1) The project aims to develop a framework to assess the effectiveness of value chain initiatives at improving access to nutritious foods for the poor using the Grameen Danone Foods Ltd case study. 2) Grameen Danone Foods Ltd is a social enterprise formed in 2006 by Groupe Danone and Grameen Group to produce and distribute fortified yogurt targeted at malnourished children. 3) The analysis will examine how well the value chain delivers nutritious products to consumers, how well consumers are able to access and properly consume the products, and the economic sustainability of the business model.

1. 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

2. Overview
Introduction
Aims of project
Structure of project
Grameen Danone Foods Ltd
Approach

3. 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

4. Value chains and diet of the poorDiet
Food 1 Food 2 Food 3 Food 4 Food 5 Food 6 Food 7 Food 8

5. 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.

6. 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

7. Partnership
International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)
Institute of Development Studies (IDS)
BRAC

8. 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

9. Grameen Danone - mission
Offer a product with a high nutritional value
Create jobs
Protect the environment
To be economically viable

10. Grameen Danone - vision
“Improve the health of in excess of 1 million
children and save the life of 15,000 people.”

11. 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

12. 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

13. Grameen Danone Foods Ltd – value chain
Smallholder
Producers
Larger
Producer
Processing Plant
Local Rural
Communities
Regional Urban
Areas
Metropolitan
Areas
‘Shokti Ladies’ Village Stores Urban Stores Urban Stores/
Supermarkets
Kiosks
Chilled Storage
Facilities

14. 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

15. Grameen Danone Foods Ltd – potential nutritional impacts
Smallholder
Producers
Larger
Producer
Processing Plant
Local Rural
Communities
Regional Urban
Areas
Metropolitan
Areas
‘Shokti Ladies’ Village Stores Urban Stores Urban Stores/
Supermarkets
Kiosks
Chilled Storage
Facilities

16. 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

17. 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

18. Pulling the analysis together
What value chain does
or can deliver?
What will ‘make’ the
poor use the product
‘appropriately’?

19. 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

20. 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

21. Key processes in functioning of value chains for
nutritious foods
Enhancing and
Maintaining Nutritional
Value
Consumption
Capabilities
Signalling
Integrity
Availability Value
Affordability
Value Creation Value Capture

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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

25. Dietary/nutritional assessment
Food frequency questionnaire
Analysis:
– Dietary diversity scores?
– Nutrient intake?
– Anthropometrics?
Matched samples of consumers/non-consumers

26. ‘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

27. Challenges
Political sensitivity:
– Partners in the initiative
– Bangladesh government
Resources
Timescale

28. 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