Sustainable and Fair Economic Development News from the ICCO Alliance

ICT for livelihoods

2010-12-02T17:20:00.002+01:00

Reflection and some links to ICCO’s views and other experiences.

By Rob Witte

The last few days I attended an international knowledge exchange workshop organised by GINKS and IICD. IICD calls these events “Cross Country Learning Events”, CCLE. The theme of the workshop was “ICT for livelihoods”, especially of agricultural producers. Participants came from Africa and Latin America (see IICD’s blog for the reflections of the facilitator and some participants’ impressions). In the workshop I presented some of the lessons learned of ICCO’s Fair Economic Development programme and a short overview of ICCO’s role in the Connect for Change Alliance. You can find this presentation here.

In the margins of the workshop I discussed several issues with participants and organisers, and I will use this blog to share a few with the general public.

- Gender concerns

- Rural entrepreneurship

- Multi-stakeholder cooperation

Gender: Similar to what ICCO has experienced in its Fair Economic Development programme in the last few years, my observation was that gender balance is still an unresolved issue in the ICT for Livelihoods programme. A few questions and remarks in the workshop and its fringes show that there are several barriers for an equal participation of women:

- More than a few times they cannot attend capacity building workshops that require overnight stay.

- Some women avoid the use of novel technologies, assuming that they cannot comprehend them

- Unwillingly some choices of activities creates a male bias, such as market-information that focuses on typical “male crops”

- In mixed groups women’s issues or even women’s competencies or leadership skills may go unnoticed because of “dominant” male behaviour.

In the weeks preceeding this workshop I have studied a few documents on ICT and gender, and the one I especially like is Researching ICT-Based Enterprise for Women in Developing Countries: A Gender Perspective, as it puts the IT and gender issues in the context of “ overall” gender equality barriers. I really recommend reading this document while we continue preparing for the Connect for Change programme.

Rural Entrepreneurship: One of the participants asked me to explain what ICCO had in mind when referring to “rural entrepreneurship” and whether we had any documents to clarify this concept. I answered that it is related to the role of rural producers in our value chain approach. On this approach we are discussing emerging issues in a special ValueChainDevelopment wiki (please send me an e-mail if you experience problems in accessing this wiki…). Rural entrepreneurs can be individual producers, producer organisations or cooperatives with an entrepreneurial and market oriented outlook, but also traders, transporters and other service providers (including ICT services…). The kind of issues involved in capacities of producer organisations are very well summarized in a new approach to the appraisal of POs, as highlighted in this web-link of newforesight

Multi Stakeholder Cooperation: As I already stated in my presentation of ICCO on day one of the workshop, we are convinced that poverty reduction is a complex issue that often needs cooperation between various (types of) stakeholders, such as grassroots organisations, NGOs, (responsible elements within) the business sector and government instiututions at various levels. This approach compares well with IICDs “national roundtable” approach, and I would be interested to share experiences on the issues that partners encounter in such national cooperation processes. For an overview of what ICCO sees as Issues in Multi-Stakeholder Cooperation arrangements, please have a look at the latest briefing paper of February 2009:

Investing in Africa.

2010-11-11T11:31:00.003+01:00

Short report on KIT seminar on participations on 10 November 2010.
By André Vording
The seminar was held as part of the 100th anniversary of the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam. There were three key not speakers, Prof Dr Ewald Engelen from Univ of Amsterdam, Drs Nanno Kleiterp from FMO and Mr Ezra Musoke from InReturn in Tanzania.
Prof Engelen argued that the way institutional investors are now doing business they will never shift to investing in to Africa. This is not because of lack of growth perspective in Africa, in the coming decades expected growth will range between 5 and 20% per annum as compared to anticipated growth in Europe and the US of less than 3% per annum. No, it because investors look for four key issues: transparency (can you easily see with one press on the button how your investment is performing), liquidity of investment (can you sell it easily), risk versus return (rendement) ( compared to what is acceptable).
The transparency is a constraint for investments in Africa, liquidity as well unless more investors get interested. Risk and return are perceived to be higher in Africa, though in reality investments over the past few years performed better than the stock in Europe and US. However, because of endless financial product development one can sell/buy investments in Europe and US which have a high leverage on the real returns (remember the ICT bubble and others).
Current investments worldwide are 50,000 billion USD, only some 20 billion is invested in Africa.
According to Mr Kleiterp FMO invests some 5 billion, of which 1,5 billion in Africa. According to the Director a mindshift is needed in development cooperation, as markets should be more in the lead rather than political objectives.
Mr Musoke from InReturn based in Tanzania discussed the challenges of SMEs in Africa, of which access to funding is one of the main ones: 150-200% collateral is needed in (unmovable) assets such as land or buildings.
Debaters were Nanno Kleiterp (FMO), Bert Koenders (PvdA), Eric Smaling (senator SP), J Seohan Pieter van Tuyll van Serooskerken (E+Co), Marise Blom (Mango Capital), Sietze Montijn (Heineken), Fred Zaal (KIT), Anna Pot (AGP), Ewald Engelen (UvA), Martin De La Beij (BuZa DDE), Jeroen Blum (Shell Foundation). Each statement was defended by one and attacked by another, public was after a discussion of 7 minutes given the opportunity to vote. Several different statements were discussed ranging from the lack of impact of social investements on economic growth (yes/no) to the Chinese approach as model for development (most did not agree).
Other issues which came up during the discussions: the pension funds manage 600 billion euro, so far little is invested in Africa. They would like to increase but they need large scale investment opportunities.
Examples of investment funds were given Mango Capital , E+co, others.
It was agreed that Africa is implicitly perceived as one entity, while in practice differences between countries and regions are huge. Also Africa suffers from a negative image partly caused by charity fund raising.
Though some stressed the need for economic development as base for development, other such as the Director of DDE Martin de la Beij as well as former minister of Development Cooperation Bert Koenders stressed a wider approach which also pays attention to education, health and human rights.
All in all an interesting content , well organized, lively debates which were well facilitated, also nice network event.

Fair Phone: Work in progress

2010-10-25T09:44:00.002+02:00

18-10-2010 Author: Marianne Wilson Source: OneWorld

Original blog in Dutch: http://www.oneworld.nl/Nieuws/Actueel/article/27197/Eerlijke_telefoon_Werk_in_uitvoering
(Google Translator)
Blackberrys, iPhones and Androids: The consumer has plenty of choices in mobile phones. But who is an 'honest' variety hoping to find it, a long search. Fair wants to change phone. That job is not from one day to another cleared.

"Phone manufacturers say it is so difficult to make promises about a fair chain because they can not guarantee the provenance of raw materials," says Nathalie Ankersmit, spokesman Niza, one of the initiators of fair phone. "We want this campaign to make clear that it is indeed inevitable."

Raw materials such as cobalt and copper miners in countries like Congo - often children, and for a pittance in appalling conditions in the foreground. Then they end up using middlemen for large mining dealers who pocket large sums of money. Trade in raw materials for mobile phones is also often associated with rebel groups who finance their weapons. Hence, mobile phones are also called blood.

Idealistic techies
Through cooperatives of small miners in Congo copper and cobalt fair fair phone shop, two items used in the production of mobile phones. The campaign also asks people to think about the design and the campaign of a fair phone. Waag Society, a media lab that develops creative technology and one of the initiators of fair phone, go in search of idealistic techies who FabLabs tinker with a new device.

In addition, through the site and people with a creative gift for festivals and an adventurous spirit who wanted to think about the campaign. Adventurers can win a trip to Congo. That's not a relaxing vacation. Ankersmit: "The winner will visit my other initiatives that claim to responsible production. That he or she should help evaluate."

Work in progress
Ankersmit must acknowledge that a fair phone phone for fair work in progress. Copper and cobalt are indeed beneficial, but two of the 24 commodities that are processed in mobile phones and then there are the working conditions in Asian factories which do an upgrade phone use. "In any case, a beginning, which we want to stimulate phone manufacturers."

If ultimately a fair phone prototype of a phone is fair, so they want the farmer to phone manufacturers. "Only Samsung has so far said they do about whether to remain in dialogue with us."

IDE-I on BBC

2010-02-26T15:34:00.004+01:00

IDE-I an ICCO partner using an inclusive business approach to promoting drip irrigation systems, was broadcast on BBC this week:

2010-02-18T14:24:00.003+01:00

A few minutes ago we said "till soon" to Bart de Steenhuijsen Piters of the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) from Amsterdam. Bart presented a short book on farmers as shareholders, presenting recent experiences of organic and fair trade producers that became shareholders in companies involved in the sale of their produce. Not as a cooperative, which Bart defined as a "Civil Society Organisation", but in a new or existing corporation / business. In the end, he concluded that two models of funding such ownership were the most appropriate:
1) A trust fund, where an external donor puts up the capital for the farmers' shares
2) A premium based model, where a little share of the value of the consumer-end-product is returned via a separate mechanism to the group/organisation holding the shares.

The main issues to be resolved through share-holder farmers are influence over and transparency of the chain, as a shareholder gets information. For this purpose a relatively small share will do, and will be relatively cheap.
However, often a much bigger share is bought by donor agencies, where they also want to be represemted on the board of the company. Exerting influence on this level requires good knowledge and business insights, which donors or farmer umbrella organisations often don't have.

ICCO staff contributed to the discussion with examples from Peru, Paraguay and Mali.

The presentation can be downloaded here (soon!)

The book is still available at the Royal Tropical Institute, in print, or electronically. Please click!

KIT is presently working on a comparable publication on Producer Organisations.

Organic Business Guide launched!

2010-02-12T09:20:00.002+01:00

Over the past 9 months we worked on the ambitious project of elaborating an Organic Business Guide. It is a joint project of Helvetas, Agro Eco Louis Bolk Institute, ICCO and IFOAM, with support from ICCO, SECO, UNEP and SIDA. Numerous people from other organisations also contributed in some way or the other to the book.

We are now happy to present you the result of this work. Print copies will be launched during Biofach at the following occasions, to which you are most welcome:
Tue 16.2.: IFOAM Trade Symposium
Thu 18.2.: Organic Night, receptions at the IFOAM stall (18.00h) and African Pavillion (20.00h)
Fri 19.2.: Organic Africa Symposium (11.00h)

Thereafter, print copies can be ordered from http://shop.ifoam.org/bookstore. The pdf version will also be available for free download from there. We will send you the agreed free copies after Biofach. In case you are at Biofach, please let me know, so that we can hand over the copies there. If we miss each other at Biofach, please pick up your copies from the IFOAM booth.

Maybe when reading the document you find that some aspects could be elaborated further, or additional examples or tools come to your mind that you think should be included? No problem! We also set up an interactive wikibook-version at http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Organic_Business_Guide. You can edit the book there and thus further develop it.

The French edition is in preparation and should be ready by mid March.

Now we need your support in making the book widely known among the target groups. You could for example:
Mention the book at your website, with a link to the IFOAM bookstore and to the wikibook
Inform your network about the book by e-mail or include it in your newsletters
Mention the book in presentations (e.g. using the attached slide)
Distribute copies of the book among the target groups (let us know in case you require additional copies, against shipping costs)

We want to use this occasion to wholeheartedly thank all of you who contributed to this project. A special thanks to ICCO, SECO, UNEP and SIDA for their generous support.
And of course we are looking forward to receiving your feedback!

Best regards,

Frank Eyhorn
Helvetas Organic & Fairtrade Competence Centre

and

Bo van Elzakker
Agro Eco Louis Bolk Institute

2010-02-08T10:13:00.001+01:00

Eline received the report of the conference last October 29, see blogpost of Decmeber 18.
Here you find the report

Do Entrepreneurs need support?

2009-12-18T09:51:00.006+01:00

By Eline Poels
On Thursday, October 29th I took part in the Entrepreneurship Development Conference in Rotterdam. Presented by SPARK, Triodos Facet and INHolland Rotterdam. Central question: Do Entrepreneurs need support? An interesting day with many participants, including our partner BSC Armenian claims, including charming and inspiring leadership of Samvel Gevorgyan. Below some provocative statements that I've recorded during the day, as food for thought, and links to the presentations on the website for a more complete picture.

In brief: Business plans are not sacred, entrepreneurs do not need help, failure is an option (A lesson for donors?!)

Alan Gibb, Chairman of the Foundation for SME Development at Durham University (UK) Presentation
* Give meaning to experience: that is the challenge of working with entrepreneurs.
* China grew so quickly due to big number of entrepreneurs; without enabling environment.
* Business Plan: good to get money from banks, but it is NOT the heart of a business.

Mistakes in working with (foreign) entrepreneurs until now:
* We did not fully appreciate where and how entrepreneurs learn as learning organisation
* The neglect of know who
* Neglect of emotions in learning
* Lack of empathy with ways small enterprises do, feel, organise, communicate, think and learn.

Needed:
* Adapt language to entrepreneurs
* Managing interdependency amidst day to day uncertainty.
* Not market planning. Teach how to.
* Vocational colleges for small business design.

Nils de Witte, Director Business in Development Network. Presentation
* To breed entrepreneurs you need entrepreneurs (peer networking)
* Entrepreneurship is not a science. You can’t tell entrepreneurs what to do, need to make own choices.
* They only need some guidance. AID does not do the trick
* Most successful businesses start in times of crisis.
* Until now, business incubators have not shown any changes on macro level.

Danny Melic, 2009 Dutch best entrepreneur under 25 years. Presentation
* Meeting other entrepreneurs, instead of attending (another) Business Plan training.
* It is not about the Plan, it is about planning
* Entrepreneurship is a Way of Life
* Help is not appreciated by entrepreneurs. At maximum: facilitation.
* A Safety-net is important

Paul Iske, Institute of Brilliant Failures, Dialogues ABN AMRO. Presentation
* Remove barriers for enterprises. Biggest barrier: fear.
* Climate for innovation & entrepreneurship
* Keywords: Diversity; Selection; Perpetuation; Co-evaluation; Unlearning Disruption Simplicity; Spare capacity; Timing
* Pace of learning should exceed rate of change.

Some loose remarks made during workshops:
* 2nd loop learning: knowledge of experience not used when partners are afraid to share mistakes with donors.
* All entrepreneurs are incomplete, you can not do everything alone. Need support to do things they can not.
* An entrepreneur is selfless: not looking for financial rewards (that is the right motivation).
* Important in re-emerging countries: how to deal with the survived companies instead of starting new ones.

ILEIA verlegt aandacht naar Family Farming en presenteert nieuw Magazine: Farming Matters

2009-12-17T10:26:00.002+01:00

Last Tuesday I visited the 25th anniversary of ILEIA, which they celebrated with a conference in The Hague. Edth van Walsum, presented a new focus for ILEIA: More social and economic (so less focus on agricultural production technology), more policy change oriented (instead of internal networking amongst like minded professionals) and with a focus on family farming. Furthermore, Mrs. Van Walsum told the audience that more and more the international edition is filled with articles generated in the 9 regional editions.
In the end of the day, ILEIA presented the nee lay out and set-up of it's magazine, which is from now on: Farming Matters.

The crisis as an opportunity

2009-12-04T10:37:00.004+01:00

Last week I visited, an expertmeeting called by the smallest coalition party of our present government, the "Christen Unie".
In the meeting, a group of young christian professionals in development-cooperation, fair trade and environment, that call themselve "the aid an trade guild", presented 3 key issues from their Momentum Manifesto. (a) Fiscal and monetary valueing of social and ecological values
(b) North-South and BRIC (Brasil, Russia, India, China: How to stop the south-north net transfers and (c) Production, Trade and Social Responsibility.

It was an interesting mix of participants, young and old orthodox protestants (CU members and officals or representatives at provincial or municipal levels), the young signatories of the manifesto, and high level representatives from trade unions, private sector umbrella's and academe.

In the third workshop that I attended, we discussed the issues 4, 5 and 6 of the manifesto: (4) Chain-responsibility, (5) Transparancy on the whole chain and (6) government's role in regulating the market (Market Master).

It was interesting to see how the official representatives of larger bodies tried to position: The private sector refers to the European Union for issues of "fair competition", which led the labour union to reply "there your representatives prevent any steps in this direction".

I pressed for the inclusion of more sectors and products in initiatives such as IDH / (Dutch) Initiative for Sustainable Trade . In my view, creating a bottom-line in the market regarding sustainability is a multi-stakeholder process, where the innovators should get a premium, and after a certain period (7 years) the late-comers should be forced to comply.

Once the minutes of the meeting are ready, we may take initiatives towards other political parties and meanwhile we will stay in touch with the Aid & Trade Guild.

Writeshop on Value Chain Development Programmes

2009-11-28T16:29:00.001+01:00

By Angelica Senders

Since the re-organization in 2007, when the SFED department was created, we made a great leap in the development of SFED programmes all over the world. Now, three years later it is time to look back and foreword.

What have we achieved? What are our successes, what difficulties did we face? What are the challenges for the future? Which possible directions to take?

In order to make this analysis and translate them into recommendations, we will organize a workshop on value chain development programmes.

The workshop will have the character of a writeshop. Lessons learned as well as recommendations will be recorded and put on a wiki during the workshop.

Participants
ICCO staff directly involved in Value Chain Development Programmes of ICCO (GO staff as well as programme advisors and facilitators in the South).

When and where
Date: 2-3 December 2009
Place: The Netherlands, Stay Okay Bunnik

More information
• Outline of the workshop

Women in Business Challenge, by Angelica Senders

2009-11-28T15:54:00.004+01:00

One of the projects I am currently involved in is the “Women in Business Challenge”. This business plan competition will be organized by the BID (Business in Development) network, the ING bank and ICCO.

The “Women in Business” Challenge is targeted at women who seek finance for their start-up or established business in a developing country in Africa, Asia or Latin America. They seek finance in the range of US$ 10,000 and US$ 1 million. They either already have a full business plan or need help in developing their business plan. They have the ambition to grow the business in sales and numbers of employees. Plans will be accepted in English, Spanish and in French and will have to meet Social and Environmental requirements.

Procedure
All proposals are assessed in the bidnetwork.org assessment system. I wil participate in this procedure on behalf of ICCO. The entrepreneurs are given feedback by the assessors. The best entrepreneurs are offered business plan coaching by coaches that match the entrepreneurs’ background.

The best women entrepreneurs are selected by an expert jury. The jury members are experts in the field of business and investing and development impact. They will select 5 finalists that are all attractive to investors, banks and funds. The 5 finalists will be invited to the Award event in the Netherlands where the best 2 will win prize money. The Small and medium Enterprises that are most attractive for investors will be proposed to investors locally and internationally.

Promotion
I kindly ask you to promote this Business Challenge for women. Please find attached flyers for recruitment of women entrepreneurs who would like to participate:
- English version:
- Spanish version:
- French version:
- Asian version:

Updating SFED wiki re. financial services

2009-09-11T10:44:00.002+02:00

Dear friends,
In view of making accessible information for outsiders, we have now updated the wiki on financial services with Terrafina's annual reporty 2007, and with some recent slide shows and papers on rural fuinance and value chain finance. A nice example of "voortschrijdend inzicht", (incremental insight? in English).

Survival and Microfinance

2009-06-29T11:22:00.002+02:00

In gesprek met Cor Wattel van Terrafina, bleek dat de issues van Survival entrepreneurs daar al wat langer op de agenda staan, zoals ook Johannes Solf in de discussie afgelopen donderdag al liet doorschemeren. Op het raakvlak social security/safety nets en microfinance hebben Syed Hashemi en Richard Rosenberg een lezenswaardige samenvatting gegeven van enkele ervaringen. Zie Focus Note 34 Feb.2006

Met dank aan Cor!
Rob

Lunch Session on the logic of survival entrepreneurs

2009-06-25T15:53:00.007+02:00

This afternoon Dr.Peter Knorringa of ISS (The Hague) was invited to discuss the distinction between growth oriented entrepreneurs and survival oriented entrepreneurs.
In efforts of entrepreneurial trainings, small business development and value chain development quite often the distinction between the two categories is not made, or at least not explicitly. Peter Knorringa argues that by pushing survival entrepreneurs into specialisation, Business Development Service providers may actually increase the risks these survivalists are exposed to, instead of reducing risks, which is often what they are looking for.

In terms of policy implications that came out of the discussion, I want to mention a few:

- In microfinance survivalists and growth oriented entrepreneurs are already provided with differing services, the Business Development sector may learn from this.
- Keeping an eye on the inclusion or exclusion of the poorer segments is not yet a strong point of M&E systems of economic interventions. Can we improve on that?

Please find the presentation here:ISS

Capacity Development and Learning in the SFED department

2009-05-12T15:53:00.008+02:00

By Angelica Senders

On May 11 a considerable part of the Specialist Meeting (OEPS) was dedicated to report 2008 and planning 2009 on Capacity Development and Learning in the SFED department. (Full report)

To start with we looked into the relation between our learning activities in the SFED department, the internal capacity building to be achieved and its intended effect on our programmes. See the logical framework .

Subsequently we briefly looked at the learning activities implemented in 2008 and the way they are appreciated, see e-survey

Two major lessons were drawn:
• Learning events in general are appreciated, but their application into practice proves to be difficult
• COMPART flower tools are not used very often.

Furthermore we looked into the effect of this internal Capacity Development on our work ‘in the field’, Very important as this is the proof of the pudding. Major lessons with regards to this are:
• Only few programmes have clear capacity development strategies
• The gender sensitivity of our programmes is poor
• The development of coalitions, be it around chains or for programme development is still in a very early state.

Monitoring of programmes is difficult, look here for an attempt to give an overview of programme development progress. With R&D we are in the process of developing a Programme-scan

Finally we brainstormed on plans for 2009. Major issues will be:
1. The training of staff of the RWOs and experts (e.g programme facilitators) in programmes.
2. The development of a (or several) global knowledge networks to continue the process of knowledge development in a decentralised organisation

Please look also at the Powerpoint presentation

Dreo Co En Leren 2008 (Rapport) En 2009 (Plan)

View more presentations from Compart User.

Gender and SFED

2009-04-23T15:29:00.005+02:00

By Angelica Senders (Programme Specialist Capacity Development and Learning)

On April 23, a meeting was held on gender and SFED. The objective of the meeting was to discuss the gender plans of the SFED department.

We started with a presentation on the Agri-profocus (APF) gender learning network, in which ICCO plays an active role. This network started about a year ago with the aim to jointly:
1. develop a conceptual framework for gender and value chains;
2. make tools and instruments accessible;
3. develop ways to monitor and evaluate our successes.

A very informative learning history was made about the experiences of the network druing the first year. The document is downloadable from the blog on the Ning (website) of the gender network: http://genderinvaluechains.ning.com/ I herewith would like to recommend this ning. Don't forget to click on the icon for the 'tools wiki'.

Furthermore we discussed the plans to describe in-depth a variety of value chains from a gender perspective. Together we generated a number of ideas, in the three continents, which will be worked out jointly with Margreet Mook, gender specialist of ICCO.

More reading? Look at the following Powerpoint (don't forget to select the 'full screen' option, below on the right)

Gender DREO 23 April, 2009

View more presentations from Compart User.

Non-Timber Forest Products in the Honduran Moskitia

2008-02-12T12:30:00.003+01:00

Introduction
The Honduran agricultural frontier is moving up into the natural reserves of La Moskitia, home of the indigenous Miskitos, Tawahkas and Pech. (Il)legal logging and extensive animal husbandry are quick ways for making money here, yet treathen Honduras’ tropical rainforests and the livelihoods of its indigenous inhabitants. MOPAWI, a development agency for La Mosquitia and partner organization of ICCO, is looking to manage the forests more sustainably, through the commercialization of Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs).

Background
From its establishment in 1985, MOPAWI has been stimulating the commercial production of cocoa, but in more recent years other NTFPs like batana (Elaeis Oleifera) and swa (Carapa Guianensis) have grown more important. Although both swa and batana have been used for centuries by the indigenous people of La Moskitia for different medical and cosmetic purposes, the commercial value of these products was never recognized, until recently.

In 2000, A Canadian entrepreneur, Dennis Simioni discovered the amazing properties of batana for the hair during his holidays, which eventually led to the foundation of a new cosmetics company, Ojon Corporation. Ojon Corporation has formed a strong alliance with MOPAWI and is currently buying large quantities of NTFPs from the zone. Using an origin based product marketing strategy they sell shampoos, conditioners and moisturizers to the highest segment of the Canadian and US cosmetics market.

After less legal and less sustainable economic activities, like logging and narcotrafficking, the commercialization of NTFPs has become the most important source of income for a large number of indigenous communities in La Moskitia. The population of La Moskitia predominantly exists of subsistence farmers that can really use the monetary income for the purchase of medicines, the studies of their children, clothing and to improve their housing conditions. Currently, the target group consists of around 2000 families producing batana, 400 families producing swa and, 600 families producing cocoa.

Roles and responsibilities of the different actors in the chain
At this point, MOPAWI has a strong role in the value chain of the NTFPs, taking care of the purchase and logistics of the different products and negotiating contract terms with Ojon Corporation. In return, MOPAWI receives a fixed quota over every liter of batana or swa delivered to the representative of Ojon Corporation in San Pedro Sula, the country’s man harbor. Basically MOPAWI is fulfilling the role of a trading company in the value chain.

At the same time MOPAWI is also forming local committees of producers in every village and councils with representatives of different committees, which in turn are organized into one overarching association per region. These associations are to take over some of MOPAWI’s current roles over time.

Apart from building local management capacity, MOPAWI also provides technical assistance to the producers of the different NTFPs.

(Technical Facilitator of MOPAWI)
Barriers to development of local management capacity
MOPAWI’s transition of a chain actor to a chain facilitator has been complicated by a number of factors. First of all, the level of education of the target group, the producers of the NTFPs, is very low. Illiteracy lies between 50% and 80%, depending on the community. People with higher education are scarce, yet essential for a solid management and administration of the different associations. Finding honest and competent local administrators is difficult and professionals from other parts of the country do not want to work in the isolated Moskitia. The number of local organizations failing because of mismanagement and corruption is troublesome, despite numerous capacity building programs of GTZ, the EU, FUNDER and MOPAWI. The Moskitia sometimes appears to be a cemetery of failed local economic development initiatives.

A second constraint to the empowerment of local organizations is transportation. The majority of the communities are rather small and geographically dispersed.
In addition, most of the communities can only be reached by motorboat over water. Fuel is expensive in La Moskitia, because it has to be brought from outside of La Moskitia and there is no physical infrastructure connecting La Moskitia with the rest of the country (which actually might be a good thing as otherwise the region would probably have already been robbed of all its natural resources). These conditions make the logistic process difficult and require good planning and coordination between the different communities.

(Transporting the Ojon Palm Fruit)

Finally, communication means between communities are limited. There is no phone network in the region and the fast majority of the communities do not have internet access or electricity. Radio communication is a possibility for most communities, yet not always readily accessible.
Due to these constraints the process of empowering local producer based organizations (at community, regional and intraregional levels) in taking over chain responsibilities of MOPAWI is a rather slow-paced process. Lack of personnel for the building of capacities of the producer based organization slows this process even further down. It seems unlikely at this moment that MOPAWI will redraw entirely as a chain actor, yet what role it will take in the future is still a point of discussion.

Dependency
Ojon Corporation has a strong commitment and interest in La Moskitia. Its product names, its slogans, its commercials, its whole marketing strategy is based on the image of ancient tribes using magical hair products, long time hidden from humanity in the tropical rainforests of Honduras. In addition, Ojon is profiling itself as a socially responsible enterprise; not only buying its raw materials from La Moskitia, but also actively contributing to the sustainable development of the region.

Ojon Corporation pays considerably better prices for the NTFPs to the indigenous producers, than producers in other parts of the world receive for the same products. Ojon is moreover MOPAWIs main donor and pays for the cost of an educational project that is setting up several schools in different remote communities.
It seems to be a win-win situation for all the actors in the value chain. Ojon has a solid marketing strategy, MOPAWI a flexible donor, and the producers a good price for their products. To a large extent this is true, yet one connotation should be made. Exclusivity contracts have been closed with each individual producer, making it impossible for other potential buyers to compete with Ojon Corporation. In addition, Ojon Corporation has protected the extraction of batana with patents. Although it is not likely that there are buyers willing to pay as much as Ojon Corporation for the Batana and Swa oils, Ojon’s demand for the NTFPs is limited. The potential production of NTFP is much higher than required by Ojon Corporation and because of the described constraints; entrance of potential buyers to purchase the overproduction is made impossible.

(SWA oil producers)
The purchase orders placed by Ojon Corporation, also directly influence MOPAWIs budget, creating instability in the NGO’s operations (e.g. how much personnel to contract each year). MOPAWI’s is highly dependent on Ojon Corporation and has the difficult task to balance its NGO activities (Natural Resource Management, building local management capacities, and defending indigenous rights) with its business activities (the commercialization of the NTFPs).

Maarten den Uyl (Junior Business Advisor ICCO-MOPAWI)e-mail. maartendenuyl[at]hotmail.com

Monitoring Food Security

2007-12-14T13:46:00.000+01:00

Beste Collega's
Hierbij stuur ik jullie de pdf versie van het rapport dat ik geschreven heb over het gebruik van indicatoren door DREO partners om voedselzekerheid te monitoren. Ik wil jullie tevens bij deze nogmaals bedanken voor jullie input en medewerking.

Ik vond het leuk om dit onderzoek uit te voeren en hoop dat de resultaten en aanbevelingen bruikbaar zullen zijn. Voor eventuele verdere opmerkingen, suggesties of commentaar, ben ik bereikbaar op mrijerse@hotmail.com.

Met vriendelijke groet,
Marja Rijerse
Junior Policy AdvisorDepartment Research & Development ICCO

Case study: Savanna Farmers Marketing Company Ltd

2007-12-12T15:02:00.000+01:00

Introduction
In 2004, ACDEP, a network of 20 agricultural development stations in Northern Ghana, launched the Farmers Agricultural Production and Marketing (FAMAR) Project. This project aims at the development of supply chains from small-scale farmers in Northern Ghana to agro-processors inside or outside Ghana. As part of the project, Savanna Farmers Marketing Company (SFMC) was established. The other part of the project is to develop three layers of farmer based organisations (FBOs) that will become shareholders in SFMC in the future. SFMC is now in its third season. The company is successfully marketing sorghum, groundnuts, soybean and sheanuts for over 5,000 farmers, selling to customers in Ghana. Development of primary (community-level) and secondary (district-level) FBOs is in progress, set-up of tertiary (regional) level cooperatives is yet to start.

The project model
In the value chain design, a deliberate choice was made to set-up a commercial company for the marketing of the farmers’ produce separate from the FBO. This is different from the traditional cooperative model where farmer cooperatives are expected to perform the marketing function themselves. The advantage of this split is that the marketing is done by professionals and that the long term interest of the marketing function is balanced against the short term interest of the farmers.

Groundnut farmer

The role of the NGO ACDEP was to provide training and technical assistance in order to develop the farmers organisations. It was a deliberate choice to not make the NGO a chain actor, because of the risks of lack of business focus and lack of sustainability. Separating the business role from the NGO role worked very well. They each have different interests and this creates healthy tensions between the NGO goal (poverty reduction) and the business goal (volume and profitability). There is however a concern that the business will focus too much on its business objectives, thereby jeopardizing the equally important social goals. Governance of the company is therefore a challenge at this moment.

Sorghum farmer

An important lesson is that farmers are far more receptive to capacity building (e.g. agronomic extension and training in group development) when they know there is a ready and attractive market for their produce. We call this the push-pull model. The company pulls the farmers into the chain by providing a secure market. The NGO pushes the farmers in the right direction by assisting them with capacity building.

Development of SFMC
SFMC needed seed capital to start the business. It was not possible to get this capital from local sources and therefore ICCO decided to provide a loan to the NGO ACDEP to be used to buy the shares in the company, thereby providing the seed capital. This made ACDEP the shareholder, holding the shares in trust for the farmers. ACDEP appointed an independent Board of Directors. The ICCO business advisor was appointed Managing Director.

Soybean farmer

Savanna decided to start trading sorghum, soybean and groundnuts. In the third year sheanuts were added as a fourth product. The number of farmers in the first season was 3,000 growing to 5,000 in year 3. The farmers are organised in groups of between 10 and 20 members. Savanna signs formal supply contracts with these groups. As part of the contract, farmer groups have the possibility to access production credit, either directly from Savanna or through local banks.

Involvement of farmers
In 2004 the farmers were organized through the agricultural member stations of ACDEP. The start was not easy. At the start sensitization meetings were held, whereafter contracting meetings were held in which the leaders of the groups signed formal contracts with Savanna Farmers for supply of produce. The main enticement for the farmers to participate was initially the credit that was provided. But in the second season the farmers started to see the benefit of the marketing service. Gradually the most committed groups sustained (most groups that fell apart could not repay the credit or did not meet the supply demands), and in 2007 these groups were assessed against a set of criteria for group development. The best performing groups are coached in order to help them to become certified as a co-operative under Ghana co-operative law.

With the high illiteracy level of farmers (over 90 %) and the lack of tradition to form groups as challenge, the step to form secondary groups of farmers at station level worked well. They represented the primary groups at local level. Having capable leaders in place had a very positive impact on the performance of the primary groups. Another key success factor was the huge investment of time in dialogue with farmers. This helped a lot in building trust and in getting feedback from the farmers. The next step in the process is that the farmers need to build and formalize their primary and secondary groups, so that they finally can become shareholders of SFMC. It is expected that the handover of the shares will take place within the next three years.

Truckloading at warehouse

The credit caused a lot of groups to break down. We applied a group credit concept in which the group as a whole is responsible for repayment of the total credit taken. This meant that in some cases members of a group had to pay-off the debt of other groups members that failed to supply to our company. Our rule was (and is) that groups that don't pay off their credit are not given more credit in the next season. Many of the groups where this happened fell apart for this reason.

Pricing model
Savanna has many competitors. Especially for the groundnuts, the number of traders is high. It is a product with strong price fluctuations. Since contracts in Ghana do not have much value, it was very difficult for SFMC to guarantee the supplies of peanuts when SFMC’s price was lower than the price of traders. Therefore, in the first year there was a large number of farmers that did not obey the contracts and sold their product to traders.

After long discussions it was decided not to penalize these farmers immediately, but to withhold their loans in the second year. The ‘carrot – stick approach’ was introduced. When the loans were not repaid from the first year, these farmers were excluded from further credit. This penalty system worked out quite well. In the first year the repayment percentage of credits (through supply of produce) was 70 %, in the second year it was 85 %. This was done through a quite strict monitoring system. The farmers who violated the roles where immediately visited by a representative from SFMC, and with some of them they confiscated some assets of farmers.

Farmers decide who they sell to mostly on price. It is therefore important for SFMC to offer a price to farmers at least equal to the market price. But this is easier said then done when you operate in an intransparant volatile market and when you have a customer who wants the best price in the market as well.

SFMC started applying a fixed price model with both farmers and customers. In the first year the price was determined at the start of the planting season. This created difficulties when the market price exceeded the Savanna price and farmers started diverting. This made us decide in the second year to fix the price at the beginning of the harvest season. This allowed us to anticipate on price fluctuations. SFMC is also experimenting with a so called staircase price model. In this model, the season starts with a fixed price for farmers and for the customer. When the market price goes up and reached the fixed farmer price, SFMC renegotiates a higher fixed price with the customer and increases the fixed farmer price.

Farmers as shareholders in the company
The interests of SFMC are sometimes in line with those of the farmers, but sometimes they conflict, for instance when the farmer price is concerned. By making farmers shareholders in the company, their interest is safeguarded. The second reason for involving farmers in the company is to be able to pay them dividend in order to keep them in the value chain.

Farmers are not yet shareholders in the company. They first have to build and formalize their primary and secondary groups before this process can start. The shares are presently held in trust for the farmers by ACDEP. The conditions for hand-over of the shares to the farmer groups have been agreed between ICCO and ACDEP (because ICCO provided the funds to ACDEP for buying the shares). We expect that the handover will start within the next three years, but that it will take several years before all shares are handed over. This because farmer groups do not develop at the same speed.
In the mean time farmers do not have a formal say in the company, although they are consulted on important issues. ACDEP is looking for ways to get farmer representatives more involved in decision making, even before they become shareholders in the company.

This article is written by Ties Kroezen

e-mail. tieskroezen@yahoo.com

Business Advisor ICCO in Ghana from June 2004 - July 2007

De rol van NGOs bij de ontwikkeling van graanbanken in Ethiopië

2007-11-03T13:48:00.000+01:00

Vandaag, 1 november, organiseerde Egbert Hoving voor een groep van 15 geïnteresseerde DREO collega’s een discussie met Frans van Hoof, een consultant die recentelijk het ICCO graanbanken programma evalueerde. De discussie was gefocust op de vraag of wij ons binnen de ICCO ketenontwikkelingsprogramma’s moeten beperken tot samenwerking met onze huidige partners, NGOs, of dat het beter is samenwerking aan te gaan met gespecialiseerde commerciële actoren (BDSen), die al een rol spelen in ketenontwikkeling.

Punten die ter tafel kwamen:

Het dilemma om sociale doelstellingen (voedsel zekerheid) en economische (inkomen) in één programma (Graanbanken) te willen realiseren;
De vraag of in geval van de graanbanken wel van een waardeketenprogramma gesproken kan worden (de hoeveelheid graan die omgaat in graanbanken en de toegevoegde waarde is zeer beperkt, graanbanken leveren dan ook nooit meer dan een marginaal inkomen aan boeren);
Het door NGOs’ geïmplementeerd training programma voor boeren organisaties levert vooral veel voordelen (geld) voor NGOs maar levert relatief weinig op voor boeren organisaties;
Het kennelijke onvermogen van NGOs om een effectief capaciteit versterking programma voor boeren organisaties op te zetten (veel standaard trainingen, weinig follow up en coaching ontbrekende praktijk relevantie..);
In lijn hiermee de vraag of we NGOs als (toekomstige) BDS-en moeten zien (de meeste NGOs hebben daarvoor niet het potentieel, nog los van het feit dat NGOs in Ethiopië geen inkomsten mogen genereren, in Kenia schijnen wel ervaringen in deze richting te worden opgedaan met NGOs die een gespecialiseerde business support unit opzetten, vergelijkbaar met een ontwikkeling die Ethiopische NGOs eerder hebben doorgemaakt bij het opzetten van MFIs);
De vraag of er nog een rol is voor NGOs naast BDS-en (jazeker voor makelaars en faciliterende diensten bij het ontwikkelen van pro-poor ketens, die nooit commercieel betaald zullen kunnen worden);
En tot slot de vraag wat leidend moet zijn de keus voor de keten of die voor de boeren organisatie (een commercieel denkende boerenorganisatie zal ook een keten willen ontwikkelen waar een markt voor is, moet dat perse een ICCO geselecteerde keten zijn?) Volgens de deelnemers is binnen het ICCO LMD programma de keten minder leidend dan in het internationale markt programma.

Frans kwam onder andere met de volgende aanbevelingen:

De suggestie om farmerorganisaties actief in het management van het capaciteitsontwikkelingsprogramma op te nemen;
Het advies om granen echt als keten te zien en als zodanig te ontwikkelen, volgens Frans is er wel degelijk een groeiende markt voor granen in het industrialiserende/ urbaniserende Ethiopia;
Hiervoor moet wel gewerkt worden aan vorming van netwerken/ unions want de primaire organisaties zijn te klein om levensvatbaar te worden en anders kan niet worden voldaan aan de commerciële behoeftes in deze ketens in termen van kwantiteit en kwaliteit;
Sterke boeren organisaties, die ook in staat zijn om zich op andere ketens te richten als de markt verandert moet uiteindelijk onze doelstelling zijn.

Meer lezen

by Angelica Senders
Programme Specialist Capacity Development

E-Conference DREO advisors 24th October - 7th December 2007

2007-10-19T16:44:00.000+02:00

Dear Colleagues,

Starting from 24th October an E-conference will be held to exchange experiences about Value Chain development.

Three advisors will share their case through e-mail and you are able to talk to them through a skype or teleconference on the 6th November. The cases will deal about value chain development in Ethiopia, Philippines and Honduras. You will have the possibility to ask questions, provide suggestions or tell about your experiences.

In week 4 (15 - 23rd November) you will have the possility to talk by e-mail to Mr. Hans Posthumus who is a specialist on Value chain development. On the 21st and 22nd November we will have again a tele- and skype conference to share thoughts with him.

On the 4th December we will finalize the conference with a skype teleconference meeting.

In case you have an interest to participate, please mail to mr. Simon Koolwijk for more information or registration. e-mail. faccom@xs4all.nl

For participants who see this message after the 25th October, can still get in touch with Simon Koolwijk to discuss if participation is still possible.

Regards,

Simon Koolwijk.

Virtual Knowledge Center Organic Cotton under construction

2007-10-15T09:20:00.000+02:00

Tuesday last week representatives of Helvetas, Organic Exchange, Historic Futures and ICCO met to discuss the further development of a community of practice, combining the Communities of Practies (CoP) experiences of Helvetas and the strengths of the Prganic Exchange website as it is now, and which is still further developing.
Issues that guide this process are a shared interest in
- Transparency and traceability of the market from producer to consumer,
- Combining/joining expertise
- Making accessible who-is-who information
- Creating a platform for sharing of grassroots (farmers', producer organisations') experiences.

For more details, please contact Marian van Weert
(RW)

17/10/'07 International Fair Trade Conference

2007-10-08T13:05:00.000+02:00

Zie

Trialog-information-service

en

Fair Trade: A lever for change

Groet
Rob

Boek te leen

2007-09-24T13:46:00.000+02:00

Voor wie op zoek is naar economische theorie relevant voor DREO:
Peasant Economics, Farm households and agrarian development, van Frank Ellis. (1993) Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0 521 45711 4.
Het ligt in mijn "Kliko", achterste hangmap