Learning from the field

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Learning aboutenterprise development from the
field
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Learning from the field

• Why did local organizations engage in enterprise
  development?
• Approaches for linking the rural poor to markets
• Lessons and good practices from field activities

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Improving livelihoods through market-led
enterprise development

• Support to access market outlets was
  specifically requested by trainees themselves,
  who are well aware that they require special
  support for the marketing of their products
• Women in Business, Samoa

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Improving livelihoods through market-led
enterprise development

• Diversification and enterprise development can
  accelerate the rehabilitation process by
  assessing activities and opportunities in small
  scale livelihood diversification and enterprise
  development. This can lead to the identification
  of interventions to be integrated in FAO
  emergency projects for different agricultural
  sectors and tailored to different groups
• FAO emergency office, Sri Lanka

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Improving livelihoods through market-led
enterprise development

• The capacity of these services are limited and
  there is a strong desire and need to train
  villagers, government and project staff at all
  levels in principles of market-based agricultural
  and micro-financial systems. Special attention
  should be paid in training women and female staff
  in marketing, accounting and management of small
  scale credit system.
• SNV, Lao PDR

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Approaches for linking rural communities to
markets

• Building local skills for improving
  competitiveness
• Appraising market-led opportunities for rural
  communities
• Strengthening service providers

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1. Building skills for improving local
competitiveness

• Despite the constraints faced by rural people
  there is room for manoeuvre if producers are
  equipped with skills that empower them to find
  solutions to market problems
• Market-oriented skills encourage people to think
  outside of their immediate activity and consider
  new and differentiated income generating
  activities
• Enterprise development contributes to
  competitiveness by helping people to
  differentiate and diversify

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Building skills locally for improving
competitiveness - lessons

• A perceived market opportunity for a priority
  product or market helps focus training efforts.

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Lessons from PNG Rural Women in Business
Development
Rural Women in Business Development, PNG
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Building skills locally for improving
competitiveness - lessons

• Appraising the market with a focus on a priority
  product also provides the space for trainees to
  consider alternative market-led options

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Lessons from Lao, PDR
FAOs Special Programme for Food Security-LDED
training, Lao PDR.
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Building skills locally for improving
competitiveness lessons

• Skills vary depending on the circumstances and
  target market and on a daily basis their
  application is interdependent

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Lessons from KenyaFarming as a Business,
Training Curriculum

• Agricultural business planning and control
  processes to familiarize the farmers with useful
  farm planning skills using information provided
  by commodity markets. This would include an
  understanding of the differing economic values of
  various crops, and would also guide the farmers
  in using market information for important
  crop/land allocation decision-making. Farmers
  would be able to select the plan options that
  best meet their needs.
• Financial diversification and micro-credit
  schemes to highlight the pros and cons of credit,
  with the associated costs. This component would
  additionally cover savings to provide the farmers
  with an additional tool with which to improve
  their financial position, and avoid defaulting on
  loans.
• Farming as a business simulation exercise to
  enable groups of farmers to manage a business and
  present their findings/observations to the
  plenary group, to encourage learning by doing.
• Conducting market feasibility studies, which
  would include market survey visits to enable the
  farmers to interact with buyers and sellers in
  the marketplace. They would also be given
  additional negotiation tools with which to trade
  through bids (this concept is based on the
  collection of market information through the FFS
  network, with which farmers can make important
  decisions regarding when to sell, accepting sales
  bids, coordinating the collection and
  transportation of the produce, and finalizing the
  sale).
• Marketing services to build the farmers
  marketing capacity through relevant instruction
  in the efficient use of marketing structures
  already in place through the Ministry of
  Agriculture and the PF II project. Emphasis would
  also be placed on group marketing and developing
  marketing linkages.

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Building skills locally for improved
competitiveness lessons

• Local service providers often need to
• customize approaches and tools to suit local
  contexts, helping trainees independently apply
  newly acquired skills post-training

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Lessons from Pakistan - Farming as a Business

Illiteracy is a reality among small farming
communities. The majority will not be able to
read the text, so material presented to them
requires visualization and illustrations to get
the point across. Empowerment through Creative
Integration (ECI), Islamabad.
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Building skills locally for improving
competitiveness - lessons

• Continual mentoring that distributes training
  between the class-room and the farm is an
  important part of the learning cycle for trainers
  and trainees.

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2. Appraising market-led opportunities for rural
communities

• Recognition that rural people and micro and small
  enterprises operate in different types of
  economic and social situations.
• Identifying markets not knowing the resources and
  assets people can access makes the process of
  strengthening livelihoods difficult.
• Merging disciplines to examine the relationships
  between markets and actors in a geographical area
  provides insights into the local economy and the
  linkages between markets, the enabling
  environment, resources, services and livelihoods.
  

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Appraising market-led opportunities for rural
communities
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Appraising market-led opportunities in special
contexts

• (i) Vulnerable groups (HIV and disabled groups)
• (ii) Rehabilitation and recovery contexts
• (iii) Small producer integration into value-
  chains

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(i) Vulnerable Groups lessons

• Results from appraisal activities help to
  identify where market linkage interventions can
  complement ongoing social safety nets and copying
  strategies

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Lesson from CongoHIV effected fishing
communities

• Analysis of target groups interaction with
  markets
• Potential products identified
• Analysis of constraints and opportunities
• Reclassification of products
• Appraisal of support service
• Business plans developed
• Pilot test plans

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(ii) Integrating small farmers into value chains

• The value chain approach contains a range
• of tools than improve poor small farmers
• competitiveness regardless of the target
• market

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Lessons from TanzaniaPaprika Value Chain Map
Value chain analysis diagram for Paprika,
Highlands of Tanzania, Rural Farmers
Association, Iringa
TSL (800,000TSh)
GOVERNMENT
LOANS
APEX ASSOCIATIONS
TRANSPORTATION (Ruvuma) (120,000TSh)
INPUTS (180,000TSh)
EXTENSION
FARMER ASSOCIATIONS
PRODUCTION (300,000TSh)
Key Lines firm or established links Dotted
lines weak links
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Lessons from Lao, Forest based-village
enterprises
Source SNV, Lao, PDR
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(iii) Rehabilitation and Recovery

• Prior to disasters communities are often
  investing in unsustainable livelihoods. LDED
  analysis, planning and coordination contributes
  to building-back better

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Rehabilitation and Recovery(Sri Lanka)

• Crisis responses tend to focus at either the
  macro or micro level. The livelihoods approach
  bridges this gap......rehabilitation is not only
  to support the rural level, but also to link with
  urban activities ....support services must
  operate at several levels, requiring
  collaboration between multi-stakeholders.

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3. Strengthening market-led service provision

• NGOs and local service providers are
  progressively following a demand driven approach
  when delivering products and services to rural
  clients.
• The increasing demand from communities for
  support with market linkages means that service
  providers must also be familiar with
  marketing-led development concepts
• NGOs and service providers can bridge the gap
  between poverty oriented and market oriented
  development initiatives by identifying clients
  strategic needs and revising and adopting
  policies and products

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Lessons from Gambia National Association of
Co-operative Credit Unions of the Gambia

• Livelihoods appraisals to identify clients needs
• Institutional appraisals to identify the gap
  between supply and demand
• Staff training needs assessments to identify gaps
  in services and staff skills
• Review institutional services and policy
• Staff training in client-oriented skills

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Philippines/Thailand Improving the
competitiveness of womens co-ops

• Identify critical value adding activities with an
  internal VC analysis
• Training needs assessment to identify priority
  skills
• Develop training plans to improve competitiveness

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Conclusions

• Action-learning in the field is results oriented
  and cost-effective
• Short focused interventions that address gaps or
  are catalytic capitalize on synergies and
  stimulate impact
• Cross site sharing enriches approaches