International Contract Success for UK Company
AA International is a spin-out company of CAZS-NR, Bangor, and has been supported by the Welsh Assembly Government to help it successfully complete nine annual UN Crop and Food Supply Assessment Missions – four in Ethiopia, three in South Sudan and one in Tajikistan and North Sudan in the past five years. The company has just been awarded a new contract by UN FAO to provide technical assistance to North Sudan for this years crop and food supply assessment and to provide, over the coming year, country-specific, field manuals for assessing crops and livestock production, reflecting the companys success in providing similar manuals in the Pictorial Evaluation Tool (PET) series for Somalia, South Sudan and Ethiopia.
Dr Ian Robinson, Director of AA International, said:
Its a significant achievement for AA International to be awarded the contract for providing PET manuals for North Sudan. The PET system is based on photographs of in-country recorded standards for crop yields and livestock bodycondition scores and has been tried and tested in 3 countries since we left CAZS-NR, Bangor, where the first PET was developed, Its simplicity makes it attractive to fieldbased assessors, who may now, for the first time, have more confidence in their estimates; and, equally importantly, can now share a standard operating procedure that they can easily explain to others.
Our latest PETs, produced for Somalia are the third national PET Crops and the first PET Livestock manuals to be produced. They will provide a number of benefits for our clients, such as more accurate assessment of food needs, less likelihood of exaggerated claims for food aid, less chance of the continuation of national dependencies on food aid that have become institutionalised; and, may increase the likelihood of donors addressing real issues of food security rather than drip-feeding unnecessary food aid.
In addition, if used correctly, these new tools should help provide a more accurate general understanding of the real levels of production of cereals and root crops that exist in Africa, rather than the more commonly-believed underestimates, possibly resulting in more useful research and extension programmes.
AA international has also launched an innovative new website www.techtalk-international.com – an on-line agricultural advice and environmental advice, question and answer, advisory service for farmers and land or project managers worldwide. Since its recent inception the site has attracted attention from charities and individuals across a number of continents including Africa, Central Europe and India.
Dr Robinson continued:
The Techtalk International website is also a significant development for the company. We now have a growing client roster utilising the site and benefitting from the at-cost service, including NGOs such as FARM- Africa, Concern Worldwide, World Vision, Mercy Corps, Christian Aid as well as the Swiss Development Corporation and the International Federation of the Red Cross. Its really simple to use, and unique in its conception and implementation.
AA International provides services to a number of organisations, including the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation and the United Nations World Food Programme; The European Commission; The British Government’s Department for International Development and a number of prominent and highly respected international and national NGOs such as OXFAM, FARM Africa, Concern Worldwide and Christian Aid.
AA International Ltd staff have led or participated in 50 Crop and Food Supply Assessment Missions internationally for the World Food Programme; conducted over 100 programme evaluations and proposal assessments in Africa and India and carried out over 100 situation reviews and project identification missions.