Fintrac Harvest Fall 2010

Fintrac expands analytical division

WASHINGTON — Food aid decisions in developing countries are getting easier as Fintrac’s D.C.-based BEST program continues to refine and standardize the analysis that the U.S. government needs to make food aid decisions.

The program, which ended this summer as Fintrac launched the new USAID-Kenya Horticulture Competitiveness Program, built strong working relationships with nearly 70 private sector companies and government agencies to deliver services to smallholders and provided direct technical assistance through agronomists based in xx provinces.

In it’s third year of implementation, the BEST team, which is short for Bellmon Estimation for Title II, added new economists, analysts and editors.

The reports are in-depth looks at food security, markets and logistics that help the U.S. government decide how food aid will affect markets and deliver the most effective assistance.

“I cannot say enough about how important and valuable this document is,” said Mark Wentling, a USAID/WA Country Program Manager for Burkina Faso, of a recent BEST analysis.

The team recently returned from Haiti, to assess the situation there in the aftermath of the January earthquake and also conducted in-country studies in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“This program has put knowledge into our heads,” said Bwogi group member Joshua Owuor. “Now that we know, we can push poverty away.” Fintrac also taught small farmers other new technologies such as low-cost greenhouse production. Penina Omollo of the Karawa