Food for Development FAQ

What is the Tetra Pak Food for Development Office?

The Food for Development Office (FfDO) was established in 2001. The goal was to bring together our expertise in dairy and other agricultural development and more than 45 years of experience in school milk programmes into a cohesive commitment to support sustainable economic development.

The FfDO acts as a catalyst, sharing our technical expertise and experience with partners in the public and private sectors. We help initiate, develop and support sustainable agricultural development, school milk and other feeding projects, mainly in developing countries.

Our activities are focused on practical programmes aimed at fighting poverty and improving nutrition, mainly among children. These programmes also have economic benefits for the communities in which they operate – such as job creation and technology transfer.

Is the FfDO a kind of non-governmental organisation (NGO)?

No. We are a private company and the world’s leading supplier of food processing, packaging and distribution systems.

The FfDO is an integral part of Tetra Pak. It is the Company’s way to coordinate the extensive knowledge gained in school feeding and in agricultural development, and to make that experience available for sharing.

How does the FfDO operate?

We believe that the only way to reduce poverty in the world is through sustainable economic and social development.

Many government agencies and NGOs agree that it is necessary to work in partnership with the private sector to create sustainable economic development.

Our Food for Development Office has developed and implemented models for such ‘public-private partnerships’.

What does your organisation look like?

We build partnerships through a global FfDO team, working in cooperation with international organisations.

Our Global Director is based in Stockholm and works with a network of Programme Directors based in different regions around the world.

How do you define a ‘public-private partnership’?

Public-private partnerships bring together governments, development agencies, international organisations and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), private aid organisations, farmers and companies like Tetra Pak and its customers – to work in the most efficient way for every participant’s mutual benefit and for a common goal.

School feeding programmes are excellent and long-standing examples of public-private partnerships. Usually the partnership involves a public educational authority, an NGO, milk suppliers, food processors, and a processing/packaging supplier such as Tetra Pak.

In some developing countries, an external aid agency is involved to supply the milk – or the money to buy it.
 
School feeding programmes are operating around the world. Our efforts are focused mainly in developing and emerging markets, where resources may be scarce and the need for co-ordinated efforts and international experience is greatest.

What is included in the ‘value chain’ for the FfDO?

We use the ‘Cow to Consumer’ analogy to describe how our activities create public-private partnerships that cover the entire value chain. The model stretches from the production of raw materials – milk and other foods – through processing, packaging, distribution and market communication and can include elements like:

• Training and education of farmers, milk processors, school teachers and even parents and students.
• Commercial financing of plant and equipment, for farmers, food processors and packaging operations.
• Support for new product development initiatives. Our efforts in this area include drinks based on soy, cereals etc., where those products may be more acceptable to local children’s diets than milk alone. It could include special fortified drinks for school feeding where malnutrition is widespread.
• Market development activities and Consumer information, e.g. educational material on health and environment for school children.

Who are your main partners?

We work closely with Tetra Pak's Market Companies and DeLaval who are both an integrated part of Tetra Pak's Food for Development activities. But they also include:

• Our customers, who process, package and distribute the food
• Governments who usually run the schools
• The United Nations and other international organisations
• National Development Agencies
• International and national NGOs and private agencies
• Industry partners, for example in the development of new food products

We also joined the UN Global Compact in 2004. The initiative aims at bringing together the UN, business and civil organizations committed to supporting nine principles under the broad headings of human rights, labour and the environment.

Where does funding for the programmes come from?

We identify and approach possible funding agencies, within governments, international organisations and the private sector. The FfDO itself does not have financial resources to fund programmes.

You talk about ‘sustainable’ business development models. How do you define ‘sustainable’ in terms of the activities you support?

If an activity is to be ‘sustainable’ it has to be built on a successful model. In a sustainable school milk programme, for example, the dairy processor’s operations should be run on commercial terms – and we help the processor to make business plans, arrange equipment financing on commercial terms, and venture capital.

A successful model may include initial external help, such as funding or commodities from international ’donors’ and NGOs. We support with expertise in processing techniques and marketing.

Through an integrated approach we can create a base for sustainable economic and social development.

But sometimes programmes close – when aid runs out. How does that impact your ‘sustainability’ position?

All feeding programmes, even if they prove not to be sustainable, provide benefits for the children who receive food.

However, if a programme closes when the foreign aid contribution is spent, it may not have been built on a sustainable foundation, but it may have closed because the economic situation in the country and the local communities involved in the programme improved.

That is why we seek to create models where local governments and/or local communities, dairies, food producers, processors and packaging companies, can take over funding and supply, when the foreign aid supply is used up.

Our models can create a business where none existed, for example in Bangladesh. When a donor funded school feeding programme was launched in 2002 there were no local commercial UHT milk processors. Now, there are three, collecting locally produced milk and producing quality products using our equipment.

Why do you emphasise ‘feeding programmes’ so much?

Our experience is that in many cases a school feeding programme functions as a catalyst for increased demand for locally produced food. At the same time programmes help improve the health and learning capacities of the school children involved – and build healthy eating habits for the future.

Quite simply, a feeding programme can be the foundation for valuable long-term economic growth.

What does Tetra Pak get out of ‘feeding programmes’?

If a feeding or agricultural development programme is sustained, we can anticipate equipment and packaging material sales. But the value added to our business in terms of our recognition as a genuinely responsible corporate citizen is also very important to us.

What does Tetra Pak see as its key contribution to the UN Global Compact?

We demonstrate commitment to global social and environmental issues. We work with Global Compact principles through our:

• Corporate Governance and Code of Business Conduct
• Environmental policy
• Food for Development activities

What about disaster relief: What is the role of FfDO?

Our contribution to disaster relief efforts lies outside the normal responsibility of FfDO. However, our experience can be valuable in several ways:

• By providing immediate help in identifying producers and distributors of ready-packaged food, close to where help is needed. After the tsunami disaster, our experience in school feeding and other relief programmes helped us move very quickly to supply the right type of aid–milk, water or pre-packaged Oral Re-hydration Solutions.
• By using our contacts with UN agencies, Governments and NGOs to work directly with the right people from the beginning.

Why not simply donate money?

Why not simply donate money? There is a saying that: “If you give a man a fish, you can satisfy his hunger. If you give him a net, he can fish when he wants.”

At the FfDO we see our programmes as very much in line with the lesson in that saying. the only sustainable way to reduce poverty is by creating economic growth. This is done by engaging actively in building up the private sector in developing countries.