@Danica - this is such an important point to design programs that can eventually run without grants and subsidies, as long term technical assistance is so central to improving economic returns from farming as well as the ongoing challenge of adapting to climate change.
Context-specific and smallholder-guided design is critical, as the drivers and barriers for smallholders that influence whether or not smallholders are willing and able to change and uptake new activities and practices are complex and go beyond the incentive of potential income gains.
Thanks Anu.
Definetevely, I would love to know more when you can share it.
I am highly interested in to the indicator about improvement in decision making, as well as, income generating and well-being.
I am also aware of one of the main challenges with indicators related to data constraints specially in countries of communities were data collection is not possible or information is not open or reliable.
So, I am happy to continue our conversation.
I think one factor which we need to be open about is the power dynamics within partnerships. The companies which are funding projects can often have a greater influence in shaping the project design. And often, local or implementing partners are restricted i possibilities for feedback. I would like to see us as a sector thinking about how we can create more equal partnerships which do not recreate existing power dynamics.
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To Anu’s point our programme in India is supported at government level with SHGs (Self Help Groups) qualifying for additional government support once they achieve two key milestones. We have found that these VSLA activities are particularly effective at empowering women within the farming households.
I totally agree with this @Leticiayankey . The women farmers need to be included in every discussion and decision and remain at the front of everyone’s minds as projects/ interventions are developed, implemented and monitored. If something is not working for the women, this must come out in the monitoring, and be acted upon.
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To design collaborative partnerships that better enable women to benefit within smallholder value chains, one thing is to assess the broader context from a gender perspective before setting up a program, recognising that the socio-cultural norms about women’s and men’s ‘appropriate’ roles and responsibilities can differ across countries. We seek to partner with research institutes and NGOs to develop country gender profiles to better understanding of the most critical and persisting gender gaps, and to scale up our experiences and efforts to improve the lives of rural women.
@Shinergise was there any resistance or challenge for women to connect digitally? I’m curious whether women already had phones, and whether the extension team leveraged the role of young people to introduce technoclogy to older people, men and women?
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Danica, as we advance our programme in India, the need to get FPO/FPCs to stand on their own two feet is becoming paramount - we are currently looking at options which include “federating” 5 FPCs in order that they can have professional management support that leaves them empowered but also protects them and the farmer shareholders from financial vulnerability to “Bad deals” and uninformed choices.
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Goodness so many comments - what one key take away do you want to ensure we think about from this session.
I agree with the already said and I would contribute by making a reference to the business/financial side of the equation that needs to be financially viable in order for the entire endeavor to be sustainable. For that, I would suggest a detailed understanding of the business model of the different players in the supply chain, including the target beneficiaries, followed by a cost analysis of the supply chain. This is challenging to do notably due to the lack of easily accessible data. But it is key. In a program in Mozambique referring to last mile distribution of agriculture inputs by vulnerable women that analysis and data was absolutely key for the design, iteration and implementation of the program. It allow us to understand in very pratical terms the bottlenecks, costs and, most importantly, which were the red, yellow and green areas in the eyes of the relevant stakeholders and from there understand which areas active collaboration would be impactful.
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I would be really interested to learn how this has worked out with women farmers. We explored using SMS technology in a shea project in Ghana and we quickly discovered mobile technology would not reach the women we were hoping to engage with (due to lack of mobile access and very low literacy levels)
Elen, we recently were brought on to a multi-stakeholder partnership, as the MNC was working with other NGO partners that focused more on the supply chain, but did not have the social capital component. Luckily, we knew the other NGO partner, and were brought in to help with that component.
Yes Leena, I agree partnerships would benefit from an open and knowledge/ content based relationship (instead of being a ‘donor at a distance’ and an implementer who does what the donor wants) and involving program and country experts (instead of only fundraisers & partnership managers).
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Wonderful news Julie!
Glad to know that operations were adapted to COVID realities and services to farmers were not suspended!
Quick questions: Digital registration? Means all farmers in places were connectivity is not an issue? And all of them are able to read and write and ease to use technology?
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We all have a role to play to address gender inequalities in the Agric sector. Collaboration is key!
I find that private sector partners, especially those focused on supply chain interventions, are very engaged. They are not content (nor should they be) to get a donor report twice a year.
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I’d add to this as we’ve seen a couple of interesting incidences now where baseline studies end up being poorly designed (inadequate definition of project versus control) or compromised (as they try to do too many things and please everyone except the people they are interviewing!).
We actually need NGOs and government agencies to have a coming together and meeting of minds on these issues as “due process, discipline and rigour” can suddenly amount to overly bureaucratic red-tape that neither adequately measures nor more importantly provides actionable guidance for future interventions.
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I fully agree! I think it shows their commitment but it often requires a change in how NGO perceive these partnerships and what their expectations are.
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Being able to connect in this forum and understanding how we’re all working to help empower women is truly inspiring. This shared ideology enables us to understand their shared passion on how to make sure women are not hidden, and how to work together to make sure we continue to fight this fight.
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