Data Analytics for Food Markets in Africa is implemented by Tufts University and Euromonitor International, with funding from the Gates Foundation and consortium members. Participants meet regularly through online working groups to identify new data sources, analytical methods and software tools providing qualitative insights, market intelligence and actionable guidance towards increased sales of low-cost, nutrient-dense foods. Together, we work to help food enterprises in Africa grow and prosper by meeting societal demand for more affordable, nutritious, and resilient food supplies.
Read more about our steering committee, project team, and funding partners below.
Steering committee
Our steering committee will evolve over time and consist of highly motivated companies and organizations that are responsible for setting priorities and guiding all consortium activities, ensuring the platform is accountable and serves the full range of stakeholders in African food markets. This group will determine the focus of each working group, the content of their quarterly meetings and online dissemination of results, ensuring their relevance for decision making.
- This steering committee will be geographically and functionally representative of all DAFMA members, and will operate under a shared code of conduct.
- Participation in the steering committee is by invitation only.
This governance approach ensures DAFMA is accountable and serves the full range of stakeholders in African food markets
Project team
- William A. Masters, Project Director
Professor, Friedman School of Nutrition - Alex Knueppel, Project Manager
- Shaelin Cullen, Project Coordinator
- Grant Budding, Project Lead
Senior Consultant, International Development - Bolutife Onaneye, Senior Consultant
- Miri Eliyahu, Senior Consultant
Funding and origin of our work
The Data Analytics for Food Markets in Africa project is funded by the Gates Foundation as INV-069676 and implemented by Tufts University and Euromonitor International between 2025 and 2029.
The design of DAFMA followed from a scoping study in 2024-25 by the Food Prices for Nutrition project, through which interviews and other evidence revealed an unmet need for a platform by which private-sector food enterprises could obtain and share insights from new data sources and software tools. The Food Prices for Nutrition project itself worked only on enabling environments, collaborating with national governments and international organizations to create new metrics of diet costs and affordability for improved food access.
DAFMA now aims to work directly with the private enterprises needed to actually deliver those more affordable healthy diets, by building increasingly cost-effective and resilient supply chains and distribution systems. The overall portfolio of work led by Tufts University on metrics to improve food access and affordability of healthy diets can be followed on this LinkedIn page.