Context

The CIDR, together with local partners and in accordance with a recent policy of the Ethiopian Government, has supported a market access development program that aims to act at a small scale so that rural smallholders are empowered on the agricultural products markets.

This program is organized in two components :

 First component : the promotion of market oriented Farmers Organisations (Farmers Marketing Organisations, FMOs) and their initiation to play relevant economic roles on the agricultural markets
 Second component : the promotion of value chains in which these FMOs play a stakeholder role.

Contribution

The document focuses on the main concepts of the value chain promotion and the frame of its implementation. It will be useful to a ESOP promotion platform to present to potential partners its approach of entreprises follow-up.

Executive summary

The value chain promotion strategy consists in :

 identifying and selecting chains where smallholders can generate added value and benefices
 capacitating each relevant actor of the selected chain so as to enable them to become efficient value chain stakeholders
 implementing “interfaces” undertaking locally value adding activities (pre-processing, processing, post-processing), marketing and providing all necessary services to the chain stakeholders (support to production, post-harvest operations, business management...)

Experience has proved that the key factors for such an approach to be implemented successfully are :

 Relevancy of the value chain promotion stakeholders : for the program co-promoters (backstopping and implementation actors) to be relevant in their roles, they should develop a common understanding on the objectives, the target groups and method of implementation and operate according to it. Criteria must be developed to define the target groups, especially the FMOs that are expected to perform well in a value chain according to their level of autonomy

 Contractualisation : to ensure a smooth implementation of the program, clear contractual agreements shall be developed on the respective roles of each co-promoter : between the backstopping actors and the beneficiaries (CIDR with FFARM and NGO partners) and between service provider and beneficiaries (FFARM with NGO partners and value chain stakeholders)

 Transparency : a specific Management Information System shall be developed to give guarantee of transparency on the activities and the results to all program stakeholders (donors, co-promoters and beneficiaries).