Title Description
Over a one year period, Sathguru assisted a global alliance program, comprising of research institutes and implementing agencies, to breed and disseminate crops for better nutrition through “bio-fortification”, by reshaping the product delivery and implementation strategy for Africa and South Asian markets.
Situation analysis
Our client was on a novel mission to address global malnutrition especially in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asian region, thorough micronutrient bio-fortification of crops adopting conventional breeding, ascertaining bioavailability and disseminating. The initial development steps were laboratory driven while the final step was customer driven.
A multi-country and crop specific product delivery and implementation plan is very crucial for successful implementation of the global program. However, different crops were at varying stages of development and customers were unique for each crop that presented a unique rollout problem to our client. The external environment for product dissemination too posed a significant challenge due to delivery plan in Africa and South Asia.
Scope
The scope of Sathguru’s engagement included:
- Develop country-specific product delivery and implementation plan to facilitate dissemination, marketing and consumer acceptance of bio-fortified crops in target regions.
- Prepare and facilitate communication and advocacy plan including branding, publication production, media and adoption plan outreach for specific crops.
- Facilitate stakeholder meeting and provide support in implementation of delivery plan for iron rich minor millet.
Approach
Sathguru’s adopted a twin pronged approach specific for target countries and identified crops. Sathguru participated in country specific product delivery workshops to assess the product development pathway.
- Interact with leadership and management team capturing the strategic views to evaluate and provide feedback on country specific product delivery plan.
- Summarize, analyze and co-develop the presentations and reports for specific crops in elaborate discussion with project partners to align implementation plan with that of developmental process.
- Understand product value chain, assess potential marketing opportunities and identify stakeholder roles for smooth execution of bio-fortified products to reduce micro nutrient malnutrition among target regions.
- Engage and participate in advocacy workshops to synthesize valuable inputs from middle management and field professionals for dissemination initiatives.
- Develop delivery plan as management tool going forward to support coordination, transparency, and accountability.
- Sathguru conducted an extensive secondary research and collated information from reports, presentations and structured discussions to streamline branding, communication and advocacy issues.
Recommendations
Sathguru made the following specific recommendations to strengthen the client’s global product delivery plan
- Sathguru identified and recommended strategic public and private partners in each of the target country who strengthen the product roll out plan.
- Sathguru recommended linkages with user groups and development institutes that were in sync with Millennium Development Goals for co-branding and product uptake.
- Sathguru recommended specific dissemination strategies for minimize the product roll out time and maximize adoption percentage by targeted approach.
- Sathguru recommended target audience focused marketing, branding and communication plans that were unique to country and product variants.
Impact/Result/Client Benefit
Based on the recommendation, our client partnered with regional strong players that resulted in greater adoption of the bio-fortified products within targeted time. Implementation of outreach plan helped our client to make a visible impact in reaching a larger population thereby reducing malnutrition. New product specific value chains were created that complementary to product delivery and ensure sustainability even beyond the project closure time.