Twenty million people in Eastern Africa rely on flour from over 1,500 small mills for primary nutrition. For many, especially children and pregnant women, this flour is their main source of essential nutrients like iron, folic acid, and zinc.
In early 2025, this network faced collapse when U.S. aid cuts hit unexpectedly. Sanku, the organization behind this food fortification system and the installation of smart dosifiers at mills in Kenya, Tanzania, and Ethiopia, lost $800,000 for expansion overnight.
The cuts threatened expansion and ongoing programs communities relied on. Small millers suddenly faced support and supply gaps. A promising pilot for micro millers in Kenya’s informal settlements halted abruptly.
The Rapid Response Fund provided a $250,000 grant to bridge the gap while Sanku adapted to build a sustainable future model.
When Critical Funding Disappears
We spoke with Sanku about the funding crisis’s impact and their new strategies.
A Conversation with Sanku
Before the foreign aid cuts, what specific programs was Sanku implementing, and how many people were being served?
Before the USAID cuts, Sanku was implementing key programs to scale food fortification across Eastern Africa, with a major focus on expanding operations in Ethiopia and piloting sustainable business models for small-scale millers in Kenya.
Approximately $800,000 in secured funding for Ethiopia was lost, which was intended to support the rollout of our fortification technology and ensure compliance with national food fortification standards. Additionally, Sanku lost around $1.2 million in potential funding opportunities, including critical conversations with USAID in Tanzania.
At the time, Sanku was, and continues to be, a vital contributor to food and nutrition security in the region.
We currently partner with over 1,500 small and medium-scale millers across Kenya, Tanzania, and Ethiopia, collectively reaching more than 20 million people daily with fortified maize flour.
In Kenya, our partnership with WFP and USAID was testing an innovative model tailored for micro and posho millers, a critical segment of the milling ecosystem that serves the vast majority of low-income households.
Unfortunately, this pilot was halted prematurely due to funding withdrawal, limiting our ability to complete the validation of this scalable solution.
What challenges did your organization face when the aid cuts occurred, and how did these challenges impact your operations and the communities you serve?
The USAID aid cuts created significant operational and strategic challenges for Sanku at a critical moment of expansion and innovation.
The most immediate impact was the loss of $800,000 in secured funding for Ethiopia, which delayed key activities including the onboarding of small millers, distribution of fortification equipment, and training on compliance with the national food fortification standards.
This has slowed momentum in a country that had just launched a national food fortification program and where Sanku was poised to play a leading implementation role.
In Kenya, the abrupt halt of our pilot with the World Food Programme, funded in part by USAID, disrupted the rollout of a sustainable business model designed specifically for micro and posho millers.
These millers are essential to feeding millions in informal settlements and rural areas. Without completing the pilot, Sanku could not validate or replicate this model, stalling progress in ensuring universal access to fortified flour at the last mile.
Beyond the loss of direct program funding, the aid cuts created a ripple effect:
- Increased competition for limited donor funds, making it harder to secure replacement grants.
- Slowed down the scaling of innovations and new technologies tailored for small millers.
- Stretched our internal capacity to maintain momentum in multiple countries concurrently.
The communities most affected are low-income households who rely on small-scale millers for their daily staple food. Every delay in program rollout means continued exposure to nutrient-deficient diets, particularly for children, pregnant women, and other vulnerable groups.
How has the Rapid Response Fund grant addressed these challenges, and what measurable impact do you expect from this support?
The Rapid Response Fund grant is a critical lifeline that has enabled Sanku to resume momentum in Ethiopia and safeguard progress made across the region.
Specifically, we have used the grant to:
- Accelerate the onboarding of millers in Ethiopia, including the installation of our smart dosifiers and training on proper fortification techniques.
- Support logistics and field operations necessary to distribute nutrient premix and provide maintenance services that are essential to ensuring fortified flour consistently reaches consumers.
- Bridge critical staffing and operational gaps caused by the sudden loss of funding, particularly in high-need regions.
With this support, we expect to: reach an additional 500,000 to 1 million people in Ethiopia with fortified flour during the grant period; ensure consistent fortification compliance among newly onboarded millers; and lay the groundwork for full-scale national operations in alignment with Ethiopia’s new food fortification mandate.
More broadly, the grant will help us maintain continuity in our mission while we pursue longer-term funding opportunities, ensuring that the most vulnerable populations are not left behind due to shifting donor priorities.
What is the longer-term strategy for sustaining these critical services, and what would be possible with additional support?
Sanku’s long-term strategy is centered on building locally owned, sustainable food fortification ecosystems that reduce dependency on donor funding while ensuring every family, regardless of income, has access to nutritious staple foods.
Our approach includes:
- Establishing regional premix production facilities (such as our upcoming second factory in Ethiopia) to reduce costs, increase supply chain resilience, and respond quickly to local needs.
- Developing public-private partnerships with governments and local institutions to embed fortification within national nutrition and health agendas.
- Strengthening cost-sharing models with millers, especially micro- and small-scale millers, to gradually reduce reliance on subsidies while maintaining the affordability of fortified flour.
- Investing in innovation and digital tools to improve fortification accuracy, traceability, and monitoring in real time, making fortification more effective and scalable.
With additional support, we could:
- Rapidly scale to reach millions more people across underserved regions in Ethiopia and beyond.
- Complete pilots and replicate tested models for micro millers, a segment critical to reaching rural and low-income communities.
- Strengthen advocacy and policy support to institutionalize fortification within national nutrition strategies.
- Build resilience into our model, reducing our vulnerability to funding shocks and ensuring continuity of service to the most vulnerable.
Can you share a brief example or story that illustrates the difference this funding will make for the people you serve?
When critical USAID funding was withdrawn, it disrupted our early rollout plans in Ethiopia, stalling a secured $800,000 investment that would have jumpstarted local operations. Despite this setback, Sanku has pressed forward with urgency and resolve. In just six months since officially launching, we’ve equipped nearly 100 millers with our Dosifiers, reaching 3.8 million Ethiopians with fortified flour.
Still, the challenges from that funding gap are real. We lost momentum during a critical phase when support for staffing, miller onboarding, and factory setup was most needed, and with Ethiopia’s government now enforcing mandatory fortification, demand for our services is rapidly increasing.
With support from the Rapid Response Fund, we can now recover lost ground. The grant will directly support the rollout of our premix blending factory in Addis Ababa, enabling us to localize production, reduce costs, and sustainably supply our growing network of millers in Ethiopia and across the Horn of Africa.
The difference will be transformative: accelerated onboarding of hundreds more millers, a reliable, cost-effective source of premix, and the ability to meet nutritional needs for up to 40 million people, especially the vulnerable.
This is more than recovery; it’s a strategic leap toward a resilient, self-sufficient food system in Ethiopia.
Building Sustainable Solutions
Sanku’s food fortification tackles a key global nutrition challenge: reaching millions relying on small-scale millers for flour. The new premix facility in Addis Ababa shifts toward local ownership and less dependency on imports.
By producing premix locally, Sanku reduces costs, improves reliability, and supports Ethiopia’s fortification program.
The Rapid Response Fund’s Role
The $250,000 grant from the Rapid Response Fund arrived at a critical moment to maintain momentum in Ethiopia while seeking long-term funding. Since February 2025, the fund has raised over $6.4 million and granted more than $2 million to similar organizations.
For Sanku, this support is crucial for expanding into new regions without scaling back. It also enables the validation of their sustainable business model for micro millers, work that could be replicated in other countries where small-scale milling is vital to food security.
Looking Ahead
The early 2025 funding cuts pushed many organizations to rethink their sustainability strategies. For Sanku, this meant fast-tracking local infrastructure and cost-sharing models with millers. These adaptations are now shaping a more resilient and scalable approach to food fortification in Eastern Africa.
With nearly $100 million in unmet needs across global health organizations, the Rapid Response Fund offers emergency support as organizations adapt to changing funding. Sanku’s experience shows how strategic emergency funding can help proven programs not only survive but emerge stronger.
Learn More: Curious about how your support makes a difference? Explore the stories of impacted communities, dive into the fund’s mission, and see the impact of your generosity. Visit The Rapid Response Fund page here.
Take Action Now: Join the fight against the global health crisis. Your donation can save lives and create lasting change today. Make a donation here, and be part of the solution.
