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Le ar ning aLL iance s in ag r oe nte r pr ise De ve Lop me nt

Worki Toether, Leari Toether

CATHOLIC RELI EF SERVICES


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Catholic Relie Services

228 W. Lexington St.

Baltimore MD 20201 USA

www.crs.org

[email protected]

2009 Catholic Relie ServicesUnited States Conerence o Catholic Bishops.

All rights reserved. Published 2009.

Printed in the United States o America.

ISBN 0-945356-51-X

Graphic design by Valerie Sheckler

Tis publication was made possible by the generous support o the American People through the

United States Agency or International Development (USAID) Bureau or Democracy, Conict,

and Humanitarian Assistances Oce o Food or Peace under the terms o Catholic Relie

Services Institutional Capacity Building Grant Award Number AFP-A-00-03-00015-00. Te

contents do not necessarily reect the views o USAID or the United States Government.


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W t, L t

LEARnIng ALLIAnCES In AgROEnTERpRISE DEVELOpmEnT

Edited b Ruert Best, Shau Ferris, ad paul mud

cl rlf s


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Working together, Learning together LEARnIng ALLIAnCES In AgROEnTERpRISE DEVELOpmEnT

contents

Acros .....................................................................................................................................iii

Ackowledeets ...................................................................................................................v

Foreword .....................................................................................................................................viipreface ..........................................................................................................................................i

List of cotributors ....................................................................................................................i

id .............................................................................................................1

L all crs d t al

a Dl........................................................................5

Evolutio .......................................................................................................................................5The Leari Alliace process: What It Is ad How It Works ..........................................8

The CRS Aroeterrise Develoet Roada ..........................................................11

Ali the Leari Alliace Cocet to Aroeterrise Develoet ...........16

rl L all e ..........................................................17

Trasfori producers ito Etrereeurs: The Cetral Aerica Leari

Alliace Eeriece .........................................................................................................17

Brii Aroeterrise to Africa: The East Africa Leari Alliace .....................22Buildi Aroeterrise Skills to Icrease Rural Icoes i West Africa ................26

Brii Aroeterrise Develoet to Reote Couities of

Southeast Asia ad the pacic ......................................................................................29

Leari fro Aroeterrise projects i South Asia ...................................................32

W Wd Wll L all .................................................35

Shared Leari Eviroet .............................................................................................35

paradi Shift ...........................................................................................................................37Creati Substatial prora growth ...............................................................................37

Core Skills ....................................................................................................................................38

Directio ad Discilie ..........................................................................................................39

Diversied partershi ...........................................................................................................40

clz i: t cll ad .....................................43

Staff Caacit ad Retetio ................................................................................................43

Robust maaeet Iforatio Sstes ad moitori ad Evaluatio .........44polic ad Advocac ...............................................................................................................45

growth ad Sustaiabilit ......................................................................................................46

Cotiuous maaeet ad Facilitatio Suort .....................................................48


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t W Fwd ..................................................................................................51

Ariculture throuh a Aroeterrise Les ..................................................................51

The multi-Skill Farer grou Aroach ............................................................................52

The CRS Aroeterrise Develoet Ccle ...................................................................53

The Leari Alliace Cocet: A Fleible platfor ......................................................54Deliveri Results ad meeti Eectatios ..................................................................56

Leari ad Istitutioal Chae for Iovatio ........................................................57

Bbl ...........................................................................................................59

B

Bo 1 CRS, ariculture, ad the eed for a aroeterrise aroach ............................3

Bo 2 guidi riciles of leari alliaces ..........................................................................10Bo 3 major features of the CIAT-CRS aroeterrise develoet aroach ..........15

Bo 4 Docueti aroeterrise eeriecesthe philiies leads the wa .... 36

Bo 5 Leari fro eeriece across cotiets bris istat beets ................39

Bo 6 Aroeterrise develoet diversies artershis ............................................41

F

Fiure 1 Aroeterrise develoet versio 1.0: CIATs oriial road a ......12

Fiure 2 Seuece of activities i buildi caacit i aroeterrisedeveloet ......................................................................................................................16

Fiure 3 Seueci of the cooets of CRS aricultural develoet

strate, 20082013 ..........................................................................................................52

Fiure 4 CRS aroeterrise develoet ccle .................................................................54

tbl

Table 1 Evolutio of the leari alliace i CRS .............................................................6

Table 2 Tes of leari alliace ........................................................................................9

Table 3 major accolishets of the aroeterrise leari alliace i

Southeast Asia ad the pacic ..............................................................................31


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acronyms

Acordar Aliaza ara la Creaci de Oortuidades de Desarrollo Rural a travsde Relacioes Aro-eresariales (Alliace to Create Rural BusiessOortuities throuh Aro-Eterrise Relatioshis)

ACOS Aricultural Coodit SuliersAgRA Alliace for a gree Revolutio i AfricaASARECA Associatio for Strethei Aricultural Research i Easter ad

Cetral AfricaCARE Cooerative for Assistace ad Relief EverwhereCEmAC Couaut cooiue et motaire de lAfriue Cetrale

(Ecooic ad moetar Couit of Cetral Africa)CgIAR Cosultative grou o Iteratioal Aricultural ResearchCIAT Cetro Iteracioal de Aricultura Troical (Iteratioal Ceter for

Troical Ariculture)

COmESA Coo market for Easter ad Souther AfricaCORAF/WECARD Coseil Ouest et Cetre Africai our la Recherche et leDveloeet Aricoles (West ad Cetral Africa Coucil forAricultural Research ad Develoet)

CORpEI Cororaci de prooci de Eortacioes e Iversioes(Cororatio for the prootio of Eorts ad Ivestet)

CREpIC Cetro Reioal de productividad e Iovaci del Cauca (CaucaReioal Ceter for productivit ad Iovatio)

CRS Catholic Relief ServicesDAp Develoet Assistace prora

DDO Diocese Develoet OfceDFID Deartet for Iteratioal DeveloetDR-CAFTA Doiica Reublic-Cetral Aerica Free Trade AreeetECOWAS Ecooic Couit of West Africa StatesFARA Foru for Aricultural Research i AfricaFOSADEp norther ghaa Food Securit ad Aroeterrise Develoet projectgFAR global Foru o Aricultural ResearchgTZ gesellschaft fr Techische Zusaearbeit (gera Aec for

Techical Cooeratio)IDRC Iteratioal Develoet Research Cetre

IFAp Iteratioal Federatio of Aricultural producersIITA Iteratioal Istitute for Troical AricultureInERA Istitut de leviroeet et des recherches aricolesLAFISE Lati Aerica Fiacial ServicesnEpAD new partershi for Africas DeveloetngO no goveretal OraizatiopL public LawSnV Stichti nederladse Vrijwilliers (Foudatio of netherlads

Voluteers) ow kow as netherlads Develoet OraisatioSwisscotact Swiss Foudatio for Techical Cooeratio

UnA natioal Aricultural Uiversit of HodurasUSAID Uited States Aec for Iteratioal Develoet


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acknoWLeDgements

Tis book is the product o a writeshop that was held at the Brakenhurst Conerence

Center, Limuru, Kenya in September 2008. Its production was supported by the

United States Agency o International Development, which unded the writeshopevent and subsequent editing.

Te authors and contributors express their sincere thanks to the ollowing persons

without whose support we would have been unable to complete the book successully:

Te writeshop participants (a ull list o writeshop participants is contained in

the companion book Getting to Market: From Agriculture to Agroenterprise)

who provided input into the structure o the book and reviewed an initial dra

Te editorial team o Rupert Best, Shaun Ferris, and Paul Mundy

Te many sta o CRS partner organizations and researchers, whose

knowledge and experiences are reected in this book

Te innumerable armers and other community actors that have participated

in CRS agroenterprise activities across three continents

Te sta o CRS East Arica Regional Oce in Nairobi and CRS HQ in

Baltimore, who organized the logistics or the writeshop

Te management and sta o the Brackenhurst International Conerence

Center, Limuru, Kenya, where the writeshop was held


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ForeWorD

Catholic Relie Services takes pride in being a dynamic organization that encourages

innovation and adjusts the way we do business as global, national and local

circumstances change. Te challenges that we and our partners conront oen seeminsurmountable, and in a rapidly changing world new challenges constantly arise.

So we cannot rest on our laurels. However successul we may be now, we cannot

base our uture as an organization solely on our past perormance. We need to

continually reect on what we do, take risks, and try new ideas. We have to grow

as an organization that champions a culture o learning and change, an essential

condition or maintaining our relevance in this ast changing world.

Tis book leads us through a process o how CRS saw the opportunity to embrace

a market- and business-oriented approach to agricultural development. Over time,

we have come to a uller understanding that the best way to help poor rural people

move out o poverty is to boost household income in a sustained way. We concluded

that building the capacity o poor armers to engage in proftable enterprises had

to become an integral part o our agricultural development strategy. Tis shi has

required a whole new mind-set among managers and technical sta alike. Tose

who work in the feld have had to learn new skills; managers have had to engage new

sta with appropriate education and experience.

Our partnerships and alliances with others have been undamental to our success in

this process. New concepts and methods in agroenterprise development originating

with researchers have been combined with many years o feld experience on the

part o CRS and other development agencies. Tis has provided the basis or an

ongoing, mutual process o learning, practice, and reection that has in turn led to

new ways o working in the feld.

Trough this book, we would like to share the story o this learning process and how ithas inuenced change within CRS. It is having a proound inuence on our perormance

in building the capacity o our development partners and poor armers to conront

the challenges o market-oriented agriculture. Te process has also brought signifcant

benefts to CRS. Most importantly, it has proved ecient and eective in providing us

with a lasting capacity to respond to the needs o the arm amilies we serve.

Ken Hackett

President


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preFace

Tis is a book about a process or learning new things. Te new thing that CRS

wanted to learn was agroenterprise development, or how to successully link

smallholder armers to markets. Over the years, CRS has become very profcientat providing relie support ollowing disaster. In the agriculture sector this meant

helping to provide critical assets that communities need to restart their agricultural

activities. In the transition rom relie to development, our attention remained

ocused on production with the objective o restoring the capacity o armer

households to eed themselves. Tis approach, while necessary, is not now sucient

to help poor armers out o the rut o poverty. Farm amilies have needs that go

beyond ood, such as health, education or children, housing improvementsneeds

that can only be satisfed through having a cash income. Helping smallholderarmers to link proftably to markets in an equitable and sustainable manner

thereore became imperative i we were to ulfll our mission o restoring the dignity

o those who suer the degradation o poverty.

Te learning journey began in 2001 with parallel events in Central America and East

Arica. We were not starting rom scratch. In Latin America and southeast Asia the

undamental importance o a market orientation in fnding a pathway out o poverty

had been recognized, and market-development activities were being integrated into

production-ocused projects. In Arica we had pioneered a new approach to supplying

seeds ollowing disaster, called seed vouchers and airs, which is an explicit attempt

to reactivate the local market and not by-pass local suppliers by bringing seed in rom

outside. So the germ o a market orientation was already sown. But our challenge was to

build an institutional capacity in agroenterprise development.

Tis book relates how we adopted a learning alliance approach to getting the job

done. Serendipity had a role to play. CRS, an international development agency, was

looking or agroenterprise skills. CIA and IIA-FOODNE, international researchand training institutions, were looking or development partners with whom to

ground-truth the methodologies and tools that they had been developing to help

smallholder armers link to markets. A research-development partnership was

established in which we pooled our expertise and mapped out an iterative process

o learning, putting into practice what had been learned, and then analyzing and

reecting on the results. From small beginnings in East Arica and Central America

in 2002, CRS is now involved in agroenterprise development learning alliances in

more than 30 countries.

In 2008, we decided it was time to take stock, document our successes and ailures,

and decide on where we ought to be going in the uture. In September a group o

about 30 agroenterprise practitioners rom across the world met in a Brackenhurst,


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Limuru, Kenya or a one-week writeshop. Te writeshop resulted in two products.

One is this book, which concentrates on the learning process, how it evolved, and

the benefts it has brought to CRS. Most importantly, we have highlighted the

challenges that CRS aces as an institution in building on the investment we have

made in strengthening our agroenterprise development capacity. Te other bookcenters on the content on which that learning process was based. It describes how

CRS has applied the agroenterprise development approach and how it has worked

across a range o value chains and a range o countries. We are excited about the

way in which both the content and the process o learning about agroenterprise

has opened up a whole new way o thinking about development that is much more

inclusive and less compartmentalized than the approaches we used beore. We hope

that by relating our experience we will instil l this enthusiasm in our colleagues, both

within CRS and among our key partners and collaborators in other agencies.

om Remington

Principal echnical Advisor or Agriculture

Catholic Relie Services


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List oF contriButors

Tis book was prepared by a small team o CRS sta under the leadership o

om Remington. Te contributors were:

Geo Heinrich

Jean-Marie Bihizi

Jeerson Shriver

Joe Schultz

Joseph Sedgo

Kamal Bhattacharyya

Madeleine Smith

Rupert Best

Sunil Vishwakarma

erry uason

Shaun Ferris


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Working together, Learning together LEARnIng ALLIAnCES In AgROEnTERpRISE DEVELOpmEnT 1

id

Development organizations are constantly trying to fnd new, more eective ways

to combat poverty. Tat means they are aced with two related problems: how to

develop and test new approaches, and how to develop capabilities to implement

them. An organizations own sta and its partners must both learn to apply the new

skills, and they need guidance rom specialists or experienced personnel.

Te decision made by CRS to shi emphasis rom production-based agriculture

to agroenterprise provides an example o how these twin problems were tackled.

In the mid- to late 1990s a ew CRS country programs working on itle II Food

or Peace projects began to experiment with agroenterprise development, then a

relatively new approach being pioneered by a small number o research institutions

and development organizations, among them the International Center or ropical

Agriculture (CIA). Evidence was accumulating that market-led approaches could

help smallholder armers climb out o poverty. While CRS recognized the potential

in this new approach, ew o its sta had experience with it. Nor was it clear that

such an approach could work with chronically poor arming communities or those

emerging rom disaster. Te question or CRS was how could the agency develop

and adapt an approach to linking armers with markets and at the same time rapidly

build a critical mass o sta adept in using these methods?

Te answer was to develop a series oagroenterprise learning alliances across

CRS operational regions. A learning alliance is a model o mutual, participatorylearning involving research and development institutions and rural communities.

It aims to accelerate institutional change, improve knowledge management, and

deepen the level o impact. It consists o a series o hands-on training workshops

in which participantswho remain together throughout the processlearn,

exchange ideas, visit sites, and decide on activities to implement in the feld

beore the next meeting. In contrast to a typical one-o training course, such a

series o meetings enables the group to learn rom one other, test approaches, and

report back, thus benefting rom each others experiences. Te learning allianceis supported by intensive e-mail communication, a monitoring and reporting

system, and one-on-one consultations during the intervals between meetings by

specialist sta who visit the participants individual projects.


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2 Working together, Learning together LEARnIng ALLIAnCES In AgROEnTERpRISE DEVELOpmEnT

InTRODUCTIOn

Te learning alliance approach has enabled CRS to establish strong agroenterprise

development projects in over 30 countries across fve regions in six years. Tese

projects are managed by a group o trained, experienced sta, who have greatly

benefted rom the exchange o experiences with their colleagues in other countries

throughout the world.

Te learning alliance approach is very exible. It works at a variety o levels: between

regions, among countries within a region, and within a country. It can involve sta

o a single agency and its local partners or span several development organizations

and donors ocusing on the same theme. It can be adapted to cover new steps in

the development process. Te approach can be used in a variety o development

contexts, not just agroenterprise development. For example, CRS is now proposing

a learning alliance on rice, in collaboration with the International Rice Research

Institute, and another on integrated watershed management.

Te agroenterprise learning alliance has prooundly transormed how CRS

implements pro-poor agriculture programs (see Box 1). It has strengthened the

capacity o CRS and its partners, reinvigorated interest in agriculture and positioned

the agency to take advantage o new opportunities to link poor arm amilies to

markets and help them climb out o poverty.


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InTRODUCTIOn

B 1. crs, l, d d f

CRS is a leadi faith-based huaitaria oraizatio that has worked to suort

eole i eed sice 1943. Fro its iitial focus o ostwar recover i Euroe, CRS

has row ito a lobal develoet aec with roras i over 100 coutries.

I all its work, its issio is to irove the lives of the oorest ad ost vulerable.

I suort of the milleiu Develoet goals, CRS is focusi its aricultural

activities o irovi the rosects of those livi o less tha $2 er da ad

ivi articular attetio to woe, childre, ad those sufferi fro disease.

Over the ast 40 ears CRS has aitaied a lostadi coitet to

ariculture i develoi coutries. Rural couities eed reater suort i

their edeavors to irove food securit, utritio, icoe, ad eviroetal

stewardshi. Desite its iortace, ad the hih icidece of etree overt

i rural areas, fudi for aricultural develoet has bee declii for a

ears. Lack of ivestet has led to staati roductivit ad oor utake of

iroved techoloies. productivit ais ad iovatio have bee articularl

low i Africa, due to lack of basic ifrastructure, iadeuate credit ad acial

sstes, ad oor arket access.

CRS focus o food securit throuh icreasi food roductio aloe did ot see

to be worki; it was ot heli the oor clib out of dee ad chroic overt.

Raidl chai lobal arket coditios ad structural adjustets i the role of

overet ea that farers face ew challees. most farers, ad articularl

the less well off, are oorl reared to eet these challees. It was for these

reasos that CRS decided to icororate a arket ad eterrise develoet

aroach to food securit.

Taking stock. In September 2008 representatives o CRS regional learning alliances

met at Limuru, near Nairobi, to take stock o the learning alliance methodology and

the agroenterprise approach in CRS agricultural program. Te meeting produced two

books. Te frst (this book) examines CRS experience in implementing agroenterprise

learning alliances in fve regions. It ocuses on the learning alliance as a process or

building capacity and or strengthening CRS as a learning organization. It highlights

aspects that have worked particularly well or the organization and discusses a number

o issues that require urther attention. It concludes by outlining prospects or the utureas CRS looks to capitalize its shi rom a production ocus to one that is increasingly

market and business-oriented. Tis book is primarily intended or our colleagues within

CRS, both in agriculture and in other sectors, who might be interested in applying the

learning alliance process in similar or dierent contexts. However, we hope that it may


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InTRODUCTIOn

also be useul to a wider range o CRS stakeholders who share our interest in exploring

new ways o approaching dicult and complex development problems.

Te second book, Getting to Market: From Agriculture to Agroenterprise, explains

the agroenterprise development process as it was applied in the feld. It illustrates

the component parts o the process with a series o case studies taken rom

agroenterprise activities in Southeast Asia, South Asia, East and West Arica and

Central America that CRS has undertaken with local partners and armers.


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InTRODUCTIOn

L all crs

d t al a Dl

evoLution

In 2001 and 2002, CRS Latin America and East Arica regions took the frst steps

in building what has become a network o regional learning alliances in agriculture

that spans the CRS world. Te reasons behind this initiative were numerous and

complex. Tey included:

A desire to demonstrate the benefts o market-led approaches in relie and

development

Frustration with the eectiveness o traditional training programs

A disappointing record o adoption o innovations in methodologies,

technologies, and partnerships based on traditional training methods

A lack o eedback in more typical learning processes

Insucient impact assessment and ollow up

Tese learning alliances had two objectives:

Capacity building: to create capacity in local institutions to identiy and

develop agroenterprises that generate income and employment within rural

communities

Institutional change: to establish long-term partnerships that achieve eective

two-way institutional change

CRS principal partner in the learning alliance has been the International Center

or ropical Agriculture (CIA). CIA established its Rural Agroenterprise

Development Project in 1996 as part o its natural resources management research

strategy. By 2001, the project had created an area-based approach to identiying

and developing agroenterprise options or smallholder armers and piloted that

approach in Latin America and East Arica. CIA saw its partnership with CRS and

other development organizations as vital to testing and adapting the approach in


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LEARnIng ALLIAnCES In CRS


dierent socioeconomic and cultural situations, and as a way to identiy limitations

to agroenterprise development that would open up new research areas.

In East Arica, FOODNE, a market and postproduction technology network o

the Association or Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central

Arica (ASARECA) run by the International Institute or ropical Agriculture,

complemented this partnership. In Central America, a consortium approach

was taken. Along with CIA and CRS, this included CARE, the Gesellscha

r echnische Zusammenarbeit (GZ), the National Agricultural University o

Honduras (UNA), Swisscontact, and the International Development Research

Centre (IDRC).

tbl 1. el f l ll crs

D er/

ld

Jauar 1996 CIAT creates a Rural Aroeterrise

Develoet project as art of

its atural resource aaeet

research strate

Cetral Aerica, Adea

Reio, East Africa,

Southeast Asia

20012002 CIAT ad CARE ilot a

aroeterrise leari alliace inicaraua

Cetral Aerica

Seteber 2001 mutual ad coleetar iterests

of CRS ad CIAT are idetied ad the

idea of a artershi i East Africa

with FOODnET is bor

East Africa

Seteber 2002 First East Africa Aroeterrise

Leari Alliace worksho, nairobi,

Kea

Ethioia, Kea, Tazaia,

madaascar, Uada,

Suda. Later: Rwada,Burudi, malawi ad

Eritrea

Auust 2003 First Cetral Aerica Leari

Alliace Worksho i El Salvador

with CRS, CARE, gTZ, UnA, IDRC

articiatio

El Salvador, Hoduras,

nicaraua ad guateala

Jue 2004 Worksho to desi a roosal for a

Aroeterrise Leari Alliace i

the Adea Reio, Cali, Colobia,

with articiatio of CIAT, CARE,

Itercooeratio, IICA, Swisscotact,

CORpEI, CREpIC, gTZ, SnV

Colobia, Ecuador, peru,

Bolivia


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Jauar 2005 global CRS Leari Alliace kick-

off worksho, neri, Kea

East, West, Cetral, ad

Souther Africa, South

ad Southeast Asia, Lati

Aerica

ma 2005 First West ad Cetral Africa LeariAlliace worksho, niae, nier

mali, nier, BurkiaFaso, ghaa, gabia,

Deocratic Reublic of

Coo, Liberia, Sierra

Leoe, Seeal, Bei

(Bei later withdraws)

Jue 2005 First Southeast Asia Leari Alliace

worksho, Davao, philiies

philiies, Vieta,

Tior-Leste, Cabodia

Jul 2006 First South Asia Leari AlliaceWorksho, gujarat, Idia

Idia, Afhaista

Jul 2007 Ariculture ad Eviroet

prora review. CRS outlies wa

toward idustr leadershi



ad Southeast Asia, Lati

Aerica

Seteber 2008 global Aroeterrise Writesho,

Liuru, Kea



ad Southeast Asia, LatiAerica

Since 2001, the learning alliance process within CRS has been consolidated and

expanded (see able 1). Te positive experiences in East Arica and Central America

between 2002 and 2004 led to a global meeting in Nairobi in January 2005, which

launched agroenterprise learning alliance processes in three additional regions:

South Asia, Southeast Asia, and West Arica.

Industry leader in agroenterprise. In 2007, CRS undertook a strategic evaluation

o its Agricultural and Environment Program. 1 As a result, CRS adopted the vision

o becoming an industry leader in market and business-oriented transitioning o

poor communities rom disaster recovery to agricultural development. CRS aims to

achieve this by:

Continued strengthening o the organizations competence and capacity in

agroenterprise development skills and experience

Establishing strategic alliances with key research and development institutions

Integrating agroenterprise components with other CRS sectors and programs

1 Catholic Relie Services,Agroenterprise Development.


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Integrating agroenterprise into projects that ocus on microfnance, natural

resources management, health and nutrition and HIV/AIDS

Building on the organizations culture o learning and knowledge sharing

the Learning aLLiance process: What it is anD hoW it Works

All too oen, new technologies and techniques and social innovations remain

confned to small pockets o success, inaccessible to others. Te learning alliance is

an attempt to overcome this. 2

In a rapidly changing sociopolitical environment, development agencies are

increasingly being asked to empower rural communities to engage more eectively

in the marketplace. o do this, the agencies need skills and methods to evaluate

markets and develop new rural business opportunities. In the late 1990s these wereskills which most development agencies lacked. Te learning alliance enables them

to share knowledge and build capacity in a learning environment that is demand-

led, practice-based, and exible enough to meet the needs o diverse participants.

A learning alliance is a process undertaken jointly by dierent stakeholders

with a common interest or goal. ypically, stakeholders might include research

organizations, donor and development agencies, universities, policy makers, and

private businesses. Te process involves identiying, sharing, and adapting goodresearch, development, and business practices in specifc contexts. Tese good

practices can then be used to strengthen capacities or development activities,

generate and document development outcomes, identiy uture research needs and

areas or collaboration, and inorm public- and private-sector policy decisions.

Te learning alliance relies on an iterative learning process among multiple

stakeholders. It draws on knowledge and inormation rom dierent sources and

across multiple scales, rom local to international. Te approach is dynamic and

exible. It can be varied and adapted to suit the context and requirements o the

stakeholders. As the partners skills and experience increase, their needs are likely

to change. For example, the initial ocus may be on building capacity; it may

progressively move to developing new methods or generating inormation or

inuencing policy decisions (able 2). Te practical caveat is that in shiing the

ocus over time, the need remains or continuous training and learning (the frst row

in the table).

2 Tis section is adapted rom Lundy, M. and Gottret, M.V., Learning Al liances.


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tbl 2. t f l ll

L

ll

nd F

1Buildi caacit ad

skills base

Traii ad leari usicocrete, ractical aroaches

ad rove ethods

2Develoi ew ethods,

tools ad aroaches

Actio-research that eerates eld

uides o ood ractice

3geerati iforatio that

ca lead to olic iuece

Covetioal socioecooic research to

uderstad riciles ad lessos across

eerieces

Box 2 lists some guiding principles or the learning alliance.

Te learning alliance approach diers substantially rom the common practice o

attempting to train development practitioners in new methods through short, one-

o training courses. It involves establishing a series o learning spaces, typically

over 12 to 24 months, and takes place through a series o steps:

Identifcation o a common goal, sourcing o relevant knowledge and expertise,and defnition o roles and responsibilities

Learning with direction rom best-practice guides

Putting into practice what has been learned

Reection, eedback, and documentation on what has worked well and what

has not, and on the perormance o learning alliance participants

Further cycles o learning, practice, reection, and eedback, designed

according to subject matter and the needs o participants

Te above steps are complemented by mentoring and monitoring through visits to

feld projects, and by online communities that acilitate dialogue among participants

and serve as a repository or key documents and reports.


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B 2. gd l f l ll

cl b

parters i the leari alliace will have differet objectives ad iterests. It is

ecessar to idetif ad eotiate coo iterests based o their ractices,

eeds, caacities, ad iterests. For eale, CRS ad its leari alliace

arters have a coo iterest i rural eterrise develoet. Beeath this

overarchi toic, ore secic iterests are deed.

sd bl, , d b

Oraizatios ad idividuals articiate i leari alliaces whe: (1) the

thik the beet, (2) the eected beets outweih the costs of articiati,

(3) the eect reater beets tha if the were to work idividuall, ad (4)

the results do ot coict with other ke iterests. As leari alliaces seek to

beet all arties, the costs ad resosibilities, as well as beets ad credit for

achieveets, eed to be shared ao the arters i a trasaret fashio.

o , d, d

Couities are diverse, ad there are o uiversal recies for sustaiable

develoet. Leari alliaces view the oututs of research ad develoet

as iuts to use i creati chae at secic ties ad laces. Users eed to

adat the ethods ad tools to suit their ow situatios. Ke oututs of the

leari alliace iclude uderstadi the reasos for such adatatios ad

their ositive or eative effects o livelihoods, ad docueti ad shari

the ew techiues ad the lessos aied i ileeti the.

Dffd l

Leari alliaces a have a diverse rae of articiats: rural woe, e,

ad ou eole; etesio service ad ngO workers; etrereeurs, olic

akers, ad scietists. Idetifi each rous uestios ad williess to

articiate i the leari rocess is critical to success. Fleible but coected

leari ethods are eeded. These ca rae fro articiator techiues

ad oitori ad evaluatio, throuh covetioal iact assesset, to the

develoet of iovatio histories.

L-, -bd l

Rural develoet rocesses stretch over a ears or eve decades. To esure

ositive chae ad uderstad wh that chae has occurred reuires lo-

ter, stable relatioshis that ca evolve to eet ew challees. Trust is the lue

that ceets ad sustais these relatioshis. It develos raduall as arters

iteract with each other ad erceive cocrete beets fro the alliace.


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In summary, a well-unctioning learning alliance achieves the ollowing outputs:

Cumulative and shared knowledge about approaches, methods and policies

that work in dierent places, cultural contexts, and times (as well as those that

do not), and the reasons or success or ailure

Learning opportunities across organizational and geographical boundaries

through the establishment and support o communities o practice around

specifc topics

Synergy among multiple actors by providing a vehicle or collaboration,

helping to highlight and develop diverse solutions to problems that may appear

intractable to the individual actors

Healthy innovation systems by building bridges between islands o experience,

helping to assess how these results were achieved and what others can learnrom these experiences

the crs agroenterprise DeveLopment roaDmap

ypically, small-scale armers produce small amounts o poor quality, low-value

commodities using traditional, low-input arming techniques. Tey have weak trading

relationships and ace declining real prices or their goods and sti competition rom

medium- to large-scale producers. Lack o coordination means they have little or no

inuence over the prices paid to them: they are price takers in the market.

In todays market-driven environment, production-based approaches to rural

agricultural development alone will not succeed in alleviating poverty. Ignoring the

marketing element is sel-deeating, even when seeking the basic aim o sustainable

ood security.

Among the options that armers have or moving out o this situation and improve

their market competitiveness are:

Improving production methods and techniques

Finding economies o scale

Diversiying to higher-value crops and livestock products

Adding value to products

Developing business relationships and locking in buyers over longer time

periods at good prices

Accessing fnancial and other business development services that help

strengthen their market linkages


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Agroenterprise development is a strategy or building the entrepreneurial capacity o

small-scale armers in rural communities. It provides a methodology or shiing the

ocus o interventions rom increasing production to identiying and responding to

market demands and setting the armers on a path to achieving the options listed above.

Te agroenterprise development approach aims to enable public and private

institutions to assist rural communities in making their existing agricultural

products more competitive and systematically diversiying into other, higher-value

products. Te approach promotes a market chain or value chain, perspective that

strengthens producer groups relations with service providers and their business

linkages with higher-order market chain actors. Te ocus is not just on the arm.

Agroenterprise development methods also emphasize the need or business agility

and responsiveness and continual innovation because o the dynamic nature o

markets, and collective action as a way to take pilot projects to scale.

Over the past 10 years, agroenterprise development methods and approaches have

been used in collaborative projects developed by CRS, CIA, and other organizations

in Latin America, Arica, and South and Southeast Asia. Te approach has ollowed

the path laid out in the agroenterprise roadmap shown in Figure 1.

1 Interest group formation andconsensus building

Identify actors and initiate group

formation

Define and characterize the territory

Build consensus for action

2 Market opportunityidentification and evaluation

Rapid market identification

Evaluate market options

Farmer evaluation of market options

4 Strengthening the localsupport system

Characterization of supply and demand

Identification of gaps

Development of action plan

3 Integrated agroenterpriseproject design

Supply chain analysis

Identification of critical points

Development of action plan

F 1. a dl 1.0: ciat l d

Interest group formation and consensus building

CRS approach to agroenterprise development is based on an area. It is not a

commodity approach. Tis means that it aims to improve the livelihoods o the

inhabitants o a selected rural community, district, or cluster o districts through

improved productionmarket linkages. Te commodities or products to be ocused

on are selected by matching three things: the demands o the market, the areas

resource endowment, and the target populations livelihood objectives. Although the


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ocus o the benefciary group is area based, once a product has been developed its

market chain may reach well beyond the ocus area.

Agroenterprise development is a complex process, and it is unlikely that all the skills it

requires will be ound in one organization. Tereore, collaboration with organizations

that share the same development goals and have complementary skills and experience is

vital or developing an agroenterprise strategy. Tis collaboration is achieved by orming

a working group to acilitate agroenterprise development processes within the chosen

area. Te working group usually includes representation rom producer organizations

and NGOs and participation by public and private sector actors. Te strategy planning

by the working group includes an assessment o the biophysical and socioeconomic

resources o the chosen area, with particular emphasis on opportunities and constraints

or agroenterprise development. Tis initial assessment orms the basis on which the

working group chooses target benefciaries and develops an agroenterprise action plan.

Market opportunity identication and evaluation

One o the frst questions that the working group needs to address is what crops,

livestock, or other natural resource-based products are most likely to generate

positive results or the area. Tey undertake market opportunity identifcation

studies to respond to three main questions:

What productsexisting or newshow strong market demand in terms oincreasing volumes and prices?

Which o these products can be proftably produced in the region, given the

biophysical characteristics, inrastructure, access to productive resources,

business capacity, and existing livelihood strategies?

O those products, which are o interest to smallholders?

Te result is a portolio o opportunities with avorable responses to the three

questions. Te size and diversity o this portolio may vary, but it normally includes

rom fve to 30 possibilities. Trough active involvement o producers representatives

and armer involvement in setting appropriate selection and weighting o criteria, the

most attractive enterprise options are chosen or urther analysis.

Integrated agroenterprise project design

Once a manageable set o enterprise optionsusually between one and threehave

been chosen, a market chain analysis is undertaken or each. o the extent possible,

the analysis is done by the armers, acilitated by the service providers that support

these activities. Te participation o these actors helps generate collectively owned

inormation and a consensus or action. Te analysis covers the arm-to-market chain

activities and important cross-cutting areas: business organization, the provision o


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business development services, and the policies or regulations that aect the chains

operation. As scale o the intervention increases, the market chain analysis becomes

more sophisticated and will require specialist assistance. In this case armers maybe

represented at the most relevant sections o the chain analysis.

At the end o the analysis, consensus-building workshops are held where the

inormation gathered is shared and discussed. Te purpose o these workshops

is to identiy positive synergies among the actors, common interests, and critical

points where strategic investments can achieve high returns. Te aim is to generate

a common business development vision among the various actors or improving the

competitiveness and sustainability o the selected chain.

o attain the desired vision, an action plan is prepared with support and participation

rom actors throughout the chain, including armers, traders, processors, and buyers.Tis plan includes both development and research activities or short-term (immediate),

medium-, or long-term implementation. Interventions are likely to include activities

related to production, post-harvest handling and processing, market development,

armer organization, business and fnance. Depending on the availability o local

resources, external unding opportunities and donor interest, specifc activities may be

disaggregated into discrete projects, while conserving a clear idea o how the individual

parts ft together to orm a coherent path to the desired vision.

Strengthening the local support system

Te subsequent implementation o the agroenterprise action plan will include linking

to local business development services (BDS). In some cases local BDS will require

strengthening, and where they are absent they must be developed. Tese services

might include, or example, accessing the seed o a particular variety that has the

quality characteristics the market requires, or developing a business plan or the

armer organization to access a production credit. Te desired end point o CRS

intervention is where armer enterprises can access services they need to maintaintheir competitiveness and sustainability over time, without external support.

Business development services cover fnancial, nonfnancial, ormal, and inormal

services: credit, input supply, technical assistance and training, research, market

inormation and intelligence, market linkage, business administration and

management support, etc. I armers and local entrepreneurs can access these

services, they can expand and diversiy their enterprises, and more local people

can start similar activities. CRS is eager to develop urther expertise in creating amarket or such services to be provided without urther external subsidies.

Box 3 summarizes the major eatures o the agroenterprise development approach

outlined in the preceding paragraphs.


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B 3. m f f ciat-crs dl

a-bd

The aroach is focused o irovi the livelihoods of the rural oulatiowithi a deed eorahical area. It iacts o couit-based

aroeterrises, while strethei busiess develoet services ad

rooti suortive local olic ad reulator fraeworks.

m-ld

It eables farers ad other etrereeurs to idetif ad access arkets for

eisti or ew roducts that have rowth otetial.

p-bd d

multi-stakeholder worki rous with like-ided istitutios that have

coleetar skills, icludi reresetatives of CRS taret oulatio, esure

iclusive decisio-aki ad owershi of the aroeterrise develoet rocess.

t bd f

parters, collaborators ad taret farers are ecouraed to thik beod the

far, usi a arket chai focus where itervetios address critical costraits

at differet oits alo the chai.

F b lStro relatioshis with traders, rocessors ad other coercial buers

hel farers ad their oraizatios achieve reater uderstadi of arket

daics ad irove their etrereeurial skills.

F z

Self-selected roducer rous that roressivel rovide iortat services for

their ebers, usuall iitiati with savis ad loas ad collective or bulk

arketi, irove the coetitiveess of sallholder ariculture.

s d lf-l d

Idividual ad rou assets ad self reliace of couit ebers are built

throuh savis ad loas rous; these rous also build codece i acial

aaeet ad social cohesio.

c

Farer busiess oraizatios develo the caacit to eeriet ad test

iovatios as a eas of cofroti the daic ature of arkets.

ew The desired edoit of the aroach is that local service roviders, farers ad

sall-scale etrereeurs have the skills ad codece to eae with arkets

rotabl ad sustaiabl over the lo ter.


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appLying the Learning aLLiance concept to agroenterprise

DeveLopment

CRS and its partners have built the technical skills o their sta to undertake and

supervise the agroenterprise process through an iterative process o learning, practice,

reection, and eedback over a period o 12 to 24 months. Figure 2 illustrates this process.

ypically, our workshops are held, spaced at intervals o three to six months, depending

on the rate o progress or where the date would all in the agricultural calendar. Each

workshop deals with a stage o the agroenterprise development process. Participants

discuss concepts, undertake group exercises and examine case studies. Tey undertake

feld work with armers groups, traders, and other market actors to practice collecting

inormation using checklists and questionnaires, and to exercise their participatory skills.

Following each workshop, participants return to their own countries and put into

practice what they have learned. At the ollowing workshop, the frst day is taken

up with sta rom each country reporting on their progress. Tey emphasize

what has worked well or them, and highlight areas where they have encountered

diculties. On the last day o each workshop, participants develop work plans to

implement beore the next workshop.

6 Months

6 Months

6 Months

5 Days

5 Days

5 Days

5 Days

Apply,monitor and

follow up

Apply,monitor and

follow up

Apply,monitor and

follow upLearning

Learning

Learning

Learning Evaluation

and supportto business

developmentservices

Agroenterprisedesign, andenterprise

development

Marketopportunity;identificationand business

planning

Area selectioninterest groupformulation

and resourcemapping

Monitoring and Evaluation

F 2. sq f bld dl


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rl L

all e

Tis section summarizes CRS experience with learning alliances or agroenterprise

development in fve regions: Central America, East Arica, West Arica, Southeast

Asia and South Asia. Te experiences dier markedly in their scope and ocus. Tis

is a result o the dierent political, socioeconomic, and cultural conditions specifc

to each region that in turn have inuenced prior CRS experience with and progress

in agroenterprise development.

transForming proDucers into entrepreneurs: the centraL

america Learning aLLiance experience

JEFFERSOn SHRIVER, CRS nICARAgUA

CRS in Central America has programs in El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and

Nicaragua. Tree out o every fve people in this region are impoverished, and two

in fve live in extreme poverty. High rates o malnutrition and illiteracy are typical,

as is the lack o basic services such as sewage, water, and electricity. Exacerbating

this situation is a water-scarcity problem o crisis proportions brought about by

severe rates o deorestation. More orests were destroyed in the region rom 1950 to

1990 than in the previous 500 years.

Agriculture in the region represents a signifcant and growing share o both grossdomestic product and the labor market. Yet extreme poverty and malnutrition continue

to plague small and medium-sized armers. Smallholders ace steep barriers to enter

competitive commodities markets that demand consistent and abundant volume,

standardized quality, and environmental, labor, and phytosanitary compliance, as

well as a sophisticated knowledge o market trends and access to export brokers.

Yet important opportunities exist or those armers to break into such markets.

Encouraged by the approval o the Central American Free rade Agreement (DR-

CAFA) in 2005, major multinational companies, international buyers and exportersare looking to rapidly increase trade with and among Central American countries.

Recognizing the importance o market-oriented development or the regions poor

armers, CRS has since the late 1990s incorporated agroenterprise-related activities


34/80

REgIOnAL LEARnIng ALLIAnCE ExpERIEnCES


into its agricultural projects. Over the years sta have attained considerable

agroenterprise skills and experience. However, there had been little attempt to

systematize, learn rom or share these experiences within the country programs in

the region. In addition, CRS and its partners operated largely in isolation rom other

development agencies working on rural and agricultural development.

The Learning Alliance

Te Central America Learning Alliance was born out o this context, as a laboratory

o innovation or leading NGOs in the region to help small-scale armers achieve more

sustainable livelihoods. In 2002, the International Center or ropical Agriculture

(CIA) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) began to plan an

initiative in the our countries known as CA4Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras,

and Guatemala. CRS became involved in early 2003 aer it organized a regionalfeld visit with CIA and IDRC, and a multi-institutional partnership ensued. Te

ounding participants in the learning alliance were IDRC, CRS, CARE Nicaragua,

CIA, the German Agency or echnical Cooperation (GZ), Swisscontact, and the

National Agrarian University o Catacamas, Honduras. Funding was provided by

IDRC rom September 2003 to December 2007. In that period, the alliance brought

together development organizations, researchers, international donors, governmental

institutions, and the private sector around the common themes o supporting the

growth o rural agroenterprises, improving research, and promoting policies thatimprove the rural livelihoods o populations in the our countries.

Agroenterprise Learning Alliance Drivers

Four sets o actors in particular drove CRS interest in the learning alliance.

1. FinanciaL services, market inFormation, anD technicaL assistance

Te millions o small-scale armers who raise staple crops and make up thelargest part o the agricultural sector have the least access to fnancial services.

Tese armers also have limited access to improved seed, irrigation technologies

and technical assistance. Coee and cacao armers, or example, suer rom

inadequate post-harvest inrastructure which is required or wet and dry

milling and ermentation. Tese armers also do not know how to use organic

arming methods, which prevents them rom entering the lucrative organic

markets or coee and cocoa. Farmers fnd it hard to obtain market prices and

other inormation that would let them make more inormed decisions aboutsales agreements and crop selection rom year to year. In addition, small-scale

armers need better access to market intelligence and resources that would help

them to identiy new market channels, ways to add value, legal requirements


35/80



or agroindustrial products, providers o packaging materials, and lists o

enterprise service providers or rural enterprises.

2. environmentaL Factors

Lack o irrigation prevents poor armers rom increasing their production through

double- or triple-cropping, growing crops in the o-season to take advantage o

higher prices, or serving markets that require a regular supply throughout the

year. Farmers who do have access to irrigation oen use energy-inecient and

environmentally destructive techniques, eroding the soil and depleting local water

supplies. Overuse o agrochemicals can pollute water supplies, damage crops and

spread disease or pests. National and international markets or resh produce are

constantly raising standards o ood saety, quality and consistency. Producersmust comply with agricultural and manuacturing standards or storage, chemical

usage, water use and treatment, as well as waste-water and solid waste management.

Meeting these standards requires investment and technical assistance. Banking

and microfnance institutions may fnance seed and agrochemicals but not the live

barriers, latrines, water storage tanks, storage sheds, and more that armers need to

qualiy to compete in those lucrative markets.

3. insuFFicient scaLe

For small and medium-sized armers, creating economies o scale depends on

their ability to organize cooperatively. But scarce capital prevents armers rom

investing in post-harvest inrastructure, such as storage acilities or crop-processing

equipment, and the volumes produced by individual amily arms are too small to

be relevant to end-purchasers. Farmers acing the market alone have ewer means to

access technical assistance regarding arm planning and market-price inormation.

Cooperative enterprises that bring together armers requently lack basic fnancialmanagement skills, solid governance structures, and the production acilities to add

value to their crops through processing and packaging.

4. changing poLicy environment

In 2003, as elements o the CAFA agreement were being drawn up and negotiated,

USAID instructed its PL 480 itle II programs3 to integrate market-related approaches

into their ood security programs. By 2006, it had become clear that itle II programswould be reduced rom 77 to countries to 15, and that CRS and other traditional

itle II programs would have to adapt to a new unding environment with shrinking

3 Public Law 480, also known as Food or Peace (and commonly abbreviated PL 480), is a unding avenue by which U.S. ood can beused or overseas aid. Te law has our parts or titles. Te main use o itle II i s or Emergency and Development Assistance Programs.


36/80



USAID resources or agriculture. One o the primary instruments USAID Country

Missions in Central America have promoted since 2005 is the Global Development

Alliance, which encourages partnerships with the private sector. Such partnerships

are required to bring new private-sector unds to the table to match USAID unding

at least one-or-one. NGOs that can do so may avoid the usual competitive requestor proposal and request or application processes. While Guatemala qualifed as

one o the 15 countries slated to receive uture itle II unding, Nicaragua and the rest

o Central America are no longer eligible.

Evolution of the Learning Alliance

During the initial 20032007 period, the learning alliance emphasized market

opportunity identifcation, group ormation, analysis o production chains, and

business plan development as primary strategies.

At the beginning o the period, ood-security development approaches among learning

alliance members ocused primarily on agriculture production and increasing yields,

and secondarily on the beginnings o market analysis and market demand. Other

themes included watershed management, producer organization, and subsidized

technical assistance. Almost none o the members established relationships with the

private sector. Member organizations o the alliance were also not accustomed to sharing

inormation with each other, out o ear o losing a competitive advantage with donors.

Four years later, the learning alliance had gone rom nine direct regional partners to

25 (20 development organizations and fve research organizations). CRS Nicaragua,

Guatemala and El Salvador all maintained their involvement, while CRS Honduras

withdrew due to budget limitations and a lack o clarity regarding how to begin with

agroenterprise practice. Private-sector relationships grew exponentially to include

active relationships with 10 major companies in Honduras, Guatemala, and Nicaragua.

Engagement with local organizations (armer and other) also balloonedrom 12 to

61 in Nicaragua, rom 2 to 5 in El Salvador, rom 1 to 38 in Honduras, and 3 to 12 inGuatemala, or a total o 116 local organizations involved. Direct regional partners

established relationships with 12 universities in the region with complementary research

and development initiatives.

t l w l dw, d

l z ll;

l ll dff, b l f

, dd b d

l d.

Lourdes Centeno, CRS El Salvador


37/80



Te positive experience o the regional learning alliance has spawned the ormation

o national learning alliances in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala.4 Tese

alliances, made up principally o NGOs and research and training institutions,

reach consensus amongst their members about which themes to ocus on during a

given year. Among their objectives are the sharing o learning processes among themembers, and knowledge management to inuence public policy and practice that

oer incentives or the development o sustainable and inclusive value chains. In the

case o Nicaragua, each o the nine members o the alliance contributes $2,000 per

year to cover overhead costs and some operational activities.

In 2008 the members o the regional alliance defned a second phase that will

strengthen learning themes o the frst phase, and consider enterprise perormance

in areas o value chain development strengthening and governance.

Program Growth and Benets

CRS agroenterprise projects carried out in the region rom 2003 to 2007 had a total

value o $12.9 million. A new coee regional agroenterprise project, building directly

on local partnerships and strategies that emerged rom the learning alliance, was

recently approved by the Howard G. Buett Foundation. Tat project, which began

in October 2008 and totals $8.3 million, brings the total external unding awarded to

CRS in Central America or agroenterprise activities to $21.2 million. A number o

additional agroenterprise projects are in the pipeline. Such growth would simply not

have been possible without the creative thinking, reection, and research sparked by

the learning alliance.

Partly in response to changing donor expectations along with a readiness to take

armers to another socioeconomic level, CRS Guatemala and Nicaragua retroftted

agroenterprise interventions into their itle II ood security programs directly in

line with the learning alliance road map (Figure 1). Te two country programs

measured progress by adding agroenterprise indicators to their DevelopmentAssistance Programs (DAP), measuring income and employment rom sales o

traditional and nontraditional crops sold in competitive markets. CRS Nicaragua,

projecting the end o its DAP in 2008, drew rom the DAP experience to graduate

1,200 market-ready armers rom the 5,000 total to work in a standalone

agroenterprise project in 2005.

Te most ambitious application o the agroenterprise learning alliance to

date in Central America is CRS Nicaraguas Alliance to Create Rural BusinessOpportunities through Agro-Enterprise Relationships (Acordar). CRS Nicaragua

took advantage o its fve-year relationship and high levels o confdence with key

4 For a complete overview o the learning alliance in Central America see CIA and IDRC, Diversied Livelihoods through EfectiveAgroenterprise Interventions.


38/80



private sector commodity buyers engaged in its itle II program to design a Global

Development Alliance project. Initiated in 2007, Acordar is a 20-member, public

private sector alliance to increase the incomes, ensure permanent employment,

and strengthen the commercialization capacities o 5,400 poor rural amilies in 44

municipalities. Trough this project, CRS Nicaragua is or the frst time engagingcooperative enterprises directly with sub-grants. Te project is strengthening 85

grassroots cooperatives and eight associations o cooperatives. It is working to

convert unorganized supply chains into value chains, in which there is commitment

among all the actors in the chain to work together, in coee, cocoa, roots and tubers,

ruits and vegetables and red and black beans. Over the lie o the project, the sales

o the harvests determined by the markets are expected to increase by $57 million,

and 23,000 permanent jobs should be generated.

Bringing agroenterprise to aFrica: the east aFrica

Learning aLLiance

TOm REmIngTOn, CRS AFRICA

CRS East Arica Region, comprising Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda and

anzania is characterized by both chronic and acute ood insecurity. Widespread

civil and military conict, along with requent oods and drought, exacerbate an

already chronically bad situation. CRS activities in East Arica ocus extensively onagricultural recovery rom disaster, especially through seed vouchers and airs. In this

generally arid region, most CRS agriculture programs embrace an integrated water

resource management approach. Te agency has received signifcant unding rom

the Howard G. Buett Foundation to support this work in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda,

and anzania. Another ocus o CRS agricultural program eorts in the region is the

Great Lakes Cassava Initiative, unded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and

headquartered in Nairobi. Tis $22-million project seeks to control disease pandemics

that have crippled production o this critical staple crop in Kenya, Uganda, anzania,Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic o the Congo.

The East Africa Learning Alliance Experience

In East Arica, agricultural programming has traditionally ocused on ood

security, which was interpreted as increasing ood production or consumption.

Over time, the realization emerged that a low inputlow output model oered

no real pathway out o poverty. Eorts to ind a more eective approach

to agricultura l development centered on partnerships with the dierentinternational agriculture research centers, which brought CRS together with

the IIAFOODNE market project. CRS began to include a market ocus

in agricultural proposals, especially the itle II projects in Kenya, Uganda,


39/80



anzania, and Rwanda (Rwanda and Burundi were part o CRS East Arica until

2003). However, it lacked an agroenterprise approach and capacity.

Te idea o an agroenterprise learning alliance with IIAFOODNE and

CIA emerged during a September 2001 workshop at Entebbe. CIA and IIA

were rustrated with the ineectiveness o one-o intensive technology transer

workshops they were doing, and the learning alliance approach oered an

alternative that could increase the eectiveness with which products rom research

could be tested and translated into practice. Te learning alliance kicked o in 2002,

with Rupert Best o CIA and Shaun Ferris o IIA as principal trainers, and om

Remington as the CRS acilitator.

The Process

Te East Arica agroenterprise learning alliance began as an alliance between

IIAFOODNE, CIA, and CRS and its implementing partners across ten

countries in East, Central, and Southern Arica: Burundi, Eritrea, Ethiopia,

Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Rwanda, Sudan, anzania, and Uganda. Progress

and divergence were immediate. Agriculture programs in the Ethiopia, Kenya,

Madagascar, and anzania oces took up the idea eagerly. But the new approach

had diculty getting traction in countries and regions recovering rom conict

Burundi, Eritrea, Rwanda, southern Sudan, and northern Ugandaas sta could

not invest the time required by this approach. Malawi dropped out aer ai ling to

get country program fnancial support. In short, the alliance developed as a core

o our countries, with other countries participating intermittently and mainly

as observers.

Participant turnover was very high, which helped spread the knowledge o

agroenterprise, but did little to deepen capacity. Te our workshops planned

initially were ollowed by three more to train new sta, provide reresher courses,

and enable practitioners to share experiences as an emerging community o practice.

Te commitment o CIA and CRS (IIA dropped out with the shi o Shaun

Ferris to CIA) led to the development o an ambitious proposal to USAID to und

a global development alliance. Tough the proposal did not attract USAID unding,

the eort to develop it engaged CRS globally and sparked the establishment o new

learning alliances in South Asia, Southeast Asia and West Arica.

ImpactAgroenterprise development has become an institutionalized part o agricultural

programming in our countries o CRS East Arica: Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar,

and anzania. Four other countries, Burundi, Malawi, Sudan and Uganda, have


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maintained interest and have succeeded in unding some agroenterprise activities

and hiring sta.

Outputs o the seven workshops conducted through the learning alliance include a

core team o sta qualifed to train others in agroenterprise, develop proposals, and

implement activities such as market chain analyses and agroenterprise intervention

planning. Market chain analyses were completed on chickpea, green gram, rice,

navy bean, potatoes, and groundnuts. Agroenterprise activities in these six value

chains are being implemented with increasing numbers o armer groups and

volumes and value o sales.

Tough it was not easy or universal, CRS has completed the roadmap milestones in East

Arica: identiying and characterizing territories, orming working groups, designing

and conducting market opportunity identifcation studies, completing market chainanalyses, and designing and implementing agroenterprise activities. Te crops covered

include navy bean and potatoes in Ethiopia, green gram and groundnuts in Kenya, and

chickpea and pigeonpea in anzania. In Madagascar the learning alliance led to an

annual national learning alliance, with support rom the Ministry o Agriculture. Te

Malagasy approach also diered in scale rom those o the other East Arican countries.

Ethiopia, anzania, and Kenya ocused on a limited number o value chains, whereas

Madagascar emphasized o-season cropping, which was highly diversifed. Embracing

a value chain approach and the concept o business service provision has enabled CRS torecognize and engage in broader partnerships with research, government, civil society

(both NGOs and armer associations), and the private sector.

Tough the roster o participants in the learning alliance has changed continuously,

a small, cohesive and dynamic community o practice has emerged. Tis small group

o close colleagues has developed national level training programs, with translations

o the agroenterprise documentation into local languages. Te group continues to

share inormation and learn together. Participation in the learning alliance has madeindividuals more accountable: they need to embrace their learning, adhere to the

agroenterprise principles, and ensure that others in their country programs do so as well.

Quite early in the learning process, the sta recognized that their methods o

working with armer groups, which are central to successul and sustainable

agroenterprise, were inadequate. Tat realization led to an ambitious

multiregional study tour o armers groups, which culminated in the articulation

o the multi-skill armer group approach now being tested throughout Arica.5

With the development o that approach, along with increased linkage between

agroenterprise and microfnance programming, there is increased integration

across the agency.

5 CRS and CIA, Preparing Farmer Groups to Engage Successully with Markets.


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Te CRS Ethiopia investment in the navy bean value chain led to an opportunity to

collaborate with nontraditional partners in a new Gates Foundation-unded project.

Tis has taken agroenterprise to a new level o scale and market penetration. Te

current work has enabled CRS to ollow the navy bean value chain all the way to

European canning actories. New partnerships have enabled the Ethiopian team todevelop the outlines o a new business model that aims to provide a more durable

business relationship between the inormal world o the thousands o atomized

Ethiopian navy bean armers and the highly ormalized world o industrial ood

processors. Te CRS anzania team has undertaken an in-depth evaluation o its

chickpea value chain work, which documents the close integration o agroenterprise

ideas with savings led microfnance methods. Tis important learning document

outlines a method through which agroenterprise investment and scaling can be

achieved through savings-led groups. Tese two events represent major successes orthe learning alliance and lay the groundwork or increased levels o project investment

in market-led development or poor smallholders.

Conclusions

In six years the agroenterprise learning alliance has signifcantly improved the

knowledge o key CRS and partner sta, deepened their understanding o the role

that agroenterprise can play in alleviating chronic rural poverty, and dramatically

changed how CRS East Arica designs and implements agricultural projects. Teexplicit decision to welcome new participants over seven workshops has helped to

spread the agroenterprise idea widely.

Te learning alliance approach has enabled the agency to frst recognize problems

and gaps in agroenterprise theory and then to correct and quickly close them. It

has confrmed the primary ocus on existing products or existing or new markets,

with particular emphasis on upgrading value chains o staples such as the pulses

(chickpea, pigeonpea, navy bean), root crops, and rice, which are traded both

regionally and globally. Tese achievements in turn have put CRS in a better

position to respond to the problems and opportunities presented by the current

global ood price crisis.

Te success o the East Arica learning alliance, along with that o other agroenterprise

alliances within the agency, has encouraged similar eorts in dierent sectors, such

as nutrition and water. Looking ahead, with the beneft o this experience and in the

light o the ood price crisis, CRS hopes to develop new learning alliances with the

International Rice Research Institute and with its 60-plus partners in the Great LakesCassava Project, and to integrate water-use management techniques into the ongoing

agroenterprise learning platorms.


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BuiLDing agroenterprise skiLLs to increase ruraL

incomes in West aFrica

JOSEpH SEDgO, CRS WEST AFRICA

In West Arica, ood insecurity continues to be one o the greatest challenges aced

by millions o households, particularly in rural areas. About 40 million adults are

undernourished, as well as up to one-third o the children under fve. A contextual

analysis o the region undertaken by CRS revealed that limited access to income

was the overriding actor that prevented most vulnerable arming households

rom accessing ood, education, healthcare, as well as arm inputs and other

services. As a result, in 2003 CRS West Arica regional oce developed a regional

agriculture strategy ocused on increasing agricultural incomes among the most

vulnerable rural households.

The Learning Alliance in West Africa

As part o the regional agriculture strategy, in January 2003 CRS West Arica

conducted an initial training workshop to expose sta to key basic agricultural

marketing techniques. While important and useul, this training was only a frst

step towards building capacity, maintaining a lasting impact, and acilitating

learning over time. Aer participating in the launch o the CRS Global Learning

Alliance workshop in January 2005, the CRS West Arica countries decided thatthe learning al liance approach or agroenterprise development could serve as

an important new approach to strengthening and combining ood and fnancial

security. Accordingly, regional and country sta designed a two-year program

to build skills that would more cohesively impact the livelihoods o project

participants by increasing both productivity and incomes.

Over the period 20052007, the learning alliance in West Arica concluded a cycle o

our workshops ollowing the roadmap outlined in Figure 1. Participants came rom

CRS programs in Burkina Faso, the Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Senegal,

and Sierra Leone; the Democratic Republic o the Congo rom CRS Central Arica

region also participated. Benin started but withdrew aer three workshops.

Te West Arica regions experience and success with the learning al liance

approach can be attributed to strong regional commitment and support to

agroenterprise development, a well-defned regional income-led agriculture

strategy that provided a guiding ramework, and country programs with a keen

interest in promoting agriculture as part o their respective strategies. As anillustration o the support received rom country programs, the our workshops

were hosted by dierent CRS country oces: Niger, the Gambia, Senegal, and

Burkina Faso. Combined with the respective national governments commitment


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to address rural poverty, the learning alliance orum clearly created an enabling

environment or learning and capacity building.

A unique aspect o the West Arica learning alliance was that it provided a orum

or anglophone and rancophone project managers to meet on a regular basis to

share and discuss experiences and lessons. While conducting workshops in two

languages posed logistical challenges and meant that learning went at a slower

pace, the eort was appreciated by participants as a means o strengthening

relationships between countries and solidarity in the region.

Outcomes of the Learning Alliance

Program results and successes, new growth opportunities and the momentum

built through the learning alliance activities have helped country programs and

partners throughout the region make the shi rom subsistence to market-led

production in order to reduce poverty.

Progress has been uneven. Ghana, Niger, Burkina Faso, and Sierra Leone have

successully undertaken all o the agroenterprise roadmap steps. Liberia, the

Democratic Republic o Congo and Senegal are at the market chain analysis

stage; the Gambia and Mali have progressed more slowly, with fnancial and

human resources being limiting actors. A total o 15 agroenterprise projects are

underway, o which six are existing projects in which the agroenterprise methodshave been retroftted and nine are new projects. Market chains that are being

developed include sesame (4), cowpea (2), groundnut (1), cassava (3), vegetables

(3), palm oil (1) and small animal attening (1). In some countries, integration

o agroenterprise development with other CRS program areas is very evident, in

particular microfnance, natural resource management, education and health.

Te reputation o CRS and its partners in the region is improving as a result o the

consolidated learning alliance activities and visibility this brings to the programs.

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dl crs g.

Steven Awitti Kuffour, CRS Ghana

Te step-by-step process promoted at the learning alliance level has enabled

participants to apply skil ls and learning practically and build capacity amongtarget armers. Tanks to the solid skill set and clear approach, armers have been

able to understand and adopt skills and improved marketing practices.


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Moses Aduku, FOSADEP, DDO Navrongo-Bolgatanga, Ghana

At the country and local level, the learning alliance has been instrumental in

building stronger relationships among CRS sta, implementing partners and other

stakeholders, such as input suppliers, credit and loan providers, processors, traders,transporters, and communications companies. Te sta have become more aware o

their acilitating role in agroenterprise development and the critical role played by

business development service providers.

Challenges ound in the learning alliance included the high level o sta turnover. O the

34 persons that attended learning alliance workshops, 16 (47%) attended three or our

workshops. But only eight o these 16 are now still active with CRS; another two are rom

partner institutions and one has moved to another job with CRS in Southern Arica.

Te learning alliance appr

AgroE Market Bk1 4

Documents

Transcript of AgroE Market Bk1 4