Assessing the feeding capabilities of a school yoghurt programme in Mgeta, Tanzania

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------A report as part of EDS 384, as partial fulfillment for a Masters in Development Studies at the
Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB), in collaboration with the Sokoine University of
Agriculture (SUA).
Linn Sissel Jckle
Brett Sandra Trainor

1.0. Executive Summary

A modified Sustainability Strategy Framework (SSF) was used to order to analyze how many
pupils at Nyandira Primary School are in need of a school feeding programme, how many pupils
are being reached by the current school yoghurt programme, and what factors affect their
receival of yoghurt. To assess the current need for school feeding at Nyandira, interviews that
emphasized quantitative data were used. To find explanations for quantitative trends observed,
qualitative interview questions were used. A definite need and demand for a school feeding
programme was identified. Factors identified that affect whether pupils receive yoghurt include a
lack of institutional presence governed with the responsibility of supervising proper
implementation of the programme, miscommunication and mistrust between the different
stakeholders, and family spending capabilities that fluctuate according to season. The creation of
a school breakfast programme and clearer institutional structures were recommended, while
greater local ownership through less reliance on foreign funding was suggested to improve the
yoghurt programmes sustainability.
2.0. Introduction
In 1988, five Norwegian dairy goats were introduced to three villages in the Mgeta region of
Morogoro district of Tanzania (Nyandira, Tchenzema, and Mwarazi). Through the success of
this joint partnership with the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB) and the Sokoine
University of Agriculture (SUA), over 1500 dairy goats currently thrive in the Uluguru
mountains in Mgeta. After 30 years, the goat milk value chain has now been expanded to include
small scale goat farmers, a yoghurt cooperative and processing center called Twawose, a goatempowerment program for vulnerable children, and a school yoghurt programme (SYP) at a
local primary school, Nyandira.
The SYP at Nyandira is a collaborative effort between Twawose and the Yoghurt Project, which
is privately run by 3 individuals. Initiated on the 16th of July 2012, the SYP began to deliver 250
mL of yoghurt once per week to pupils at Nyandira Primary School whom have paid the monthly
cost of TSH 1000/L. This amount represents 50% of the total market cost of TSH 2000/L, as the
other 50% is covered by private Norwegian aid, which is administered through the Yoghurt
Project. For the initial three weeks of the SYP, 450-550 pupils received yoghurt once a week.

However, collecting payment from parents and pupils became a problem, and the number of
child recipients dropped drastically; in May 2013, only 3% of Nyandira pupils were reached by
the SYP. It was originally unclear what factors were influencing this decline in enrollment, but
factors such as seasonal incomes and a disbelief in the importance of yoghurt are believed to play
a large role.
The scope of this paper is to assess which factors are truly affecting whether pupils receive goat
yoghurt at school, while also identifying expansion and improvement possibilities for the current
SYP. By interviewing pupils, parents, teachers, and members of both the Twawose and the
Yoghurt Project, the research team used a bottom-up approach to collect both qualitative and
quantitative data. The two main and guiding objective of the papers are to identify factors that
affect whether pupils receive yoghurt at NPS and to identify expansion possibilities for the
current school feeding programme. In 2012 the WFP, WB and PCD published a Sustainability
Strategy Framework (SSF) designed to develop sustainable school feeding programmes in
developing countries. The purpose of the publishing of the SSF is to offer a guiding line for
developing sustainable school feeding programmes. We use a modified SSF as an analytical
framework to guide our research and data analysis, because our objectives harmonize with and
are addressed by the objectives and steps suggested by SSF. We modify the framework by
adding two additional questions that we need to answer in order to fully answer our objectives.
The research team has striven to work in harmony with both the Twawose and the Yoghurt
Project, as we believe that they are in the strongest position to positively influence child food
security at school at Nyandira. Our aim is not solely for this research to be used as an exercise
for our Masters Field Course (EDS 384), but for it to effect tangible positive change in the Mgeta
community by formulating recommendations for possible changes, developing further research
questions, and most importantly by sharing the results of our 10 days of research in Mgeta.
3.0. Background
3.1. Twawose Cooperative vs. the Yoghurt Project
It is useful to differentiate between the two Twawose stakeholders at the beginning of the
report in order to avoid confusion throughout the remainder of this paper.

3.1.1. Twawose Cooperative

Twawose is made up of small-scale goat farmers in the Mgeta district, and was established as a
goat farmers cooperative in 1998 (Lie, 2011). It was initially created due to the sustained
collaboration between SUA and UMB, and has been supported by both the PANTIL and
EPINAV programmes, the second of which it is involved with now (EPINAV, 2011). The roles
of Twawose include creating a network for all local farmers who own a Norwegian dairy goat,
facilitating goat husbandry training, taking charge of the pure bred Norwegian buck in order to
breed crosses, and organizing the sale of live goats (Lie, 2011). In 2010, Twawose expanded
from just a farmers cooperative to a yoghurt processing plant (Lie, 2011). The Yoghurt Project
explained that the idea to produce yoghurt came from SUA, and the processing centre, yoghurt
training, and the cost of the new yoghurt sachets is covered by SUA funds. Just like its
translation from the local Luguri language, let us come together, Twawoses 668 members
have helped positively contribute to household and community food security in Mgeta, as well as
community nutrition (Twawose, 2012).
Twawoses role in the SYP is twofold, as explained during our interview with the cooperative.
They aim to use Nyandira School as another way to expand their market, while also striving to
ensure that all 716 students at Nyandira Primary School receive yoghurt at least once a week. In
terms of Twawoses specific duties in the implementation of the SYP, they are in charge of
collecting ample milk from cooperative members, producing yoghurt according to registration
numbers from Nyandira Primary School, and then delivering yoghurt to Nyandira Primary
School twice per week. They are completely in charge of the entire day-to-day activities
associated with the SYP, including meeting with teachers and deciding on yoghurt delivery time
and portions. The teachers, in turn, communicate details about the SYP to parents.
Since paying 1000 TSH for yoghurt is an extra cost burdened by families, 50% of the total cost
(2000 TSH) is covered by external funding provided by Norwegian aid (Twawose, 2012). The
form of Norwegian aid is not governmental; it is direct aid from individuals who have heard
about the programme through the members of the Twawose Yoghurt Project. The Yoghurt
Project has a website where potential donors can transfer money online to both of the Yoghurt

Projects initiatives: giving goats to vulnerable children and providing yoghurt at school
(Twawose, 2012).
Although Twawose has been historically supported by the PANTIL dairy goat projects in
Tanzania, at this time, dairy goat keepers in Mgeta, as well as Twawose, ...[do] not receive any
direct support from SUA or UMB (Lie, 2011, p.16). This is because developing Twawose as an
organization is not currently a focus of PANTILs dairy goat projects in Tanzania, which have
shifted to a focus on the possibility of introducing cashmere goats (Lie, 2011, p. 16). After the
phasing out of PANTIL, Twawose is currently involved in the activities of the EPINAV project
in Mgeta, which seek to enhance livelihood security and human capacity to target communities
through up-scaling of pro-poor innovative dairy goat technologies, such as yoghurt processing
(EPINAV, 2011). Despite the fact that Twawose is currently supported under the EPINAV
umbrella, the function of the SYP relies on Norwegian funds, not EPINAV funds. The research
team acknowledges the dangers of the SYPs sustainability due to a reliance on foreign funding,
which is why the research has focused on identifying factors that are hampering the local
communitys ability to sustain the programme, instead of the sustainability of foreign funding.
At this point in time, local factors must be identified and strengthened, so that the Norwegian
funding is a method of improving an already fully-functioning school feeding programme,
instead of the cornerstone of the SYPs success.
3.1.2. The Yoghurt Project
Whereas Twawose is run by community members with a personal stake in the project outcomes,
namely household income and a livelihood, the Yoghurt Project is run by a few individuals with
a personal interest in the SYP. The main goals of the Yoghurt Project is to partner with Twawose
and facilitate their work, with an overarching goal to improve local livelihoods and nutrition,
focusing especially on small-scale farmers and vulnerable youth in Mgeta (Twawose, 2012).
The Yoghurt Project aims to work in the background, giving Twawose the independence and
responsibility to run the SYP according to their own criteria and based on their own priorities.
The following explanation was obtained through an interview with one member of the Yoghurt
Project. According to her, one main role the Yoghurt Project plays in the implementation of the

SYP is their role as a donor; they connect Norwegian aid to the SYP at Nyandira, despite not
being an official institution or organization. Steps have been taken to register it as a Norwegian
Forening to make it more formal, but no time frame on this is in place yet .The Yoghurt
Project is privately run and privately funded, and originated from the work of Helene Lie, a PhD
student from Norway. Helene originally came to Tanzania as part of the Norwegian Peace Core
(Fredskorpset), a professional exchange program supported by the Norwegian Agency for
Development Cooperation (NORAD). Through a partnership with SUA and UMB, she was thus
employed by UMB to work at SUA, although her wage was paid by the Norwegian Peace Core.
Once in Tanzania, she began working in Mgeta, and it was here that she sought to improve
smallholder livelihoods through the expansion of the goat milk value chain. In her previous
Masters thesis entitled Making better use of goats in Tanzania-improving local livelihoods
through local value chains for goat milk yoghurt: a case study, she suggests using schools and
orphanages as an innovative way to expand the goat milk value chain. She states,
To realize this opportunity, these institutions must depend on external funding to be able to
comply with a contract of regular supply of yoghurt. School feeding programs in Tanzania where
milk is included are few and where they exist they are partly funded by the processor and most
often partly by an international organization (Njombe & Msanga 2009). No national school
feeding program[me] is currently in operation. Tanzania Dairy Board, however, states as part of
their mission to establish school milk feeding programs, which might be an opportunity for the
future, if a donor does not appear that can take on the costs now. (Lie, 2011, p. 77).
As illustrated above, Helenes idea to create the Yoghurt Project stemmed from her connection
to SUA and UMB. However, the creation and implementation of the Yoghurt Project was done
as a private initiative. With the help of Solomon Nicholaus, a member of the Nyandira/Mgeta
community who has for years been working on local developmental efforts but is not directly
affiliated with SUA or UMB, Helene partnered with Twawose and implemented the Yoghurt
Project independent from any funding or project planning assistance from SUA. The Yoghurt
Project, of course, does not exist in isolation and is intrinsically linked to the success of
Twawose as a business, but it is not directly linked to any sort of institutional project
implementation or funding.

The Yoghurt Project has thus emerged as this external donor that Helene expressed need for in
her Masters thesis, in place of the inexistent national school feeding programme in Tanzania.
Perhaps in the future the Tanzanian state will be able to provide school feeding programmes in
all primary schools across the country, but until then, the Yoghurt Project is using Norwegian
funds to subsidize the programme costs and facilitate the current SYP in Nyandira.
Although both Twawose groups are made up of very different individuals, both share the same
goal and vision for the Nyandira community, namely to increase the nutritional status,
livelihoods, and food security of Nyandira residents. We share their vision, and intend our
research to focus specifically on the nutritional status and food security of pupils at Nyandira
School.
3.2. Overview of Nyandira
The Mgeta division of the Mvomero District is made up of 11 wards and 44 villages, Nyandira
being one of them (Government of Tanzania, 2008). This rural highland, on the western slopes of
the Uluguru mountains, lies between 1100 and 1750 meters above sea level, and is connected by
steep, bumpy, and sometimes flooded roads (Eik et al., 2008). The 40 km journey to the nearest
city, Morogoro, can take anyway from 1 to 4 hours depending on the weather and mode of
transportation. This makes the expansion of Twawoses market difficult, since transportation to
other villages is dependent on weather and road maintenance.
Cooler mountain climates exist in Nyandira, as compared to the rest of the Morogoro district,
with temperatures that range from 11 to 23C, and a dry season that exists between June and
September (Lie, 2011). During this time of year, inconsistent incomes, variable yields, and a lack
of alternative income have a high influence on household livelihoods and food security (Lie,
2011). Seasonality also plays a large role, since agriculture farmers are planting and working in
the fields from March until June, and are not generating any income. Furthermore, arable land is
intensively used in Mgeta [especially Nyandira], and there is little or no opportunity for
expansion, which is a considerable restraint to improving livelihoods in the region (Lie, 2011, p.
14).

3.3. Dairy Goats in Mgeta

As mentioned in Section 2.0, Norwegian dairy goats came to Mgeta in the late 1980s as part of a
research collaboration between SUA and UMB, with an aim to improve household nutrition and
income. Even though indigenous goats require much less attention, work, and inputs, as
compared to Norwegian goats, a smallholder farmer receives a much greater revenue from
Norwegian milk and meat, thus justifying the extra care needed to maintain them (Lie, 2011).
This is because Norwegian goats provide a larger quantity of milk than indigenous goats,
meaning they provide households whose income is prone to seasonal fluctuations with a
continuous and more stable income flow (Lie, 2011). This is especially relevant and important
for Mgeta, where we observed that seasonal vegetable production affects household income.
Compared to cattle, keeping dairy goats has also been shown as a cheap way of improving living
conditions of many smallholders (Mtenge, 1984, cited in Eik et. al., 2008). Keeping cattle in
mountainous terrain, like that of Mgeta, is also extremely difficult. Thus, prior to the
implementation of these Norwegian goats, there was no access to milk in the Mgeta region (Lie,
2011).
By the 1990s, it seemed that the extra care given to the Norwegian goats had paid off; projected
goals of increased food security, income, and improved diet for smallholder farmers in Mgeta
were reached, and the dairy goat project was considered a success (Lie, 2011). Both local
farmers and researchers from SUA recognized the value of dairy goats to ...alleviate poverty
among dairy goat keepers by enabling them to realize and instant income (Lie, 2011, p. 17), and
a community desire arose to develop the project further.
Consumption of milk is low in Tanzania as compared to other East African countries, despite
having more dairy goats and cattle. On average, Tanzanians consumed 39 L/milk/year in 2009,
which is considerably less than Kenyans (100 L/year) and Ugandans (50 L/year), especially since
the WHO recommends a minimum of 200 L/year (Lie, 2011). In a region such as Nyandira,
where negative cultural stigmas discourage the consumption of goat milk products, its essential
to increase community knowledge and acceptance of goat milk products. According to Peacock
(2008), goats are associated with poverty, whereas owning cattle is associated with wealth; this

fosters a low interest in developing the goat milk industry (cited in Lie, p. 8-9). It should be
clarified that since yoghurt is a goat milk product, its benefits and importance are viewed as
similar for the scope of this paper and we do not differentiate between the two.
4.0 Problem Statement and Rationale for a School Feeding Programme in Nyandira
4.1 The situation in Tanzania
In Tanzania, 38% and 22% of the population lives below the food poverty and basic poverty
lines, respectively, meaning household food insecurity is a common problem (Lie, 2011, p. 14).
Children who are not fed adequately at home arrive at school hungry, and this state is
exacerbated by going an entire day with nothing to eat.
Currently, short-term hunger as a result of a lack of school feeding programs among school
children is a significant problem [in Tanzania] (Mamuya, 2004). Short term hunger is directly
linked to absenteeism, attention problems, and dropouts, especially in areas that are vulnerable to
famine, or in Mgetas case, seasonal crop yield and income generation (Mamuya, 2004). Shortterm hunger results in undernourishment, which makes it more difficult for children to study and
perform at an optimal level, both physically and mentally (FAO, 2006). Absenteeism and school
dropouts occur because children are forced to look for a way to obtain food during school hours
(Mamuya, 2004). Thirdly, hungry students lack the ability to concentrate, formulate ideas, and
learn at their full potential (Mamuya, 2004). The above problems result in children being
educated poorly, or not at all. The purpose of a school feeding programme is to fight this
aforementioned short term hunger and the malnutrition that stems from it. According to Eik et al.
(2005), one way of mitigating the problem of malnutrition is to encourage milk production
enterprises among small-scale farmers (p. 280).
In continuation, according to the Child Nutrition Forum , 50-75% of Tanzanian children attend
school without breakfast, which means that without a school feeding program a majority of
students go an entire day without eating (Mamuya 2004). Going an entire day with no food has
dire consequences for the quality of a childs education and their ability to perform on
standardized tests, a problem that must be resolved in a country that is currently emphasizing

Big Results Now (BRN). These problems could occur at Nyandira Primary School, if students
do not obtain food at home or at school during lunch.
4.2. National policies, not national practice
The Tanzanian state is working to transition to a middle income country by 2025, and their goal
is to receive Big Fast Results by focusing on six main sectors of the economy: energy and
natural gas, agriculture, water, education, transport, and mobilization of resources. In terms of
education, they hope to increase the pass rate in primary and secondary schools, but have
disregarded any sort of school feeding programmes as a strategy to do so, focusing instead on
ranking schools based on current performance to bring community engagement and awareness
(National Examinations Council of Tanzania, 2013). It seems that the state is lacking a holistic
approach to school feeding, thus the state risks the success of its national agenda by neglecting to
provide a conducive learning environment with proper food, teachers, and supplies before
expecting BRN.
In terms of the funding and provision of school feeding programmes, providing milk in schools
has not historically been a public good in Tanzania, which means that central and municipal
governments are not responsible to provide children with milk at school (Ministry of Water and
Livestock Development, 2005). This has resulted nationally in a severe lack of school feeding
programme structures. Instead of national funding, the use of foreign NGOs and multilateral
institutions has been used for their ability to provide milk to schools at no governmental cost.
However, it will be shown in the remainder of the paper that the best and most sustainable school
feeding strategies are locally owned and funded, and rely on some sort of parent contribution; the
complete opposite of what has been historically suggested by the Tanzanian state.
Tanzanas National Livestock Policy Statement on School Milk Feeding Programmes says that
facilitating and strengthening the local milk market and assisting the private sector to invest in
the industry is important in promoting milk consumption at school (A. P. Njombe and Y. N.
Msanga, 2012). Children are also identified as the neediest group to receive governmental
feeding programmes, as according to the National Health Policy of 2007, which emphasizes

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feeding to prevent, maintain, and build health (Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development,
2012).
A National School Milk Feeding Program is also in existence, and involves provision at
minimum [subsidized] prices to children during accepted days of the week (Mamuya, 3). The
Tanzanian Ministry of Water and Livestock Development has released a document on School
Milk Feeding Programmes in Tanzania, which explains that the state has sought to increase milk
consumption levels by creating a Milk Consumption Promotion Week each June since 1999, as
well as a School Milk Feeding Programme in 2002 (Ministry of Water and Livestock
Development, 2005). However this national programme was better implemented in Kilimanjaro,
Arusha, Dar es Salaam and Tanga regions, meaning that this national programme has not ever
been implemented in Mgeta (Ministry of Water and Livestock Development, 2005, p. 5).
Subsequently, the Yoghurt Project has partnered with Twawose and stepped in to fill the schoolfeeding role that the government is not fulfilling, as mentioned in Section 2.4.
In 2012, the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries launched a government School Milk Feeding
Program that has a 10 year programme geared towards eventually providing 3.5 million children
with milk at school (School Milk Feeding Programme Powerpoint, 2012). It plans on providing
each enrolled student with 250 mL of milk/day; beginning with 90 000 students in 31 districts, it
will be expanded by 50% annually, as milk collection and processing capacity increases. This
policy, although promising, has not currently reached Nyandira and it is unclear if it will ever be
included.
4.3. The situation in Nyandira; putting a national problem in local context
In the entire Morogoro region, the nutritional status of children and adults in villages that did not
keep dairy goats was considerably lower than those that did; this could be due to a lack of animal
proteins in their diet (Kinabo et. al., 2003). This, coupled with a lack of national school feeding
structure implementation, has resulted in the need for many rural villages to take complete
ownership and responsibility to provide meals at schools.

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Until this point, there has been no formal program assessment of the SYP at Nyandira Primary
School. This is largely due to the fact that the SYP only started a year ago, and that there is no
institution governed with the responsibility of its success. It is crucial to know the exact reasons
that prevent parents from being able to pay for the yoghurt each week in order to increase the
amount of pupils receiving goat yoghurt and solve the issue of declining enrollment. Is the price
of yoghurt more difficult to pay during certain seasons, or for certain families? Do the parents
perhaps not believe in the benefits of yogurt consumption and prefer to spend extra household
money on more traditional food staples? Answers to the above questions, as well as others that
will undoubtedly surface during the course of our research, will identify limits of the school goat
milk project and potentially identify opportunities for improvement.
It is essential to discuss that the research team views the problem of sustainability as resulting
from the current gaps in the SYP and not from the presence of Norwegian funding. The current
issue is not financial capability from the Norwegian side, as the amount of funds that are being
provided are sufficient and only exist as a substitute to a lack of national school feeding
programmes in Nyandira. The problem is the temptation to expand the SYP before it can be
sustained without the Norwegian funds. This is why we have excluded a detailed analysis of the
sustainability issues in regard to funding from this report, and focused instead on how local
ownership on the programme functionality can be improved.
4.4. Relation to food security; research justification
According to the FAO, food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and
economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food
preferences for an active and healthy life. (World Food Summit, 1996). This definition focuses
on the multidimensional nature of food security, and includes availability, access, utilization, and
stability. Stability is an especially important aspect of food security in Mgeta; seasonal food
insecurity results from March to June, since farmers spend these months planting and working in
the fields, instead of harvesting and receiving an income from the sale of vegetable cash crops
(Twawose, 2012). For the scope of this paper, when we refer to food security we will be
specifically referencing short-term food security at school, which is manifested as short-term
hunger in students. It is difficult to define the specific food security status of each child at school

12

because we do not know what sort of food they receive at home, thus our focus is on hunger at
school, and what factors are contributing to their inability to receive yoghurt, which we assume
results in classroom hunger.
By expanding the Twawose yoghurt market and increasing the number of children who receive
yoghurt each week at Nyandira Primary school, the research team expects and hopes that pupils
will become increasingly food secure, as it was found by Eik et. al. (2008) that ...the
introduction of dairy goats has greatly improved food security in the area [Mgeta]. (p. 8).
5.0. Research Context
5.1. Research Objectives
Objective 1: To identify factors that affect pupils receiving goat yoghurt at Nyandira Primary
School.
Objective 2: To identify expansion possibilities for the current school feeding programme at
Nyandira Primary School.
5.2. Importance of School Feeding Programmes
In a joint publication written by the WFP and the WB, Rethinking School Feeding (Bundy et al.,
2009), school feeding programmes are important because they act as social safety net[s] for
children living in poverty and food insecurity (... p. 5). They can also incentivize households to
send their children to school, and allow children to maximize their learning capabilities while
there. Furthermore, Bundy et al. (2009) explains that school feeding programmes can also
generate a structured and predictable demand for food products that can benefit farmers by
building the market and the enabling systems around it (p. 5). In the context of Mgeta, the
current SYP attempts to increase nutrition and food security at school, in order to curb short-term
hunger and increase concentration and physical presence in the classroom. Its connection to the
Nyandira goat milk value-chain has also benefited small-scale farmers in the Mgeta region, as
well as local enabling systems such as the TYC. In the following section, Bundy et al.s
publication will be discussed due to its integral role in a School Feeding Sustainability Strategy
that was used as an analytical tool for this research.

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6.0 Analytical Methodology

6.1. Introduction to Framework
The research team decided to use the newly published Sustainability Strategy Framework both
to organize and analyze the collected data. This strategy stems from a collaborative report by the
World Bank (WB), the Child Development Fund (CDF), and the World Food Program (WFP),
and is entitled A Guidance Note to Develop a National Sustainability Strategy. It is geared
towards facilitating government transition from externally-supported projects to nationallyowned sustainable and cost-effective school feeding programmes (.... p. 4). An important aspect
of the strategy is its flexibility to be adopted to context-specific problems and local needs,
where objectives and content will be distinctive to each country and defined by the government,
in consultation with the main stakeholders (...p. 4).
6.2. Framework outline
The purpose of the Sustainability strategy is threefold; it seeks to [explain] where school
feeding is coming from, where it is going, and what needs to be done to ensure national school
feeding policies and programmes are put in place and strengthened (... p. 7). It has many goals,
which include achieving an understanding of local school feeding practices, providing a practical
roadmap to achieve a specified vision, setting needs for capacity development, creating
mechanisms for partner engagement, providing baseline information, and offering support and
mobilization of resources. Core phases of the Sustainability Strategy are emphasized, and
include: Phase 1. Pre-Development and Process, Phase 2. Assess Current School Feeding and
Stakeholder Mapping, Phase 3. Identify Priority Areas and Develop a Roadmap, Phase 4.
Validation, and Phase 5. Review and Update.
Not all phases are relevant to our research because we are not the implementers or planners of
the feeding programme at Nyandira. For the purpose of this research project, we will focus on
Phase 2 Assess current school feeding and stakeholder mapping and Phase 3 Identify Priority
Areas and develop a roadmap. Phase 2 because it offers us to assess current school feeding at
Nyandira and because it offers to identify stakeholder. Both are questions we need answers for.
Phase 3 because we are interested in formulating recommendation, thus offer our input to a
development of a roadmap. Phase 2 Asses current school feeding and stakeholder mapping

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will be outlined in the Results section of our paper, whereas Phase 3 Identify Priority Areas
and develop a roadmap in the Sustainability Strategy will be discussed in our
Recommendations and Conclusions section.

Fig. 1: Sustainability Strategy Framework (SSF) Core Components. Source: A Guidance Note to Develop a
National Sustainability Strategy (2012).

6.3. Modified Sustainability Strategy Framework (SSF)

The SSF suggests the utilization of different sort of analytical tools which can be chosen in order
to reach the objective of each Phase. As part of Phase 2: Assess Current School Feeding and
Stakeholder Mapping, four different analytical tools are presented to facilitate the assessment
process. The first is an Assessment of School Feeding, using 5 internationally agreed upon
quality standards that can act as a starting point for collecting data. Since we are not initiating
this feeding programme, we already have a majority of data that this first analytical tool seeks to
obtain, therefore it was not used for our research.The second is the SABER (Systems Approach
for Better Education Results)-School Feeding Framework, which also uses the 5 quality
standards, but allows countries to rate themselves and compare their progress over time. Since
the SYP at Nyandira is community-driven and unique, and does not fall under the scope of
Tanzanian school feeding policies, it cannot be compared to the success of other independentlydriven school feeding programmes. The third analytical tool suggested is a Cost Analysis; this
tool is not broad enough to identify all the factors that are affecting pupil enrollment in the goat

15

yoghurt programme. Finally, the fourth analytical tool is an Analysis of School Feeding Needs
and Coverage; it estimates the number of pupils who are in need and how many are being
reached, and then uses this information to guide changes and actions to reach a shared vision for
the future. The latter is the analysis we chose.

Fig. 2: Our Modified Sustainability Strategy Framework.

We chose to do An Analysis of School Feeding Needs and Coverage because it contains 2

essential questions that we need to answer in order for us to reach our objectives. The two
questions are: 1. How many school children are in need?, and 2. How many are being reached?
We have transformed these two questions to suit our research in the follow way: 1. How many
pupils are in need?, and 2. How many pupils are currently being reached by the goat yoghurt
programme? We add a further question (3.) to inquire about why some pupils are being reached
and why some pupils are not being reached. By adding this questions we modify the SFF to suit
our needs. The combination of the results from the SSF suggested questions and the results from

16

our added questions will allow us reach Objective 1, which is to identify factors that affect
whether pupils receive yoghurt at Nyandira Primary School.
The purpose of Phase 3, as suggested in the SSF, is to identify priority areas and develop a
roadmap. Phase 3 also suggests using the analytical tools previously mentioned (see Phase 2) to
provide the necessary information for future decision-making. Thus, the results obtained from
the analysis in Phase 2 lay the groundwork for Phase 3. In order to develop a roadmap that
harmonizes with our Second Objective , which is to identify the expansion possibilities for the
current school feeding programme, we need a method of obtaining information about expansion
possibilities of the project. Thus, we have modified Phase 3 by adding a question that explores
expansion possibilities of the current school feeding programme in Nyandira, in terms of their
sustainability. By exploring the programmes current capacity to expand its local ownership, we
will be able to identify how sustainable the current programme is and how it can be improved.
This question will allow us to develop a more robust roadmap for the future of the programme.
Furthermore, since the Sustainability Strategy was written for governmental ownership over
national food programmes, we have modified its techniques to be relevant for community
ownership over a local yoghurt program. Thus, when we speak of project ownership or project
vision, we have modified it from government ownership and government vision, as written
in the original report.
7.0 Data Collection
7.1. Planned Methods
As stated in our research objectives, our research was conducted for two main purposes.
Primarily, we sought to identify the reasons why children are not receiving larger amounts of
goat milk at the Primary School in Nyandira. Secondly, we sought to speak with different
stakeholders involved in the SYP in order to identify the potential for different approaches to the
school feeding in Nyandira. Our expected explanations included purely economical restrictions
of the parents, institutional weaknesses of Twawose, environmental limits of Mgeta, and
personal convictions of relevant stakeholder groups.

17

We chose a holistic approach to the SYP in Nyandira because we believe that the reasons
preventing parents from affording yogurt can vary from family to family and do not stem purely
from an economical nature. Hence, we viewed the pupils and their parents as the experts and
followed a bottom-up approach. We had hypotheses about potential reasons for parents not being
able or willing to buy the goat milk, but we expected to hear a variety of reasons, including some
factors we had not yet brainstormed. Therefore, we conducted qualitative research, because
qualitative data collection and analysis allowed us to be lead by the data we collected and
possibly adapt our research questions to the data as it was collected (Berg & Lune, 2012).
In the results section of this paper, we will refer to quantitative data and analysis in order to
describe and present our findings, and then refer to qualitative data to explain them.
7.2. Consent and Anonymity
At the beginning of every interview, -whether done individually with pupils, in a focus group of
parents, or in a meeting with Twawose-, we explained that all of the responses would be kept
anonymous, and asked for consent before proceeding with our questions. We also took efforts to
ensure that our translator communicated to our interview units the purpose behind our questions,
in order to make them feel comfortable and valued throughout the interview. At the end of each
interview we also asked if the interview unit had any questions to ask the interviewer, thus
making them feel valued and respected, while also providing an opportunity for more discussion.
7.3. Finances and Compensation
We thanked our interviewees differently according to the group we were speaking with and the
environment in which we were conducting the interview. At the end of our interviews with
pupils we offered a them a glass of yoghurt to thank them for their time. We spent a long time
discussing what sort of token we should given as a thank you, as we did not want to associate our
research with giving incentives for information. However, after speaking with our supervisor
about this issue, we decided that since we were hosting the pupils at the SUA hotel where we
were residing, it was polite and appropriate to offer them something small to eat. The reason we
chose yoghurt instead of candy was because we wanted the children to eat something nutritious,
that would also fill them up. In an effort to avoid biases in answers, due to the children

18

suspecting we were associated with Twawose and thus answering a certain way, we kept the
yoghurt hidden until the end of the interview so their responses were not influenced by the
knowledge that they were about to be offered yoghurt.
When we spoke with parents at the SUA hotel, we offered soda or water at the beginning of the
interview, but when we interviewed parents individually in their homes we did not bring any sort
of monetary gift or incentive. We also used a local student, Happiness Alex, to show us around
the Nyandira village, and paid her ~10 000 TSH/day out of our facilitation budget as part of EDS
384. This daily amount fluctuated slightly, but was discussed with our translator or our
supervisor to ensure that it was appropriate.
7.4. Location and types of interviews
As part of our research, interviews were done either in Nyandira during the 10 field days or in
Morogoro before the field research began. In the end, we managed to conduct the following
interviews:
-3 interviews with Yoghurt Project Representatives
-A meeting with the Kibuko Head Teacher/tour of school
-3 individual meetings with different teachers at Nyandira (Current head teacher, retired head
teacher, and the teacher/school secretary).
-17 individual interviews with pupils (1 was discarded from data set)
-3 focus group meetings with parents (8 parents in total)
-10 individual interviews with parents at their households
-1 meeting with Twawose (3 members present, including the chairwoman)
-1 meeting with the Nyandira Primary School Parent Council (4 members present, including the
chairman)
All of the above interviews were done in Nyandira during the 10 days of field research, except
for the meetings with the Yoghurt Project representatives. The reason that so many different
types of interviews were conducted was mainly due to the changes in scheduling to the closure of
Nyandira Primary School during our week of research. Another major factor that influenced the

19

collection of data was the fact that half of the research team had to leave for 7 days of the
research do to health problems. This left only one group member to collect all of the data in the
field, and necessitated many changes in data collection due to less resources and manpower.
However, the experience of adjusting our interview structures was a valuable learning experience
and gave a broader and more representative picture of community perceptions towards the SYP.
The details explaining our changed methodology and subsequent justification will be discussed
in more detail below.
7.5. Collection of data, sampling, and challenges met
During the course of our 10 days of field research, we decided to collect data through semistandardized interviews. This method of data collection allowed us to collect data by asking
direct questions and thus keeping the conversation focused (Berg & Lune, 2012). It also
permitted the collection of entirely new data, because it allowed us as researchers to talk about
other topics and formulate new questions during the data collection process itself. Semistandardized interviews also allowed the interviewing unit to talk more freely, and as such, gave
as different information. The possibility of not all interviewees being able to read or write made
verbal interviews essential. However, semi-structured interviews gave us guiding questions that
permitted us to keep focused on the overarching goals of the interview without getting distracted
by unrelated discussion topics.
Additionally, we included 3 closed questions where we inquired about the food security of the
pupils during the school day and if they like goat milk or not. The interviews were mostly used
in order to collect qualitative data that would explain the quantitative results (such as the
percentage of pupils interviewed who receive yoghurt at school). In order to run a regression we
also collected quantitative data during the interviews. To see if receiving goat yoghurt is
dependent on the childrens food intake during the rest of the day, we collected quantitative
answers of the following questions:
1. Do you eat breakfast at home before you got to school? (Yes or No)
2. Do you go home over lunch? (Yes or No)
3. Do you eat lunch when you are home? (Yes or No)
If yes, do you always receive lunch at home? (Yes or No)

20

The complete interview guide and the transcription of the data collection and the
operationalization table can be found in the Appendix.
We also collected quantitative data because we were interested in the specific amount (number of
pupils per week) of students receiving goat yoghurt since the goat yoghurt distribution started.
Quantitative data on the food security situation of the pupils and of their opinion on goat milk
was also collected by using the monthly records of the pupils who receive goat yoghurt at
Nyandira Primary School. The list documented the name and Standard of all the pupils who
received yoghurt each week; we used this data to calculate the weekly percentage of full day
students who receive goat yoghurt through Twawose distribution at Nyandira Primary School
(Fig. 3). Once obtained, we used this data to calculate the weekly percentage of the interviewed
pupil population who receive goat yoghurt through the Twawose distribution at Nyandira
Primary School. With the use of the Excel programme we presented these findings graphically
(Fig. 3), choosing to put both data sets (interviewed population and entire school population) on
the same graph to facilitate a clear comparison. All data collected can be found the Appendix.
For the original records with the name and standard of the pupils one needs to contact Twawose
directly, as we were unable to obtain copies of our own.
Due to the fact that Nyandira school was closed for the entirety of our research and thus only
gave us half a day (or 2 hours) to reach out to the pupils whom we randomly selected to
interview, we "only" interviewed 16 pupils. We initially had hoped to achieve an sample size
(n) of 50, in order to have an interview population that was representative of the entire
Nyandira School. This would have allowed us to draw conclusions about the wider pupil
population. However, since the school was closed for the entire week and the Standard 7 students
were not present in Nyandira because they were writing exams, we were left with no further
means of contacting them and talking to any pupils at all suddenly became a challenge. Since our
research was specific to Nyandira School, we did not have the option to switch our research to a
different community or school, so we had to work with what we had. What we had was less
than 2 hours until the school was closed and everybody, including the teachers, left.

21

We had done the sampling before arriving at Nyandira School, and thus decided on targeting our
interview units on the first day, and simply asking them if they would be willing to talk with us
and meet us again the next day. For the first round of interviews we had randomly selected the
interview units the night before. This was done through systematic sampling, where we selected
every 27th pupil from each Standards class list in order to have a representative sample of
boys/girls from each Standard that attended school for an entire day. We then rounded up all of
these students in a classroom, checked who on our targeted interview units list was present, and
asked them if they would be willing to talk to us on the next day. For the absentees, we
conducted a second round of random-selective sampling in the field and underwent the same
procedure with the second group. The absentees on the second list of random selective sampling
were substituted by conducting a convenience sampling in the field. We looked at the
characteristics (Standard and gender) that we were missing from the interviewing unit and asked
a random child standing next to us to find children with these characteristics. This procedure was
suggested to us by our supervisor, Edith Ndemanisho, who was present during the sampling
procedure. She had explained to us that we really have to fight to achieve a minimum sample
size of 16 in order to be able to work with our data. In the field that day we learned the advantage
of convenience sampling and how we had to weigh the importance of having a extremely low n
by sticking to our original plan, or opt to be flexible and expand our data collection to obtain
enough data and include new ways of sampling. We opted for the second option, mostly because
we did not want to jeopardize our whole research and because, after all, the main purpose of this
paper is for us to experience and learn from active field research experience. We were thankful
for both the presence and input of our supervisor and the lessons learnt in the sampling process.
We made use of this knowledge on the value of flexibility when we were confronted with 3
absent interview units during the following week. We spontaneously opted to conduct snowball
sampling on Tuesday, September 10, 2013, because 3 of the scheduled interview units did not
show up. Again, due to school being closed and Nyandira being a rural area without electricity,
stable home network or internet connection, we had no way to contact our absentees. The only
way of reaching our interview population (pupils of Nyandira Primary School) was through the
interview units who were already present. We thus asked them to ask their friends to come and

22

talk to us, and this finally helped us achieve the sample size which we had agreed on with our
supervisor.
In our original sampling strategy we defined our sampling population as the pupils who stay at
school during the whole day, thus pupils in Standard 3-7. This is because we defined the pupils
who are at school for an entire day as the ones who have a priority need for a school feeding
programme. Standard 1 and 2 are only at school until 12:00, and can then go home for the rest of
the day. We thus differentiated between these two groups because we concluded that they have
different feeding needs at school. However, in the process of our research - which will be further
presented and discussed in the data results section - we realized that everyone actually goes
home over lunch and thus the difference between a half day and full day pupils needs became
less important. It was too late to redefine our interviewing population - especially as we had no
means of contacting pupils in Standard 1 and 2. This unexpected change in data disputed our
initial assumption of which students have a priority hunger need, thus data that would have
been relevant to our research was excluded from our research. However, this realization ended
up being one of our major findings, and showed us the value of conducting a pilot study before
one embarks on the final survey.
After learning that all pupils go home to eat lunch, we had to change our analysis to fit this new
data. We also learned that the problem is not lunch, but that most pupils don't receive breakfast
before school. Our data looks different than expected initially, and therefore it does not make
sense anymore to run some statistical analyses that we had planned to run in the beginning. For
example, we cannot interpret the relationship between children eating lunch and children
receiving goat milk, because simply every child is receiving lunch, and confirmed this by cross
checking this information with the parents. This information is of course very interesting and a
result in itself, however it makes it difficult for us to run regressions. We ran simple and
multivariate regressions in R, a method of statistical computation, to look at the relation between
the dependant variable (children receiving goat yoghurt ) and the independent variable (children
eating breakfast, pocket money, children liking goat milk, children eating lunch etc.), but the
values obtained didnt make a lot of sense. This is because either the relation is not significant or
because the child eating breakfast and the child receiving goat yoghurt is simply not related.

23

We were more successful in running simple background characteristics of the children against
the fact if they receive goat yoghurt or not. We examined the effect that gender has on the goat
milk distribution (gender being the independent variable and the children receiving goat yoghurt
or not being the dependent variable). The independent variable being gender was labelled as
female and then coded as 1 = female and 0 = for male. The dependent variable was if the
children receive goat yoghurt at the school through the distribution from Twawose, and was
labeled as Twawose and then coded as 1 = receiving goat milk or 0 = not receiving goat milk.
We defined pupils as receiving goat yoghurt if they received goat milk for a minimum amount
of weeks in a year, as documented according to the list we received from Twawose, not
according to individual responses during the interviews. Everyone on or over this minimum of
amount of weeks took the value 1, and everyone underneath took the value of 0. We decided
to set 12 weeks as the minimum value because this is equal to 3 full months where the pupil
receives goat yoghurt, or 25% of the time. Since we predicted that economical restrictions could
be one possible factor influencing whether children receive yoghurt, we did not want to set the
minimum amount of weeks too high, which would result in a loss of interview units who are
inhibited by economical restriction. The amount of yoghurt the pupils receive is less important
than if they receive yoghurt at all. Following the same logic, we coded the dependent variables
as dummy variables because it was relevant if the child belongs to the group of goat yoghurt
receivers or not and not how much goat yoghurt the child receives.
A full operationalization table can be found in the Appendix. The interview guide, where
quantitative data was collected, the transcription of all the data, and the operationalization of
both the data from the interviews and the data from Twawose can also be found in the Appendix.
7.6. Methods of quantitative analysis
We did a regression analysis to attempt to discover any patterns in the data. Quantitative analysis
techniques as simple as multivariate regression allowed us to organize our data and see if
patterns existed. Even though our sample size ended up being relatively small, we have too much
data to be able to see patterns by eye. By running simple regression and multivariate regressions,
we identified the independent variables that correlate with our dependent variable.

24

Since the dependent variable was a dummy variable, it was necessary to use logit as our model of
regression analysis because there is not a natural linear relationship between our dependent
variable and the independent variable. Logarithms, however, allowed us to transform our data
and express the an originally non-linear relationship in a linear way. It should be noted that logit
does not predict the value of the dependent variable, but instead predicts the probability that the
dependent variable with take the value 1 or 0, when the dependent variable has the value of 1.
7.7. Utilizing R
We used the statistical programme R to run the regression. We used R instead of SPSS because
both members of the research team both use Mac computers and SPSS software was not
available from SUA that ran on a Mac software. R operates in basically the same way as SPSS,
just with a different software provider and it on both a PC and a Mac.
7.8. Qualitative Data Collection
As previously mentioned, qualitative data collection was done through semi-standardized
interviews with a variety of stakeholders. Responses from all individuals interviewed, from all
stakeholder groups, were colour coded according to five main themes: Capabilities (yellow),
Economic Restrictions (red), Need (green), Belief and Knowledge (blue), and Trust (brown).
These colour coded responses from each transcribed interview were then summarized in a new
document entitled Qualitative Results, so that all of the qualitative data was presented in one
place according to the five themes. The results of the qualitative analysis can be found in the
Appendix under the title of Qualitative Results.
7.9. Paradigm of researchers
The research team is composed of two researchers, one with a background in Global Resource
Systems (BSc.), and the other one with a background in International Relations and Human
Rights (B.A.). Both are currently studying International Development as part of a Masters
programme at the Norwegian University of Life Science (UMB). We acknowledge that although
the Twawose has two main objectives, profit and nutrition, we have prioritized fulfilling the
needs of pupils at school over the expansion of the Twawose yoghurt market. This is because we

25

have focused on the SYP as a school feeding programme, which aligns with its goal to provide
yoghurt to every student at Nyandira Primary School each week. However, the programme is not
sustainable unless Twawose is making a profit; this makes it crucial for us to cooperate with
Twawose and ensure that our suggestions and recommendations to improve the SYP are
inclusive and beneficial for all stakeholders, especially pupils and members of Twawose.
8.0 Analysis and Discussion of Results
As explained in section 4.2., we have chosen to organize our data using an analytical tool to
Analyse School Feeding Needs and Coverage. In order to do this, we are asking three questions:
how many pupils are in need, how many are currently being fed, and why are only some pupils
receiving food at school. This last question will identify what factors influence yoghurt intake at
school.
8.1. Gauging need
In this section of our results will first present our results that answer the following question: how
many pupils at Nyandira are in need?
Firstly, we sought to discover if hunger at school was a problem for the pupils we interviewed at
Nyandira Primary School. We had initially assumed that all pupils who arent fed by the yoghurt
programme are in need of food because they go an entire day without eating, but our data
showed this was clearly untrue. 100% of the pupils whom we interviewed always receive food at
home during Nyandiras lunch break from 12:00-13:00. After asking the parents whether they
provided their child with food when they returned home during lunch, 100% of parents
interviewed individually, as well as 100% of parents included in focus group discussions,
confirmed that not only did their child always come home for lunch, but that food was always
provided.
The parent council explained that the parents and teachers decided upon a lunch break between
12:00 and 13:00 for this exact reason; since all the school catchment hamlets dont take any
longer than 20-30 minutes to reach by foot, each child can go home and eat lunch. The parent
council did express the concern that although they are sure each child has ample time to walk
home during lunch break, there is no way for them to ensure that they are truly fed once there.

26

An interesting response that emerged from our focus group meeting with the parent council was
that a school-feeding programme during lunchtime was superfluous, since all children went
home for lunch. Unfortunately, it seems likely that pupils who come from impoverished families,
families where their parents are working during lunch, or families whose parents simply dont
prepare food would slip through the cracks and still be in need of school feeding at lunch.
In regard to the school yoghurt programme being used as a lunch program, the parent council
expressed that it was not needed for this purpose. It seems from our interviews with the parent
council, parents, and pupils, that the amount of yoghurt given through the SYP is not large
enough to make the children full; 80% of pupils interviewed (8 out of 10) go home for lunch
even on the days they receive yoghurt. Only 2 pupils who we interviewed stay at school during
yoghurt days because they feel full after drinking 250 mL of yoghurt. These responses, although
obviously not from a data set large enough for us to draw conclusions for the entire school,
suggest that the SYP is not able to act as a lunch programme since the current yoghurt portion is
too small.
Since our data set is not large enough to draw conclusions to the entirely of Nyandira School, we
can cautiously observe that hunger is a problem for Nyandira pupils, thus, some sort of school
feeding programme is needed. However, it became apparent from the answers we received in our
individual child interviews that hunger varied according to the time of day, and according to a set
of factors other than the receival of yoghurt.
According to our interviews with individual pupils, 9 of 16 receive breakfast at home on a
regular basis; this means that 7 of 16, or 44%, of our sampled pupil population goes until lunch
without eating. When we asked parents the same question, 7 of 19 parents interviewed (both
individually and in a focus group, as the focus group members replied to this question
individually) said they fed their child breakfast before school. However, 12 of 19, or 63%, of
pupils are not fed breakfast before school. Reasons for not providing their children with
breakfast, given by parents (who were interviewed individually), include the following
explanations. 5 parents of 10 had an issue of insufficient time in the morning, since school starts
at 7:00 and the parents are busy farming. 1 of 9 said their children werent hungry that early, and

27

3 of 10 stated that because its cold in the mornings their child doesnt want to fetch fuel needed
to prepare breakfast.
One other factor that influences child hunger, and thus the need for a school feeding programme,
is whether or not students receive pocket money to spend on food of their choice. Only 1 out of
16 interviewed children receive a snack to take with them from home to school. Furthermore, the
amount of pocket money received by parents varies between 50 and 200 TSH/day, which is not
sufficient to allow them to purchase yoghurt from Twawose. The types of snacks they are able to
purchase, such as mendazi or bagia, do not fill them up, meaning that they remain hungry and the
problem of morning hunger persists. Having goats at home, or having access to dairy products at
home, also influences whether pupils need yoghurt at school; 2 out of 10 questioned pupils have
a goat at home and also obtain milk from that goat.
These responses reveal a problem of hunger that is dependent on the time of day in 63% of
pupils we interviewed; these children do not eat food until they go home for lunch at 12:00,
meaning they are expected to learn for five hours in the morning with no food in their bellies.
This hunger problem illustrates a need for a school food programme that has a targeted delivery
at a specific time of day, in this case, the morning. This also redefines the origins of the hunger
problem; it does not emerge solely due to an absent school feeding programme at Nyandira
School, but also from an absent breakfast feeding structure at home. This time-dependent
problem is not felt or experienced when the children are at home in the morning, but when they
are attending the morning school hours at school. During these morning hours, children are not
able to follow the class at their full potential or could even be forced to drop out in order to
obtain food. Research has also shown that the morning is a critical learning period for students.
These realizations suggest an improper implementation of the yoghurt project; after speaking to
Twawose, it seems that by having an inconsistent yoghurt delivery time (sometimes 10:00,
sometimes 14:00), the positive effect of the additional food and nutritious intake the pupils
receive through the project is nullified.
8.2. Gauging the current status of the School Yoghurt Programme

28

In this section of our results we will present aspects of our data that answer the following
question: how many pupils at Nyandira are being reached, or fed, by the current SYP at
Nyandira? Our data fits into 2 categories: data from our sample population and data from the
entire population of Nyandira Primary School. We will present the data from both of these
categories, and then proceed to compare them. By identifying trends in the data, we hope to
expand upon numerical enrollment data and offer possible reasons that explain what factors
could be affecting pupils receival of yoghurt at school.
8.2.1. Annual enrollment values of the interview unit and the entire Nyandira pupil
population
Before presenting the data in Fig. 3 (below), it is important to explain why some months are
grouped together. Numbers are used to specify the distribution week, because not all months
contained 4 weeks of distribution. Thus, only the weeks in which yoghurt was distributed at the
school are on the x-axis; weeks where distribution did not occur (due to holidays or logistical
problems) are not presented. This ensures there are no gaps in our data. From mid-March until
mid-April there were Easter holidays, thus the first 2 weeks in March and the last 2 weeks in
April account for Mar./Apr. 2013 being organized as one distribution session. Furthermore,
Nyandira Primary School is not in session in the months of June and July, so we have excluded
those months from our graph in order to show a clear timeline of enrollment percentages.

29

Fig. 3: The percentage of all pupils at Nyandira Primary School as compared to the percentage of pupils
interviewed for the purpose of this research who receive yoghurt through the SYP at Nyandira Primary School,
according to the week and month of the year.

Weeks

1-4

5-8

9-14

15-18

19-22

23-26

27-30

Corresponding
months

Sep. 2012

Oct. 2012

Nov./Dec.
2012

Feb. 2013

Mar./Apr.
2013

May
2013

Aug.
2013

Table 1: Breakdown of delivery weeks by month.

As can be observed in Fig. 3, the number of pupils interviewed who receive yoghurt weekly
varies immensely according to the month of the year. For both sets of pupils, maximum
enrollment occurred in the months of November/December 2012. In our interviewing unit, 36%
of pupils received yoghurt once per week during these months, on average. For the entire
Nyandira school population, 23% of pupils receive yoghurt, on average, in November/December
2012.
However, once this peak is reached, the enrollment numbers of both pupil populations begins to
steadily decline, but reached a minimum in different months. In our interview unit, an all-time
low of 13% of pupils was reached in March/April 2013, which is a 26% decline in enrollment
numbers from November/December. In the entire pupil population, the minimum enrollment
numbers were reached in May 2013: only 3% of pupils received yoghurt, on average, each week.
30

After the low enrollment observed in our interview unit in March/April 2013, it can be seen that
the number of students begins to increase again in May. In our interviewed population of pupils,
4 out of 16, or 25% received milk in the month of May. Although this number is not high as the
initial enrollment numbers, the number of pupils receiving yoghurt continues to climb until
August 2013, where 5 students out of 16, or 31%, received yoghurt that month, on average. This
number has almost readjusted to the enrollment numbers in November and December of 2012
(36%), and it will be interesting to see if September and October of 2013 continue this positive
trend.
The entire pupil population also experiences an increase in enrollment after the minimum values
seen in May; 12% receive yoghurt, on average, in August 2013. The enrollment in August 2013
is still 11% than enrollment numbers in November/December 2012, but it will be interesting to
revisit the enrollment lists in December 2013 to see if these trends continue.
Only 2 pupils we interviewed received yoghurt in March, and both were male. Curiously, both of
these males were selected by convenience sampling (after we had attempted 2 rounds of random
standardized sampling), suggesting that our method of sampling was biased in some way.
Perhaps when teachers grabbed pupils at random to fit our selection criteria, they
subconsciously picked the best performing or wealthiest, or male students. After hearing from
individual teacher and parent interviews that the wealthy students receive yoghurt, and that
yoghurt increases school performance, it makes sense that these pupils fall under these criteria.
Our method of convenience and snowball sampling could account for the higher percentage of
pupil enrollment seen in our sampled population, as compared to the entire pupil population.
At first glance it may seem unclear why the pupil enrollment drops so drastically in
November/December 2012, since this time of year does not coincide with the planting season.
However, many logistical changes were made in both Twawoses implementation of the
programme and the structure of the school. At this time Twawose changed the payment structure
of the SYP, making parents pre-pay for the yoghurt instead of paying once it was delivered. The
previous head teacher also retired at this time, meaning that his successor had to learn how to

31

document and track enrolment, which could have resulted in poor record keeping and
distribution.
8.2.2. Explanation of observed trends
Fig. 3. shows how many students are being fed each month, but it doesnt show why the number
fluctuates with time. One factor that could account for an inconsistent enrollment number, in
both the interviewed population and the entire Nyandira School population, is seasonality.
During our individual interviews with parents, we learned that 2 of 12 parents who said they paid
for yoghurt were only able to do so sometimes. When these 2 individuals were asked why,
only 1 said seasonality made paying difficult. However, the focus group with 4 mamas came to a
consensus that seasonality made it more difficult to afford; that makes it 5 out of 16 individuals
in total. However, when asked explicitly if there were certain months where affording the
yoghurt price was more difficult, it was almost split down the middle. 7 of 13 individual parents
interviewed expressed that seasonality was irrelevant and they could always pay, whereas 6 of 13
said Mar-June was more difficult. Reasons for this difficulty were that there was less cash at this
time of year due to the planting season (83%), and that this period was the time where fertilizers,
pesticides, seeds, and labour were purchased (17%). These responses support the trends observed
in Fig. 3 above, and suggest that seasonality is a factor that influences parents ability to pay for
the yoghurt programme.
Twawose and the Nyandira head teacher also expressed that the negative effects of seasonality
are felt most in April-July, since crops are growing in the field and families do not have ample
cash to purchase yoghurt. They explained that this time of year is when farmers purchase
farming inputs, such as pesticides, seeds, and hired labour, which means that less income is
exacerbated by an increase in household cost. The positive effects of seasonality are felt in
August/September, since crops are being harvested and sold at the market, thus parents have
more cash to spend on yoghurt (if they choose). In both groups of pupils, August saw a surge in
enrollment again (12% of all full-day pupils and 31% of interviewed pupils); this may be
because parents are now earning cash, and are either more able or more willing to pay for the

32

yoghurt programme, subsequently lending support to the idea that since household wealth
fluctuates with the season, so does yoghurt consumption at school.
According to a teacher at Nyandira, seasonality affects more than income; during the harvesting
season children are eating lots at home, which means they are not as hungry. However, during
the planting season they receive less food at home, which means that the yoghurt portion
provided at school is too small to fill them up. If parents dont believe in the benefits of goat
milk, or if parents dont have sufficient knowledge that motivates them to pay for yoghurt (since
mendazi or bagia is a cheaper snack), its likely that during these hard months parents will invest
in traditional food sources that are cheaper and can still make their child feel full. It makes sense
that a parents priority is investing in agricultural products that will feed families in the longterm, and that paying for yoghurt may be seen as the first cost to cut from their budget. The
parent council also expressed that milk always has low priority in the community, and gave an
example about how large amounts of money is spent on cultural dances vs. yoghurt, simply due
to priority. It can thus be seen that parental belief and support can be a major factor that affects
whether pupils receive yoghurt at school, and that it could be occasionally related to the season.
8.3. Explaining the factors influencing yoghurt receival at school
Some of the factors that influence whether children receive yoghurt at school may not be
represented in the figures presented in section 6.2. In regard to parent belief and support
regardless of seasonality, it has been stated by many stakeholders, including the head teacher,
that some parents actively discourage their children from taking goat milk and do not care about
the welfare of their children. Twawose also said that one of the main challenges affecting the
SYP was that there is a negative stigma against yoghurt in the Nyandira community, and that
parents dont want to support the program because they dont understand its benefits. The
consequence of this would be that children whose parents dont support the program or who have
less knowledge about the benefits of yoghurt would be less likely to receive it at school. We then
asked children about whether their parents encouraged or discouraged them to consume goat
milk or yoghurt, and an astounding 93% (13 out of 14) of the pupils we interviewed said their
parents encouraged them to drink goat milk. This suggests that the parents of the children we
interviewed support their child's intake of goat yoghurt for one reason or another.

33

When we asked parents whether they had purchased yoghurt for their child in the past, 7 out of
18 parents interviewed both individually and within a focus group had purchased yoghurt at least
once for their children. When asked if 1000 TSH/month was too expensive, 12 out of 13 parents
whom we spoke with individually stated they could afford to pay the 1000 TSH/month for the
yoghurt, but only 2 out of 14 parents we interviewed individually said that they could afford the
yoghurt only sometimes. In an attempt to ask parents what these reasons for supporting the SYP
could be, we found out that 5 of 6 parents interviewed individually had tried goat yoghurt, and 4
of 5 liked the taste. The one parent who had never tried yoghurt did however express interest in
trying it. There was also a consensus among all parents interviewed that hunger at school
negatively affects their childs learning environment, which shows a motivation to provide food
at school, because we assume parents who are willing to pay school fees care to some degree
about the quality of their childs education. Since our data size is much too small to make
inferences about the entire parent population, we can cautiously observe that a negative parent
stigma is not the only factor affecting low numbers of child enrollment in the SYP.
Parental disbelief or distrust of the implementation of the SYP, targeted towards teachers or
Twawose, could also affect whether certain children receive yoghurt at school. Some parents
dont understand Twawoses interest in the project; some think that Twawose is only working to
expand their market, and that its just a business. But as stated, although Twawose needs to make
a profit, they need children to purchase at least 500 cups of yoghurt per week, and in order to do
this, there must be a positive perception of goat milk and yoghurt in the community. Therefore, it
doesnt make sense that Twawose doesnt care about increasing knowledge and creating a
positive community perception about yoghurt in the community, as this will ultimately benefit
them.
Another type of parental mistrust that may influence whether they support the SYP is Twawoses
measurement of yoghurt. Some parents have complained that their children dont receive the full
250 mL amount, and four mamas in one focus group meeting expressed that they would rather
purchase yoghurt directly from Twawose and ensure that their child receives the full amount.
When the parent council was asked their opinion about the current measurement of yoghurt, they

34

expressed trust in the amount that Twawose measures. When asked why parents dont support
the programme, the parent council said that most parents had never tasted goat yoghurt, so
parents are skeptical because they dont understand the taste or feeling of yoghurt. It seems that
interventions must also be made in order to increase the SYPs priority in the community, and
that parental belief and support can be a major factor that affects whether pupils receive yoghurt
at school.
Most of the parental disbelief and distrust, both in the case of Twawoses goals and measuring
methods, could stem from the majority of parents being disengaged from modes of
communication with Nyandira Primary School. Meetings between the parents, the parent board,
teachers, and Twawose only occur bi-annually. This lack of communication between all
stakeholders in the SYP is exacerbated by a minimal number of parents showing up; Nyandira
Primary Schools records show only 40-50 parents normally attend meetings. The parents at the
meetings are not likely representative of the entire parent population, as the parents engaged in
agriculture or livestock production have a less flexible schedule than those that own shops of
their own or have multiple sources of income. It can be seen that another factor influencing
whether children receive yoghurt or not is the amount and quality of communication their parent
has with the implementers of the SYP, namely Twawose and the teaching staff at Nyandira
Primary School.
Another form of miscommunication, between Twawose and the teaching staff at Nyandira
School, also seems to be affecting the willingness of parents to invest in the SYP, which results
in their children not receiving yoghurt. The head teacher is the only school staff member in
charge of communicating with Twawose, filling out registration forms, and collecting payment.
He gives Twawose a list of pupils who have paid at the beginning of the month, so they know
how much yoghurt to produce, and weekly cross-checks are supposed to be done to see if there
are increases in enrollment or new payments from students. This attendance sheet is updated
daily and delivered to Twawose so they can adjust their distribution based on absentees. This
process was clearly communicated to the research team when we conducted our research, both
by Twawose and by the Nyandira head teacher.

35

Despite this seemingly clear logistical procedure, it seems that the TYP is not always
implemented this way in practice. When the research team was in the field, there was a midterm
break and national Standard 7 exams. Despite the fact that class was not in session at Nyandira
school for the entire week (Sept. 9-13), Twawose still produced yoghurt for the school. This
suggests that something is lacking in the communication between TYC and Nyandira School,
despite the fact that we were told that communication ran smoothly and according to set
guidelines. It is unclear whether this was solely a one-time the fault of the head teacher, or if it
reflects a larger lack of institutional structure charged with this responsibility. In a village as
small as Nyandira, it is likely that parents have heard of this mishap in yoghurt production,
which undoubtedly negatively affects the existing trust parents have in the efficacy of the SYP.
One factor influencing the receival of goat milk that the research team found quite surprising was
that the SYP is gendered; being a girl (versus being a boy) decreases the log odds of receiving
goat yoghurt by 2.890. This is significant in regard to the level of significance being 0.01.

Variable

Coef
(s.d)

Girl

-2.890 *
(1.364)

Intercept

1.386
(1.118)

16

Table 2: Bivariate Regression

Dependent variable: Pupils receiving goat yoghurt through Twawose distribution at NPS
(Pupils are receiving yoghurt (1) or not (0)
Level of significance: 0 *** 0.001 ** 0.01 * 0.05 . 0.1 1
Even though our sample size was relatively small ( n=16 ) and the majority of pupils interviewed
were girls, 6 out of 16 targeted pupils receive goat yoghurt and 4 out of these 6 pupils are boys.
36

This means that, according to our interviewed sample of pupils, 67% of all boys receive yoghurt,
whereas only 20% of girls receive yoghurt.
To summarize this section, we will state the priority findings of our research. This will begin
Phase 3 of our analysis, where we identify major trends and priority areas for expansion. Our
priority findings are as follows:
1. Implementers of the SYP must prioritize delivery time in the morning, because this is when
the need is greatest at Nyandira Primary School.
2. Twawose has the capacity to produce yoghurt for entire school, but an absent institutional
structure is preventing demand for yoghurt at school to increase.
3. Until the priority findings above (1 and 2) are addressed, the future sustainability of the SYP is
in jeopardy.
Since the Yoghurt Project lacks a proper institutional framework, there is no individual charged
with the role of managing and ensuring the proper functioning, transparency, and implementation
of the SYP. This results in poor record keeping, communication, and distribution of the SYP, and
has a clear negative effect on parents perception and trust in the SYP. Negative parent
perceptions result in lower numbers of child enrollment in the SYP, and need to be improved in
order to ensure that the SYP is profitable for Twawose, thus ensuring the sustainability of the
SYP.
9.0. Recommendations
Now that these factors have been identified and discussed, we will use them to identify the
expansion possibilities and develop a roadmap for the yoghurt programme. Throughout this
process, we will keep in mind how each suggested action and change will result in an increase in
the TYPs sustainability. This part aligns with our Objective 2, and represents the remainder of
Phase 3 on the Sustainability Strategy cycle.
9.1. Expansion Possibilities and Roadmap

37

Currently, the expansion possibilities are not limited by Twawoses capacity, as they can
currently produce enough yoghurt to feed every pupil at Nyandira School. This ability, coupled
with a clear need for a morning feeding programme at Nyandira Primary School, leads us to
recommend that Twawose should implement a morning feeding programme, where yoghurt is
delivered consistently at 10:00 in response to the greatest hunger need in pupils. This would
expand and improve upon our first priority finding.
A roadmap for this section would include 2 main steps for improvement: Firstly, the specific
delivery time of yoghurt should be included on the registration and distribution documents filled
out by the Nyandira head teacher each week. This would allow the Yoghurt Project to track
whether delivery is consistent, and would hold Twawose accountable to their duties associated
with yoghurt delivery. The second roadmap step in this section would be to initiate sensitization
programmes and increase parental awareness in the community. This could include the creation
of an annual village Milk Day where parents are encouraged to try goat yoghurt. A series of
small-group information session for parents, that are delivered outside of the bi-annual parent
meetings, would also help to increase parent knowledge and trust of the program. These
meetings should not be implemented by just one stakeholder, but should come from a joint effort
between Twawose, the Yoghurt Project, and the teachers, who all have a responsibility to ensure
the success of the SYP.
To improve the institutional structures of the Yoghurt Project, roadmap steps include the creation
of a clearer managerial role in the partnership between Twawose and the Yoghurt Project. The
individual charged with this task would facilitate communication between these 2 stakeholders,
and would track changes to the registration lists. Another roadmap step, which is already in the
process of being implemented, is the use of plastic yoghurt sachets to deliver yoghurt instead of
measuring yoghurt into cups. This would increase parental trust in Twawoses delivery strategy.
Expansion regarding local ownership is a step needed for the programme to become truly
sustainable. Once the first two priority findings are addressed and improved upon, Twawose
should begin to develop a proper exit strategy from its current reliance on foreign funding.
Once parent trust and institutional capabilities of the Yoghurt Project have increased due to

38

changes suggested in the roadmaps above, Twawose can slowly being to increase the percentage
of yoghurt cost that is paid by parents, so that eventually the SYP is completely sustained and
owned by the Nyandira community.
10.0. Conclusion
The current yoghurt programme at Nyandira School is successful because pupils enjoy the taste
of yoghurt and the way it makes them feel, their parents support the SYP and are interested in its
expansion, and Twawose is still involved despite enrolment numbers being too low to profit. We
can thus conclude that there is sustainability in the SYP project, because it has the potential to
reach a clearly identified need of morning hunger. However, the SYP not as successful as it
could be because of seasonally low enrollment numbers, parental distrust, and a reliance on
foreign funding. Thus, more research is needed in order to make more conclusive statements
about what factors affect all pupils ability to receive yoghurt at school. We have seen that there
is much potential for improvement, and are optimistic that the increase in enrollment numbers
for August 2013 will continue to rise if the recommendations and roadmap steps are discussed
and perhaps followed by the SYP.

11.0. References
A. P. Njombe and Y. N. Msanga. (2012). Livestock and dairy development in Tanzania.
Department of Livestock production and Marketing Infrastructure Development. Ministry of
Livestock Development. Available at:
http://www.mifugo.go.tz/documents_storage/LIVESTOCK%20INDUSTRY%20DAIRY%20DE
VELOPMENT%20IN%20TANZANIA%20-%20LATEST3.pdf.(Accessed on:19.09.13)
Berg, B. L., & Lune, H. (2012). Qualitative Research Methods for the Social Sciences
(8.Edition). New Jersey: Pearson Education.
Bundy, D. A. P., C. Burbano, M. Grosh, A. Gelli, M. C. H. Jukes, and L. J. Drake. (2009).
Rethinking School Feeding: Social Safety Nets, Child Development, and the Education Sector.
Directions in Development Series. World Bank, Washington, DC. http://hgsfglobal.org/en/bank/downloads/doc_details/90- rethinking-school-feeding-social-safety-netschild-development-a-the-education-sector (Accessed on:10.09.13)

39

Eik L.O. et al. (2008). Productivity of goats and their contribution to household food security in
high potential areas of East Africa: a case of Mgeta, Tanzania. African Journal of Food,
Agriculture, Nutrition, and Development. Volume 8, No. 3., p. 278-290.
EPINAV. 2011. Enhancing Pro-poor Innovation in Natural resources and Agricultural Value
chains. Suanet. Accessed online at http://www.suanet.ac.tz/epinav/index.php/projects
Government of Tanzania. (2008). Available at: http://www.tanzania.go.tz/regionsf.html. (Accessed
on:18.09.13)
Kinabo J, Msuya J, Nyaruhucha C, Mnkeni A and J Ishengoma. The nutritional status of children
and adults in Morogoro and Iringa regions. Tanz. Agric. Research Project Phase Two. Sokoine
University of Agriculture, Tanzania, 2003: 307-314.
Lie, H. 2011. Making better use of goats in Tanzania - improving smallholder livelihoods
through local value chains for goat milk yoghurt: a case study. Department of economics and
resource management. Norwegian University of Life Sciences, p. 1-107.
Mamuya, C.M. (2004). Overview of nutrition and school feeding status of children in Tanzania.
Tanzania Food and Nutrition Center. Available at: http://www.gcnf.org/library/countryreports/tanzania/2004-Tanzania-Overview-Nutrition-Feeding-Status.pdf. (Accessed on:26.08.13)
Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development. (2012). School Milk Feeding Programme in
Tanzania. A slideshow presented by Njombe on September 26, 2012.
Ministry of Water and Livestock Development (2005). School milk feeding programme in
Tanzania. The United Republic of Tanzania, p. 1-12.
Mtenga LA. Feeding of sheep and goats. Research experience. The potential of
small ruminants in East and Southern Africa. OAU/IBAR/IDRC, Nairobi, Kenya,
1984: 135-143.
Peacock, C. (2008). Dairy goat development in East Africa: A replicable model for
smallholders? Small Ruminant Research, 77 (2-3): 225-238.
The National Examination Board of Tanzania. (2013). Available at:
http://www.necta.go.tz/opendata/opendata.html
WHO. (2013. Food Security. Available at:
http://www.who.int/trade/glossary/story028/en/
(Accessed on:08.09.13)

40

Twawose. (2012). Report on Yoghurt Distribution to Nyandira Primary School.

Twawose. (2012). Available: http://twawose.wordpress.com/ ((Accessed on:18.09.13)
World Food Programm (WFP), World Bank (WB), and Child Development Fund (CDF). (2012).
A Guidance Note to Develop a National Sustainability Strategy, p. 1-38.

12.0. Appendices

Budget:
Original Budget given to us by SUA:
100000 THS
Transport
50000 THS
Facilitation
_____________________________________________________________________________
150000 THS
Total
Redefined Budget total of 120000, because we gave 30000 to another research team from SUA,
which was present in Mgeta as well and was i need of a budget increase.
______________________________________________________________________________
120000 TSH
Redefined Total of Budget
Expense:
Facilitation fee for interviews and being shown to households,
Chai and biscuits and goat milk,
Reimbursement of airtime to Solomon, who made all the calls for us
______________________________________________________________________________
100000 TSH
Total sum of money used
______________________________________________________________________________
20000 TSH
Total of money left and returned to SUA
Comments:
We had no additional transportation fees, because we lived in our main research areas and
walked to all the households and institutions we visited.
We only paid facilitation feed for people leading us to households and once to a teacher, because
we used a lot of his time during working hours.
We decided to offer drinks and some snack, whenever the interviews found place at our home
- SUA Hotel. This decision was based on our experience of Tanzanian culture, where you we
have always been offered something to drink or eat whenever we entered someones home.

41

Research Team members:

Researcher 1:
Brett Sandra Trainor
Researcher 2:
Linn Sissle Jckle
Supervisor at SUA: Ph.D. Edith E. Ndemandisho
Translator:
Faustine Cyriacis
Local person guiding
the way to households: Happiness Alex

Time Plan and List of People, Organizations interviewed:

(in chronological order)
Name

Organization
or/and position

Place

Date

Cecilie Dyngeland

Yoghurt project
facilitator

SUA, Morogoro

Sept. 3, 2013

Solomon
Nicholaus

Yoghurt project
facilitator

SUA, Morogoro

Sept. 3, 2013

Current headteacher
Nyandira Primary
School

Nyandira Primary
School, Nyandira,
Mgeta

Sep. 6, 2013

Anonym.

Pupils of Nyandira
Primary School

Hotel SUA
(Conference room),
Nyandira, Mgeta

Sep. 7, 2013

Anonym.

Teacher at Nyandira
Primary school

Household visit;
Home of the
teacher, Nyandira,
Mgeta

Sep. 7, 2013

Anonym.

Former head teacher

Household visit;
Home of the
teacher, Nyandira,
Mgeta

Sep. 8, 2013

Anonym.

First round of
parents interviews
(3 focus groups)

Parents of pupils of
Nyandira Primary
School

Hotel SUA
(Conference room),
Nyandira, Mgeta

Sep. 9, 2013

Anonym.

Second round of
parents interviews
( 9 individual
interviews )

Parents of pupils of
Nyandira Primary
School

Household visits

Sep. 10 and Sep. 11,

2013

Anonym.

First round of Pupils

(10)

Comment

42

Second round of
pupils (7)

Pupils of Nyandira
Primary School

Hotel SUA
(Conference room),
Nyandira, Mgeta

Sep. 10, 2013

Anonym.

3 Twawose
cooperative
members; one of
them being the
chairman

Twawose office,
Nyandira, Mgeta

Sep. 12, 2013

Anonym.

3 Parents council
members

Twawose office,
Nyandira, Mget

Sep. 11, 2013

Anonym.

Annex:
Annex Original SFF

Annex Modified SFF

43

Annexe Bivariate Regression

Table Bivariate Regression
Dependent variable: Pupils receiving goat yoghurt through Twawose distribution at NPS
(Pupils are receiving yoghurt (1) or not (0)
Variable

Coef
(s.d)

Girl

-2.890 *
(1.364)

Intercept

1.386
(1.118)

16

Level of significance: 0 *** 0.001 ** 0.01 * 0.05 . 0.1 1

Annex Graph

44

Fig. 3: The percentage of all pupils at Nyandira Primary School as compared to the percentage of pupils
interviewed for the purpose of this research who receive yoghurt through the SYP at Nyandira Primary School,
according to the week and month of the year.
Weeks

1-4

5-8

9-14

15-18

19-22

23-26

27-30

Corresponding
months

Sep. 2012

Oct. 2012

Nov./Dec.
2012

Feb. 2013

Mar./Apr
. 2013

May
2013

Aug.
2013

Table 1: Breakdown of delivery weeks by month.

Annex Percentage of Yoghurt Pupils

Annex Enrollment interviewed pupils
Annex Operationalization table
Annex R Coding
Annex Transcription Pupils
Annex Transcription Parents

45