Banner image: Josephine, the president of a fish-producing cooperative near Lake Kivu, works alongside other cooperative members to dry out sambaza fish. 

Curious about the work that we do to advance food systems around the globe? In Rwanda, for one, our colleagues are working with farmers, cooperative members, food producers, and agriculture experts to spur economic growth and food security, in particular through two USAID programs: The Feed the Future Rwanda Orora Wihaze Activity and the USAID Cooperative Development Activity 4 (CD4). 

Take this virtual tour to see how our colleagues in Rwanda are advancing sustainable development goals:
 

More About the Projects: Driving Food Markets to Boost Nutrition

The Feed the Future Orora Wihaze Activity is piloting and scaling locally driven, evidence-based solutions to sustainably strengthen inclusive market systems for animal-sourced food production, marketing, and consumption. This market systems development activity increases the availability and affordability of nutritious, animal-sourced foods, while increasing demand for animalsourced food consumption for children 6 – 23 months and women of reproductive age. Venture37 implements the activity alongside its partners Catholic Relief Services, MarketShare Associates, the Manoff Group, and Urunana Development Communications.

The Power of Inclusive Cooperatives

Meanwhile, USAID CD4 is increasing the performance of agricultural cooperatives in Lebanon, Malawi, and Rwanda to improve the livelihoods of cooperative members and their communities. CD4 partners with cooperatives that have leveraged economies of scale through horizontal or vertical integration — working with each partner in the dairy, maize, and horticulture sectors to improve operational management, organizational governance, and business decision-making.

In Rwanda, the activity is working with 25 cooperative organizations from different parts of the country — supporting them to increase profits, and therefore provide better services to their members and their communities. The activity is also making strides in women’s empowerment and gender inclusion — improving women’s confidence, leadership, decision-making power, and economic resilience — against the backdrop of deeply ingrained gender norms and inequitable distribution of gender roles. The activity is currently completing gender-focused research which reveals some of the unequal, harmful power dynamics in rural Rwandan households. The full report will be released in the summer of 2023.

Learn more about our work in Rwanda here.