The Reaching Agents of Change (RAC) Project advocates for increased investment in orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP) to combat vitamin A deficiency (VAD) among young children and women of reproductive age.  RAC also builds institutional capacity to design and implement gender-sensitive projects to ensure wide access and utilization of OFSP in selected African countries.  Its efforts contribute to the broader Sweetpotato for Profit and Health Initiative (SPHI), which aims to improve the lives of 10 million African families by 2020.

HOW WE MAXIMIZE IMPACT:

• Advocacy – building a cadre of national & regional advocates and champions; creating a regional advocacy platform. These are anchored and facilitated by RAC officials, but remain hosted in national institutions (public, private, NGOs and CBOs) to ensure sustainability,
• Fund raising – focus on governments (national and regional) for policy change (sustainable support), private sector and CBOs (for sustainability) and other funders e.g. donors and NGOS
• Nutrition Education – RAC engages mass media (television, radio and newspapers) to disseminate nutrition education relating to the value of OFSP to combat VAD. This in effect drives demand for OFSP as a food based approach to combat VAD.
• Institutional capacity – strengthening the capacity of national training partners to deliver TOTs courses; capacity to design, source for funds, implement, monitor and evaluate OFSP projects (research & extension organizations – public and private – for long term support to develop OFSP (technology), seed distribution and adoption, nutrition and health – for effective utilization of OFSP to combat VAD, private sector for agro-processing and marketing of OFSP products. RAC also builds the capacity of partner agencies through customized project planning and implementation course to design fundable projects, implement, monitor and evaluate.