplishments are testament to the power of collaboration.” 

In his remarks at the closing event, USAID Rwanda’s Supervisory Contracting Officer Benjamin Lawrence stressed the important connection between the project interventions and collaborative efforts to achieve food security: “Let us unite all our efforts to improve food security and fight against malnutrition. To achieve the future we envision, we need to increase the prevalence of animal-sourced foods in daily diets.” 


Benjamin Lawrence, USAID Rwanda’s Supervisory Contracting Officer, delivers remarks at the event.

To date, Orora Wihaze has reached 180,250 Rwandans through various interventions that increased their production capacity, access to, and consumption of ASF. Furthermore, since 2019, access to a minimum acceptable diet has increased from 45 percent to 66.2 percent of children and from 17 percent to 82.5 percent of women of reproductive age in the Feed the Future zone of influence. The project also leveraged USD $5,307,315 in private sector investment to support food security and nutrition. Additionally, USD $16,202,080 of agricultural-related financing was secured, while producers and firms that received U.S. government assistance reached a sales value of USD $82,569,707. 
 
With funding from Feed-the-Future, the project’s efforts have sustainably laid the groundwork for a strong animal-source foods market system in Rwanda. This presents tremendous opportunities for economic growth, resilience, inclusiveness, and improved nutrition. 


At the final event, attendees visit Zipline's facility to learn about drone delivery technology.

About Feed the Future

Feed the Future is America's initiative to combat global hunger and poverty. It brings partners together to help some of the world’s poorest countries harness the power of agriculture and entrepreneurship to jumpstart their economies and create new opportunities. For more information, visit feedthefuture.gov.