Strategic Partnership Supporting capacity development of African Farmer’s Organizations through improved Policies, Technologies and Capabilities

Farmer’s-led successful business cases

9-13 September 2019, Brussels

  1. Background

PAFO and CTA documented farmers’ led value chain financing models as part of the implementation of the recommendations of the 2nd Continental Briefing on promoting inclusive financial models for farmers in Africa which was held in Nairobi, Kenya on 13 and 14 July 2014. This event was organized by CTA, the African Union Commission and the Pan African Farmers’ Organisation (PAFO) in collaboration with AFRACA. Its objectives were: (1) to highlight the main opportunities for financing of the value chain for farmers’ organizations; (2) to provide a space for exchanging experiences and innovative practices in financing the value chain; (3) to facilitate contacts between the development partners.

Following some farmer’s-led successful business cases presented at the PAFO Briefing, it was recommended to document more with the objective to identify the drivers of success and also to identify what needed support could be provided to expand or upscale the business model as to benefit productivity, market access, finance…

Ten (10) national cases proposed by the regional farmer’s organisations were documented (25 pages each), including the needed support to expand and upscale the business.

A part was supported on agribusiness and ICTs to improve the profitability of the business in line with the problems being addressed.

  1. Context

CTA, PAFO and its 5 regional members have developed programmes and activities focused on leveraging economic opportunities for African farmer’s organisation, through:

  • Supporting inclusive agribusiness development to capture new market opportunities for farmers to move up the value chain and increase farmer’s revenues.
  • Supporting the organisational and entrepreneurship capacities of FOs and support institutions.
  • Showcasing and up-scaling entrepreneurial successes in agribusiness and technology transfer, including improving ICT use by young agripreneurs
  • Promoting increased generation and use of data from farmers and supporting membership registration at the core of digitalisation projects.
  • Promoting smart farming, including an increased knowledge of precision farming, especially for young farmers and entrepreneurs as well as enhancing business skills including for rural women.
  • Supporting of internal and external communication activities including high level panels, special issue of ICTupdate and the planned Brussels briefing.
  • Developing collective learning spaces including this experience capitalisation workshop.
  1. Capitalisation/knowledge management: process and lessons learned

Based upon the collaboration in support of selected FOs-led businesses supported by CTA and partners, it is proposed:

  • To review the results and lessons learned from the supported cases at national level after the support provided by CTA and PAFO members
  • To identify further business cases which could be documented and benefit from support in the coming years
  • Methodology

This workshop will follow the tested method and approach being tried in other cases and regions, building on similar capitalization processes in the past.

Objectives:

  • Present the FAO / IMARK “learning module” on experience capitalization, and discuss the best approach to disseminate it and to encourage its use;
  • Present the main concepts and ideas regarding an experience capitalization approach;
  • Discuss a general methodology, and the steps to follow so as to ensure that it is completed;
  • Start an experience capitalization process: selecting a specific case, identifying a list of participants and of people who need to be involved, finding information and organising it, analysing each case and drawing conclusions, and preparing for the dissemination of these results;
  • Draw specific lessons regarding the PAFO/CTA project;
  • Plan for future activities within the participating initiatives and with other participants.

Expected outputs

The 2,5-3 day discussions and interactions among participants are expected to lead to:

  • specific skills among participants to start and complete a capitalization process, and to draw lessons by doing it;
  • a set of cases described and analysed, and of lessons to share between the participating initiatives and with other interested organizations;
  • a set of documented experiences and lessons to be added to the website, and to kick-start discussions within the community of practice and the electronic platform;
  • specific plans to continue and complete the capitalization process.

The farmer’s-led business proposals should also show how the actions would result in:

  • an overall increase in prosperity of smallholder farmers
  • improved resilience to climate change and better environmental management
  • inclusion of women and youth in the farming community. Links with African programs (AFAWA- Enable Youth – AfDB, AU-NEPAD, etc)
  1. Capitalization Workshop in Brussels

The capitalization workshop will be held in the week of 9-13 September 2019.

  • Activities

To maximize the participation from FOs, we propose combined activities:

  • Capitalisation and KM exercice (2,5-3 days)
  • Participation and contribution to the Brussels Briefing n. 57 on Smallholder agriculture: key to food security/nutrition and sustainable food systems (11th September morning)- Separate note/programme to be shared.
  • Meetings with development partners, European FOs, finance and businesses in the remaining day (if this is of interest to the FOs). These meetings could be for the group and customised based on the specific business/value chain interests and include a matchmaking lunch/reception. A separate programme will be shared.

 

  • Participants

Around 20 participants from Africa comprising President and CEOs of Farmer’s Organisations, development partners and finance. The sessions are interactive. Small working groups will be organized in French and English separately and the plenary sessions will be held in English and French.

  • Beneficiaries

The beneficiaries are PAFO and the regional member FOs as well as selected FOs-led business models at national level. Documentation and communication of improvement approaches (good practice) could extend these beneficiaries to all members of the regional FO.

  1. Expected results
  • Book of best practices in farmers-led business in Africa (PAFO, RFOs, CTA)
  • Video
  • Articles for the media/websites

Check full programme here

Watch the videos: