Spencer Henson (IDS)

Delia Grace (ILRI)

Building a Framework for Assessing the Impacts of Efforts to Enhance Access to Nutritious Foods Through In-Depth Analysis of the Grameen Danone Foods Ltd Case

Overview

Introduction

Aims of project

Structure of project

Grameen Danone Foods Ltd

Approach

Introduction

Recognition that ways in which value chains are structured and operate are critical to ability of the poor to access nutritious food

Recognised that need to enhance value chain functioning in terms of nutritional outcomes and impacts:– Needs new ways of thinking about how value chains operate– Need to ‘join up’ concept of diet and product-based value

chains

Been limited analysis of what strategies work best and where in terms of getting value chains to work ‘better’

Need to examine efforts to enhance nutritional outcomes and impacts of value chains in a systematic way

Value chains and diet of the poorDiet

Food 1 Food 2 Food 3 Food 4 Food 5 Food 6 Food 7 Food 8

Overall objective

Develop capacity and an analytical approach for the analysis of value chain-based initiatives aimed at enhancing access and consumption of nutritious foods by the poor and to use this

learning to develop research proposals on leveraging value chains for nutrition.

Aims

Develop an analytical approach to assessing the efficacy of value chain-based initiatives aimed at enhancing access and consumption of nutritious foods by the poor.

Apply the framework to case of Grameen Danone Foods Ltd

Draw general conclusions on the effectiveness of value chain-based initiatives at achieving sustained consumption of nutritious food by the poor.

Develop skills and approaches for understanding the effectiveness of value chain-based interventions that can be employed in a larger and longer-term research programme on value chains for nutritious foods.

Develop a proposal for a major research programme into leveraging value chains for nutritious foods

Partnership

International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)

Institute of Development Studies (IDS)

BRAC

Grameen Danone Foods Ltd

Social enterprise formed in 2006:

– Groupe Danone (50%)

– Grameen Group/Communities (50%)

Danone provided capital of US$500,000 that is fully repayable

Focused on yogurt-based nutritious foods directed at the poor

Proximity-based business model

GAIN provided support on product formulation, social marketing and assessment of nutritional efficacy

Grameen Danone - mission

Offer a product with a high nutritional value

Create jobs

Protect the environment

To be economically viable

Grameen Danone - vision

“Improve the health of in excess of 1 million children and save the life of 15,000 people.”

Shokti Doi

Targeted at children aged 3 to 15 years

Aims to meet 30% of child’s requirement for:

– Vitamin A

– Iron

– Zinc

Needs to be consumed at least twice weekly

Fortified and probiotic yogurt

Packaged in plastic pots providing individual servings

Six day shelf-life

Now extended into range of products:

– Protein enriched

– Flavoured

– Ambient drinking yogurt

Grameen Danone – performance indicators

Number of pots sold and area covered – proxy for consumption

Number of days worked per month X number of pots sold per day – proxy for income

Grameen standards indicators for living conditions

Grameen Danone Foods Ltd – value chain

Smallholder Producers

LargerProducer

Processing Plant

Local Rural Communities

Regional Urban Areas

Metropolitan Areas

‘Shokti Ladies’ Village Stores Urban Stores Urban Stores/ Supermarkets

Kiosks

Chilled Storage Facilities

Analysis of Grameen Danone Foods Ltd to date

Lot of interest in Grameen Danone as a:– Social enterprise– BoP enterprise

Most of analysis applied business case perspective:– Business performance– Business strategy

Perspectives:– ‘Failed BoP enterprise’– ‘Success waiting to happen’

Very limited focus on nutrition:– Work on nutritional efficacy near to completion– No analysis of nutritional outcomes and impacts in practice

Grameen Danone Foods Ltd – potential nutritional impacts

Smallholder Producers

LargerProducer

Processing Plant

Local Rural Communities

Regional Urban Areas

Metropolitan Areas

‘Shokti Ladies’ Village Stores Urban Stores Urban Stores/ Supermarkets

Kiosks

Chilled Storage Facilities

Assessing the efficacy of Grameen Danone Foods Ltd

Sustained access to a nutritious food by the poor

Sustained consumption of the food by target groups at required frequency

Nutritional outcomes on target groups

Economic sustainability of the value chain

Initial appraisal of challenges

Price

Distribution

Quality control and shelf-life

Consumer perceptions and acceptability

Basis of consumer demand

Economic sustainability of the business model

Targeting

Pulling the analysis together

What value chain does or can deliver?

What will ‘make’ the poor use the product

‘appropriately’?

Approach

Framework development

Stakeholder interviews

Interviews with consumers

Quantitative analysis of consumer choice and nutritional impacts

Framework revision

Definition of general conclusions

Definition of research programme

Conceptual framework

Focuses on challenges along value chain that mitigate access of the poor to acceptable nutritious foods

Examines critical processes within and along the value chain

Examines underlying aspects of value chain functioning:– Abilities– Coordination– Integrity

Focus on strategies through which constraints are alleviated:– Key role of ‘pinch points’– Notion that locus of strategies may not be point at which

challenge occurs

Key processes in functioning of value chains for nutritious foods

Enhancing and Maintaining Nutritional

ValueConsumption

Capabilities

Signalling

IntegrityAvailability Value

Affordability

Value Creation Value Capture

Approach

Framework development

Stakeholder interviews

Interviews with consumers

Quantitative analysis of consumer choice and nutritional impacts

Framework revision

Definition of general conclusions

Definition of research programme

Quantitative assessment

Indicators of current consumer behaviour within target groups:

– Locus of purchase versus consumption

– Purchase and consumption behaviour

Stated choice or revealed preference study:

– Factors driving propensity to purchase/consume

Dietary/nutritional assessment of product as actually consumed:

– Impact on diet diversity

– Impact on nutrient intake

Stated choice or revealed preference approach?

Approaches:– Stated preference:

• Conjoint or other form of choice experiment• Contingent valuation

– Revealed preference:• Hedonic pricing• Experimental auction

Issues:– Level and nature of hypothetical bias– Literacy levels of respondents/ability to deal with complex survey

designs– Distinctiveness of Shokti Doi

Dietary/nutritional assessment

Food frequency questionnaire

Analysis:

– Dietary diversity scores?

– Nutrient intake?

– Anthropometrics?

Matched samples of consumers/non-consumers

‘Joining the dots’

Evolution of strategy by Grameen Danone Foods Ltd to address value chain constraints

Ability to access target consumers

Dynamics of consumer behaviour

Viability of up-scaling

Interdependency of distinct target markets and associated distribution systems

Utility of social enterprise and proximity-based business models

Generalisable conclusions

Challenges

Political sensitivity:

– Partners in the initiative

– Bangladesh government

Resources

Timescale

Longer-term research programme

Further develop and validate the framework

Contribute to wider portfolio of strategies to enhance the nutritional outcomes and impacts of value chains

Enhance knowledge of ‘what works where’

Focus on diverse contexts/cases:

– Crops and livestock products

– Agriculture-to-nutrition / Nutrition-to-agriculture

– Geographical coverage

– Innovative interventions

Ultimate aim is wider learning