TELEFOOD SPECIAL FUND

TeleFood is FAO's annual campaign of broadcasts, concerts and other events dedicated to helping reduce the number of hungry in the world. Launched in 1997, following the World Food Summit, the aim of TeleFood is to reach out and raise the awareness about world hunger and mobilize resources for hunger-fighting projects.

A TeleFood Special Fund (TSF) has been established to facilitate the funding of small grassroots level projects in developing and transition countries. Donations to the TSF go directly into grassroots development projects to poor farmers, especially women, young people (through schools, orphanages) and disabled persons, to pay for tools, seeds and other essential supplies required to grow food for their families and communities. Many of the projects are also income-generating, providing farmers and fishers with much needed cash to pay for health care, housing, education and other necessities. The budgets of individual projects should in no case exceed US$10,000 and financial assistance extended should not exceed 12 months.

As the projects under TSF are pilot in nature, the inputs provided by the projects should be distributed free of charge. However, to be eligible for TSF assistance, the beneficiaries should organize themselves into an association and should agree to contribute, besides the provision of their own labour and inputs, a small amount of money to a community fund on a regular basis (e.g. monthly).

Types of projects and inputs, which could be covered by TSF, include the following:

(i) Category I: Crop Production (cereals, roots and tubers, vegetables, fruits, agroforestry, small irrigation, apiculture, agroprocessing) with standard inputs including seeds and planting materials, fertilizer required for one or maximum two campaigns, limited quantities of pesticides, hand tools, material and supplies. Heavy equipment is not provided by TSF.
(ii) Category II: Small Animal Production (poultry: chicken, geese, ducks, guinea fowls; rabbits; small ruminants; pigs) with standard inputs including start-up stock (one-day chicks, sheep, piglets), animal health supplies, feed resources in quantities sufficient to cover the first rearing period, hand tools, material and supplies.
(iii) Category III: Fish Production (small-scale fish culture, improved artisanal fisheries) with standard inputs including fry for water stocking, fishing gear (but no boats), products for fish feeding, hand tools, materials and supplies.

The FAO Representative, with the assistance of Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS) national staff if available, or other FAO field staff, will initiate contacts with local authorities in order to select the project categories which could be implemented in the country and the site/village of each project. A national civil servant, preferably a technician from the Ministry of Agriculture, should be designated to be responsible for the entire cycle of the project. A local NGO or local community could be used for the same work under technical supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture. Each project, based on the relevant project sheet, should be adapted locally in close consultation with the community concerned. While TSF projects should be self-contained, they should whenever feasible, be linked to ongoing FAO Regular Programme-funded projects, i.e. either to a project funded by the SPFS appropriation or to an appropriate TCP project, or to appropriate internally or externally-funded grassroots development projects.

Over 900 micro-projects are currently being financed by TSF. Farm families in Cambodia, beginner bee keepers in Samoa, small-scale farmers in Honduras, watermelon growers in China and fishsellers in Burkina Faso are just some of the world's farmers, herders and fisherfolk who are benefiting from TeleFood contributions. Nearly half of the micro-projects are designed mainly or specifically for women. In these projects, seeds, tools and other inputs are selected to meet women's needs and channelled directly to village women's associations or cooperatives. TeleFood projects that help women earn money by selling vegetables, fish or poultry, translate directly into better nutrition for their families.

Calculating a TeleFood project summary budget
A trilingual Excel spreadsheet is available which can be used to generate a summary budget in US$ based on input in local currency. It is designed to also help users by allowing only approved budget lines and generates the summary required for the Programme and Project Review Committee (PPRC) review sheet (see PPRC link below for more information). Users should work within the white fields. Click below to access this spreadsheet:


For additional general information see: TeleFood web site

For additional information specific to TeleFood project formulation see:


LIST OF TELEFOOD NORMATIVE FRAMEWORKS AND "BEST PRACTICE" PROJECT EXAMPLES AVAILABLE AS GUIDELINES:

NORMATIVE FRAMEWORKS:

PROJECT EXAMPLES: