From 2001 to 2004, ACDI/VOCA’s Dairy Directive Project (DDP) worked throughout Egypt to prevent child malnutrition and the illnesses associated with contaminated and spoiled dairy products by promoting improvements in the dairy sector.
DDP implemented a two-pronged approach: increasing the availability of hygienically processed dairy products throughout Egypt by providing technical training to commercial and smallholder dairy processors, and stimulating demand for safe dairy products through a public awareness campaign about their high nutritional value. The $1.5 million USAID-funded DDP helped to decrease the rate of malnutrition and infant/child mortality in the 6 target Egyptian governorates from an average of 45 deaths per thousand children under the age of 5 in 2000 to 40 in 2004, according to Ministry of Health data. To achieve this, DDP increased the availability of safe, hygienic processed dairy products and played a large role in increasing consumer demand for retail milk and dairy products, with retail prices increasing by more than 16 percent during the life of the project, which reduced the price gap between loose and packaged milk by 37 percent.
When the project began, over 90 percent of the milk sold in Egypt was purchased from “street peddlers,” men on donkeys, bicycles and motorcycles who sell milk from large aluminum containers. This unpasteurized and unrefrigerated milk came from village collection tanks and was commonly tainted with canal water, formalyn and even livestock waste. In contrast, the commercial production system, while more sanitary, was characterized by inefficiency and substandard practice as well as a lack of timely services, supplies and inputs. In addition, there was a traditional belief in Egypt that packaged and processed foods were less fresh and nutritious. Through its trainings and media outreach, DDP educated 41,745 smallholder mothers and other primary family caretakers who participated in 1,979 village meetings on safe milk-handling practices and the nutritional value of dairy products. In a DPP survey of 12,181 participants, all of the families adopted at least 10 of the 12 DDP milk-handling recommendations, and 19.6 percent adopted all 12, constituting a 20-times increase over DDP’s initial target of 2,000 smallholder families.
An important tool for increasing awareness was DDP’s successful media campaign, which consisted of over $13 million in donated free airtime on local television channels to broadcast 24 public service ads promoting safe dairy handling and providing nutrition information to 58.3 million viewers. Other media results include:
- 58,574 children viewed 3 feature-length DDP videos of entertaining characters and lively original songs to learn about the nutritional benefits of dairy products
- 20,000 copies of 5 educational brochures designed and distributed by DDP to relay the project’s message of the importance of clean, safe milk
- 3,000 calendars distributed annually for 3 years containing health tips and recipes for cooking with dairy products
- 3 radio dramas aired with plot elements promoting safe, sanitary dairy products and dairy-based nutrition
Working with the Egyptian Ministry of Health, DDP conducted training for 247 health educators agents (HEAs), whose role involved conducting village-based meetings and household-level follow-up to provide improved, hygienic milking, processing and consumption patterns among smallholder families. DDP also cycled all 247 of these HEAs through its “training of trainers” courses, leaving the HEAs with the capacity to train others in the future. At project close, these core HEAs had trained 1,385 other incoming HEAs. With this strategy, DDP fostered the commitment of the ministry to continue supporting HEA activities as part of its own strategy.
While the project focused on commercial dairy processors and smallholder dairy producers, significant additional benefits accrued across the entire dairy industry in the form of linkages between commercial producers and processor associations. In particular, the project supported the development of the Egyptian dairy sector by:
- delivering technical and managerial assistance to commercial dairy processors
- assisting the Egyptian dairy industry to form a dairy processors’ association
- conducting a national public awareness campaign for dairy-product use and safety
- http://www.acdivoca.org/site/ID/egyptDDP
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