USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah Visits Tanzania

The following is an excerpt from a press release by the U.S. Embassy in Tanzania. Read the full press release on the embassy’s website.

Dr. Shah spearheads U.S. President Barack Obama’s Feed the Future Initiative, which is the U.S. Government’s global hunger and food security initiative to reduce hunger and poverty. He attended a round table discussion with 11 private sector representatives from international and local companies that signed letters of intent to invest in the agriculture sector as part of the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, which was a result of the G8 meetings held in the United States in May 2012. Other participants at the discussion included representatives of the Southern Agriculture Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) Center, representatives from the World Economic Forum, the Tanzanian Investment Center, and the Government of Tanzania. 

As part of his visit, Dr. Shah along with some visiting members of the U.S. Congress attended a roundtable lunch on nutrition. Participation included the major nutrition actors in Tanzania from the government and from civil society including high level Tanzanian government officials, and civil society representatives who are at the center of policy change and program implementation. Through the discussion, Dr. Shah gained an appreciation of what it takes to scale up nutrition—with a particular focus on stunting from chronic under-nutrition—from both a policy and programs perspective.