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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
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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Working together, Learning together LEARnIng ALLIAnCES In AgROEnTERpRISE DEVELOpmEnT
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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Working together, Learning together LEARnIng ALLIAnCES In AgROEnTERpRISE DEVELOpmEnT
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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4 Working together, Learning together LEARnIng ALLIAnCES In AgROEnTERpRISE DEVELOpmEnT
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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Working together, Learning together LEARnIng ALLIAnCES In AgROEnTERpRISE DEVELOpmEnT 5
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
6 Working together, Learning together LEARnIng ALLIAnCES In AgROEnTERpRISE DEVELOpmEnT
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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Working together, Learning together LEARnIng ALLIAnCES In AgROEnTERpRISE DEVELOpmEnT 7
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
East, West, Cetral, ad
Souther Africa, South
ad Southeast Asia, Lati
Aerica
Seteber 2008 global Aroeterrise Writesho,
Liuru, Kea
East, West, Cetral, ad
Souther Africa, South
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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LEARnIng ALLIAnCES In CRS
8 Working together, Learning together LEARnIng ALLIAnCES In AgROEnTERpRISE DEVELOpmEnT
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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14 Working together, Learning together LEARnIng ALLIAnCES In AgROEnTERpRISE DEVELOpmEnT
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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16 Working together, Learning together LEARnIng ALLIAnCES In AgROEnTERpRISE DEVELOpmEnT
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
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18 Working together, Learning together LEARnIng ALLIAnCES In AgROEnTERpRISE DEVELOpmEnT
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
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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.
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20 Working together, Learning together LEARnIng ALLIAnCES In AgROEnTERpRISE DEVELOpmEnT
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
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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.
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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,
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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.
i fl d d dl
w l. i lf fl
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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m f b b f f
f fl . F
d f ll f d
d d l-l b. t l d
f d d dd d w
f ql dd
d dd l d .
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