Evaluation of the Strategic Alliance for Agricultural Development in Africa
In collaboration with Berenschot, Wageningen UR Centre for Development Innovation has recently carried out a participatory evaluation of the DGIS-IFDC Strategic Alliance for Agricultural Development in Africa (SAADA). To assess the SAADA programme, of which the "From Thousands to millions or 1000s+ project" is the major component, the evaluation team consulted around 1000 persons, and conducted research at local, national and regional level in seven countries in West-Africa. Project implementers and agribusiness actors were strongly involved in learning lessons and designing future pathways. They were engaged in in-depth case studies, sub-national and national workshops, as well as in a survey among national steering committee members, farmer leaders and IFDC staff.
CASE approach
IFDC promotes sustainable local economic development through the innovative CASE approach, in collaboration with several local and international partners. CASE stands for competitive agricultural systems and enterprises. It integrates different perspectives on agribusiness development such as commodity value chain development, institutional economics, and cluster approaches for enhancing innovation and competitivity.
1000s+ project: from thousands to millions
The 1000s+ project puts the CASE approach in practice. An important feature of the project is that it starts off with concrete economic ideas, in most cases of local farmers’ organizations. To realize the business venture the 1000s+ project focuses on entrepreneurial capacity building and promotes the collaboration of local entrepreneurs in so-called agribusiness clusters. These clusters are generally composed of farmers and their organizations, input dealers, processors, traders, banks, researchers, and others.
Conclusions and recommendations
The evaluation team concluded that the CASE approach holds strong promise for sustainable local economic development and is highly relevant for innovating international agricultural development cooperation. The effectiveness and efficiency of the project’s implementation modalities were found to be above average. And, more importantly, the project supports entrepreneurial attitudes. The actors of local agribusiness clusters are increasingly oriented at opportunities to further develop their businesses instead of looking at problems and asking for external support. A significant proportion of the current 218 agribusiness clusters are already mature. They are likely to pursue their businesses without external support. A Malian farmer used the following proverb to typify the facilitating role of the 1000s+ project: "A finger does not drink beer, but can indicate where to find it".
The evaluation for these reasons recommended DGIS to continue support to the implementation of the innovative CASE approach and extend it to other parts of Africa. In this manner millions of farmers and thousands of local agribusinesses can develop their small enterprises.