Conduct a Fruit Puree Sterilization and Good Manufacturing Practices Training in Kenya

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USAID-Funded Farmer-to-Farmer Access to Finance ProgramConduct a Fruit Puree Sterilization and Good Manufacturing Practices Training in Kenya

Description of the Program:

Improving Economies for Stronger Communities (IESC) serves as the lead implementer for the Farmer-to-Farmer Access to Finance Program (F2F A2F) to address deficits in the financial ecosystem hindering investment and growth in agriculture for individual farmers, as well as micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises through the delivery of volunteer technical assistance. IESC has designed a thematic F2F program to generate sustainable, broad-based economic growth and create jobs in the agricultural sector with a special focus on assistance to women and youth. Focusing on Kenya, Tanzania, and Liberia, the F2F A2F Program will work with local partner organizations and volunteer hosts to field pro bono experts from the U.S. agriculture, corporate, and banking sectors to address systemic capacity constraints for farmers and lenders in each targeted country and unlock finance for improved agricultural production leading to utilization of agricultural technologies and increased sales and incomes.

Problem Statement:

Kenya’s climatic conditions are ideal for horticulture production. The horticulture industry in Kenya is the fastest growing agricultural sub-sector. While it has immense potential to create jobs and enhance household incomes, it faces numerous challenges, including high post-harvest losses. Post-harvest loss is estimated at 30-50% of production. Efforts to reduce post-harvest losses provide an attractive opportunity to improve incomes, food security and livelihoods. This is being pursued through a range of solutions, among them agro-processing.

The Farmer-to-Farmer Access to Finance Program (F2F A2F) has partnered with a Kenyan based agro-processing company that creates world-class healthy snacks and food ingredients using tubers, fruits and vegetables sourced from smallholder farmers mainly from Eastern parts of Kenya. Its current products include dried fruit, dried fruit rolls, granola, orange flesh sweet potato (OFSP) snacks, and aseptic OFSP puree. The company is hoping to tap into the growing fruit puree market in Kenya and the region. The company has recently acquired and installed a fruit puree processing plant to expand its product offerings by producing various types of fruit puree from tropical fruits such as mango, banana, guava and pawpaw. Its current team has no experience in fruit puree sterilization and the good manufacturing practices specific to fruit puree. The company has incurred huge costs to set up the new processing plant and does not have the resources to hire additional staff. Therefore, they have reached out to F2F A2F to support training its current production team on fruit puree sterilization and good manufacturing practices.

Therefore, F2F A2F is recruiting a U.S. citizen or permanent resident volunteer expert with experience in food processing to train its staff on fruit puree sterilization and good manufacturing practices. Through this support, the F2F A2F volunteer expert will help create a sustainable supply chain, enhance incomes for farmers, and reduce food waste through local value addition.

Objectives of the Assignment:

1. Train a select team on fruit puree sterilization and aseptic packaging
2. Train the company’s production team on good manufacturing practices
3. Identify additional areas that could benefit from F2F A2F technical support

Deliverables:

1. Training materials developed
2. List of people trained
3. A PowerPoint presentation highlighting achievements and recommendations
4. Trip report

Volunteer Support

• IESC provides round-trip economy airfare, lodging, and a daily stipend based on the location of travel. IESC will reimburse visa fees, CDC-recommended and required vaccines, transportation to the airport, and other assignment-related expenses.
• Typically, an in-country staff member accompanies volunteers on the first and final days of their assignment. When volunteers travel independently, our field team checks in daily.
• All drivers, hotels, and assignment locations have been carefully vetted for safety. IESC’s global security advisor is available 24/7 in case of a safety or security concern. If there is security risk, they provide real-time updates in a WhatsApp security group.

Volunteer Outreach:

USAID and IESC encourage all F2F A2F volunteers to participate in public outreach. An important objective of the program is to increase awareness of Americans’ good work in developing countries. Volunteers should select at least one outreach activity from the list below, to be completed within one month of return to the US:

• Write an entry for the IESC website.
• Post a photo, video, or text related to the F2F A2F assignment on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, personal website or other social media site, and send a link to IESC staff.
• Send a press release to a local newspaper in the volunteer’s hometown. (IESC can provide a template)
• Write something for an alumni or professional association newsletter, or other publication. (IESC can help as needed).
• Give a presentation about the F2F A2F assignment to colleagues, students, religious group, rotary club, etc.
• Send an email about F2F A2F to friends, family, or colleagues.

Requested Expertise of Volunteer Expert:

• A master's or doctoral degree in food technology and processing or closely related area
• At least 10 years’ experience working in food processing
• Practical experience in fruit puree manufacturing
• Practical experience in fruit puree sterilization and aseptic packaging
• Practical experience in conducting good manufacturing practices trainings
• Experience working in Kenya and/or the region is a plus
• Strong leadership and communication skills and capacity to plan strategically and flexibly
• Experience delivering group training
• Sufficiently physically fit, with appropriate medical clearance
• Writing Skills: reporting requires good computer skills including, but not limited to, working, and generating reports with MS Word. Experience with PowerPoint presentations is desirable
• Good writing and analytical skills, interpersonal communication, and presentation skills (adult education skills), ability and desire to teach in both classroom and factory settings
• All F2F A2F volunteers must be US citizens or permanent residents

Learn more about the Farmer-to-Farmer Access to Finance Program here: https://iesc.org/program/usaid-f2f-a2f/

You can submit an application directly on the IESC career page: https://phg.tbe.taleo.net/phg01/ats/careers/v2/viewRequisition?org=IESCORG&cws=39&rid=2699

Please reach out to IESC's Volunteer Engagement Associate, Rachel Hyman, with any questions- rhyman@iesc.org