The above looks at issues of food and nutrition security encompassing the essential elements of food accessibility, availability, stability and utilization. ASHA interest also targets issues related to feeding of particular “interest groups” such as school feeding programs, feeding prisoners, and providing adequate food to refugees and Internally Displaced Personals. (IDPs).

Seeds are the source of life and the core of the food system. In short, the right to seeds, the right to food. ASHA focus would be on genetically modified organisms (GMOs), intellectual property issues; advising the government on the Biosafety laws, Plant Variety Protection (PVP) laws; and the National Seed Policy development.

Food security is not just about agricultural production since most people cannot produce all the food they need. Trade and markets fundamentally affect the accessibility and availability of food for most people.

Strong and stable market signals, principally price, can stimulate supply and investment in improved quality or expanded capacity. Promoting infrastructure development and harmonized policies will enable a free flow of agricultural commodities primarily driven by market forces.

There is the need to structure trading systems and to strengthen the role farmer cooperatives and private collection centers play in aggregating and marketing crops and animal resources

ASHA looks at linking farmers produce with traders involved in exportation of agricultural produce through Market and Trade Information Systems (MTIS) to monitor the role and participation of youth and women involvement in global trade agreements and negotiations as well as policies and practices that affect food distribution in Rwanda.

Agricultural commodity markets are inherently risky and competitive, linked with surpluses and shortages in international, regional, and national markets, and characterized along the entire value chain by tight margins, in particular for staples. Profits are made by efficient handling (and processing) of large volumes, and adept risk management. Inefficient and weak value chains impede food productivity process. ASHA looks at addressing production issues through improved market information, promoting out-grower schemes, and strengthening the enforcement of contracts.

Large productivity gains can be made by reducing post-harvest handling losses - where an average of up to 30 per cent loss is experienced during the postharvest stage in Rwanda. Post-harvest handling is strengthened through the development of adequate capacities, technology, and infrastructure. In line with the National Post-Harvest Strategy, interventions include improved information and data on post-harvest losses along the entirety of prioritized value chains, technical capacity building at producer and first aggregator level, upgraded post-harvest technology, i.e. mechanization, industrial shelling and drying, logistics and management.

ASHA focuses to address the gap of data, and carry out advocacy and awareness of existing policy and strategy regarding NCDs and prevention of preventable diseases.

Many disease outbreaks are occurring throughout the world as a result of emerging and re-emerging infectious agents, and the fast modes at which organisms move from place to place are a threat to economies. To cope with the situation, laboratories in health facilities, including health centers in urban areas with high population densities have to play a special role in reducing risks, containing emergencies and responding to outbreaks; laboratory results are a component in 70% of clinical decisions. ASHA’s role focus on the advocacy to strengthen public health laboratory systems.

ASHA focusses on Public awareness with regard to use of antibiotics in animal husbandry and agriculture to protect our environment, research and innovation increased knowledge and innovative tools to better understand resistance, support the coordination of multi-disciplinary approach to address health risks that originate at the animal-human-ecosystems interface, develop capacity for surveillance and monitoring of antimicrobial resistance and antimicrobial use in food and agriculture and promote good practices in food and agriculture systems and the prudent use of antimicrobials.

Weak agricultural and health systems and limited availability of agricultural and health data hampers decision-makers’ capacity to prioritize investments in both sectors. With improved data, countries will be able to monitor or achieve SDG2 for agriculture and SDG3 for good Health and well-being to promote sustainable health care services. Accurate data are needed to provide guidance to address the challenges stated above. ASHA addresses these agriculture and health ICT and data challenges as regards to timely and accuracy data acquisition through establishing a unique digital platform to facilitate all stakeholder involved in agricultural sector to get reliable information and data related to Connecting rural communities (youth and women) to economic opportunities through access and utilization of ICT to advance social economic empowerment.

The agricultural and health sectors are of critical importance for the economic development, poverty reduction, and nutritional security of Rwanda. In the last two decades, the two sectors have registered tremendous transformation.

However, across the two sectors these achievements have been met with challenges that include soil erosion, population pressure, water pollution, inadequate fertilizers, health services which are either inaccessible, unavailable, unaffordable or of poor quality, frequency and quality of the data produced and low level of effective utilization of ICT for information sharing, empowerment and transformation of youth.

ASHA plans to join other stakeholders to address these challenges through use of innovational technologies and ICT. The organization will focus on possible routes causes and cofounding factors and potential remedial actions will be a unique opportunity to address these challenges over a long-term period.