ABIDJAN – HELP Logistics and the Regional Centre of Excellence against Hunger and Malnutrition (CERFAM) signed on August 28, 2022, a Memorandum of Understanding aimed at establishing a new platform for collaboration in areas of scientific, technical, and education, whose activities will be oriented towards strengthening agri-food value chains and the resilience of communities to socio-economic shocks in Africa.

Through this partnership agreement, HELP Logistics and CERFAM establish strategic and operational collaboration in support of African countries and agree to carry out joint needs assessment, analysis, and technical assistance activities to strengthen supply chains, including reducing post-harvest losses that impact food security, nutrition, and food systems.

 “HELP Logistics strongly believes that well-functioning supply chains have incredible potential to strengthen economies and support the welfare of communities in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way,” said Bruno Vandemeulebroecke, HELP Logistics Regional Director, West Africa.

 “Allowing smallholder farmers to evolve from subsistence to commercial farming drives the resilience within communities and fosters food security on a local and even national level. This partnership between CERFAM and HELP Logistics brings together two expert organizations towards reducing hunger on the local, regional, and national levels in several African countries,” he added.

In line with regional, continental, and global priorities, as well as their respective missions and plans of action, the two institutions will work to implement research and technical assistance projects in food security and nutrition, with a focus on operationalization and scaling up at both the national and the continental level. This partnership will also make it possible to generate and share good practices and lessons learned in the field of supply chains and the strengthening of agri-food value chains, to advance the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 2, The United Nations Agenda 2030, and the African Union Agenda 2063. Governmental and interregional Page 2 of 2 institutions in Africa, United Nations system agencies, the private sector, and civil society will be key stakeholders in this partnership.

“This partnership signed with HELP Logistics extends the scope of the joint assistance carried out as part of the strengthening of the rice value chain in the Republic of Guinea,” said Patrick Teixeira, CERFAM Acting Director. "It will be a question of working together on joint advocacy initiatives for the promotion of humanitarian logistics, and also of implementing complementary actions in the areas of research, the reduction of post-harvest losses, the identification and the promotion of good practices and innovative solutions in order to guide political decisions and investments of countries in favour of smallholder farmers and equitable access to healthy, nutritious and diversified diets based on local products," he concluded.