Joining Forces to Support Ugandan Farmer Entrepreneurs

From 18-20 November I facilitated a multi-stakeholder workshop with Agri-ProFocus (APF) in Uganda. This is part of a process of focusing attention from a large number of Dutch NGOs and their local partners towards coordination of activities on Farmer Entrepreneurship. This APF 'country focus' process will continue for a number of years and I will support the facilitation of this process from Wageningen UR - Centre for Development Innovation. Similar processes are taking place in Zambia, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Kenya, Niger and Mozambique.
More information: http://apf-uganda.ning.com/

(From press release...)
Agriculture is one of the key sectors of the Ugandan economy. Yet, evidence suggests that since 1997, the performance of the sector has not at all been optimal. Growth has been mixed while 70 % of Uganda’s population depend on agriculture for income and livelihood. Besides, with current population growth rates, food insecurity regularly hits 12 milion Ugandans.

To boost the sector a focus on farmer entrepreneurship is key. Challenges include: poor access and adoption of new technologies, inadequate marketing capacity, limited access to affordable finance, sub-optimal organisation framework for farmers, and inadequate infrastructure. HIV/AIDS, gender and youth issues, environment and climate change pose challenges to the development of the sector.

Dutch NGOs, finance agencies and knowledge institutes - united under Agri-ProFocus – are now joining hands to stimulate the enhancement of farmer entrepreneurship in Uganda. This initiative is led by SNV Uganda and supported by Wageningen University Centre for Development Innovation, Oxfam Novib, HIVOS, Cordaid, Oikocredit, Solidaridad, the Royal Tropical Institute, PUM, Heifer and Agriterra in addition to their local partners.

Agri-ProFocus stands for:

• Agricultural producer organisations in developing countries are key to economic development and poverty reduction.
• Promoting farmer entrepreneurship through cooperation, exchange and learning is the goal of our partnership.
• Focus is on four themes: value chains, financial services, sustainable food production and gender.

Vibrant Kick Off Workshop
Through their partner networks Agri-ProFocus members have a fair level of presence on the development scene in Uganda. They are involved in areas such as financial services, food production, value chain and market access, knowledge and research, organisational and institutional development.
To develop a joint vision on how work together, Agri-ProFocus held a multi-stakeholder workshop at the Imperial Botanical Beach Hotel in Entebbe. From 18 to 20 November close to 70 representatives from all over Uganda including, business development services, farmers organisations, researchers, NGOs and private sector representatives got together to come up with a clear strategy on:
- how to harmonise existing programmes;
- crucial joint activities to address gaps in the sector;
- ways for more continuous exchange and learning.

The event was opened by SNV Uganda and the Dutch Embassy and was supported from the government by Professor Otim, presidential advisor on Prosperity for All. Throughout the three days, a lot of active group work was combined with presentations from UNFFE, Pelum Uganda, Ssemwanga Group and CICS.

Perspectives on Farmer Entrepreneurship: some key quotes from the workshop

Beatrice Twayaga, ESAFF Kabale – Farmers on the ground do things as individuals (for me, my own and my family). How do they get focused?

Patrick Bakunda, Uganda Cooperative Alliance - All what we are talking about here, are Small Holder Farmers and one way or another we are saying they should come together to do collective marketing, finance etc. Why can’t we re-establish our cooperatives?

Mark van Esch, Shares - An important issue is the mentality of farmers. That it is a major problem for investors to continue investing. For example you can provide farmers with training, give them tools, guarantee to buy their produce etc. But if someone else passes by and offers them a slightly higher price, you lose that investment.

Deborah Mwesigye, Uganda Commodity Exchange- We need to focus our capacity building to individual farmers rather than the top level people in the producer groups

Dr. Ssemwanga, Ssemwanga Group – We need to get in people with the right attitude. Look for those that more ready to be farmer entrepreneur and you can tweak this. For the rest, the best policy is not to try and fit a round peg in a square hole.

Working towards Joint Victories

Rather than ending with a vague declaration, the final session ended with participants committeing to collaborate towards concrete outcomes. In a year from now the following ‘Victories’ are to be achieved:
- An integrated and harmonized market information system accessible for farmers;
- Improved accessibility of financial services to farmer organizations and other value chain actors;
- Identified best practice as regard building economically viable farmer’s organizations;
- Joint policy work to enhance agricultural policy in Uganda;
- Strengthened links between service provision and farming system development based on farmer led research.

Expectedly within these priorities a number of specific value chains will be targeted, such as coffee, dairy and food crops. Over the next months the Agri-ProFocus Uganda network will take off. Responsibilities are with small coalitions to take the lead on the above ‘Victories’ Participation in this network is open to all organizations which feel they have a relevant contribution to make towards the agenda for strengthening farmer entrepreneurship in Uganda.

Google Wave

Well, well - I am now getting into a new era of internet experiences: Google Wave.

My brother-in-law sent me an invite for this 'revolutionary' application and I'm on it. I learned about Google Wave only last week when I watched the introduction video and it looked fantastic.

It is basically a tool that takes real-time internet communication to another level. It combines email, chat, wikis, blogs, twitter etc and makes this all look like magic.

But .... it is not yet out there for everyone. Google Wave is now online piloted as a review version, for those who have an invitation. Well, I have one, and if you're also lucky - you can find me surfing the Wave at: jouwert.vangeene@googlewave.com .

And .... I now also have a few invites to give away. Let me know if you want one!

Happy surfin'!

Multi-Stakeholder Process Course 2009

From 7-25 September I facilitated the yearly international course on Multi-Stakeholder Processes and Social Learning at Wageningen International. We had a great group of 30 participants from 12 countries and various sectors. They were all practitioners in multi-stakeholder engagement, from government, private sector, NGOs or science fields.

The first week focused mostly on concepts, theories and tools for analysing and facilitating multi-stakeholder processes. The participants used their own cases for extensive analysis, discussion and sharing.

In the second week, we deepened some of the issues and applied learning in different ways. A role play was done about multi-actor conflict in natural resource management and we also organised a seminar about the interface between research and policy within the context of multi-actor processes.

The last week included a field research about multi-stakeholder visioning and planning in rural Friesland, the north of the Netherlands. The participants studies a process of village visioning around issues of spatial planning in which local villages, municipalities and provincial government all worked together.

At the end of the course each participant went on to make a personal action plan to implement the learning in their own organisations or multi-stakeholder processes.

Again, it has been a worthwhile experience with dedicated participants and a great course faculty. Below an animoto video with our experiences of the three weeks. Enjoy!

Making Professional Dynamic Slideshows and Videos with Animoto.com

This summer I encountered a new and exciting webtool: animoto. This allows you to make amazing professionally looking slideshows and videos online.

We started using it at Wageningen International to make a video for the new website of the Change Alliance (see below), and I soon got the hang of it. It is so easy you won't believe it. You can make short (30 sec) clips for free (see example on the YPARD post) and at a low subscription fee clips up to 10 minutes.

An exciting tool! Try it: (https://animoto.com/sign_up and use referral code "islkvcbg") .

Strategic Planning for YPARD, Rome

From 25-27 August I was with the Young Professionals Platform on Agricultural Research for Development (YPARD). This is a network organisation that builds the capacity for young professionals in agricultural research for developmet (ARD) and lobbies and advocate for a more pro-poor ARD.

YPARD is an interesting and exciting network with an important cause. It has some 1400 members from all over the world (mainly in developing countries). This week I facilitated the development of a new strategic plan that will focus the operations of the organisation over the coming years. It was a vibrant meeting in Rome (hosted by FAO) in which we tried to balance the needs of young professionals in developing countries and the goal of lobby and advocacy. The draft strategic plan that we produced will now further be development and is to be used as a business plan for fundraising and management.

I have quickly become a member of YPARD myself - a great cause (and it's free!), just go to their website .
Some impressions from the planning workshop:

Climate Change Adaptation in Addis Ababa

After my MSP training in Uganda (April) I went on to visit some partners in Nairobi and Addis Ababa for the preparation of a climate change adaptation course. This two-week course took place from 12-27 June in Ethiopia.


At the request of the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV) Wageningen UR has initiated a support programme for climate change adaptation in Eastern Africa in 2008. In partnership with ASARECA, IUCN – EARO and RUFORUM we held a scoping workshop and follow-ups in to see how to respond to capacity building needs. The focus was on capacities needed to better integrated climate change adaptation responses into agricultural, rural development and natural resources policy processes. The initiative led, among others, to the development of a new training course in 2009, implemented by the partnership, in collaboration with HoA-REC at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia.



For me this was a completely new territory, and a very exciting one. Together with my colleague Catharien Terwisscha van Scheltinga we developed a very comprehensive course that tried to bridge the gap between science and policy on climate change adapation in East Africa.

The regional training on Climate Change Adaptation in agriculture and NRM took place from 15 to 26 June 2009 in Addis Ababa. It was attended by 26 participants from Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. Participants were drawn from universities, agricultural research institutes, non-governmental organisations and government departments. I facilitated the course with Catharien, and Dr Mekuria Argaw from Addis Ababa university, complemented by presenters and lecturers from various universities and institutes.


The course covered a variety of topics related to climate change adaptation. As always, we used very interactive training methods. Experiences of participants were the entry point for interaction – and participants brought in their own examples of climate change hotspots that were used for joint analysis. The course included field work to practice vulnerability assessment and an interactive seminar with policy makers to discuss and refine strategies for policy development and programming on Climate Change.




It was a great experience to be in Ethiopia, working on this topic. The curriculum we developed for this course is a great mix between 'content' topics on climate change adaptation, vulnerability and sustainable development, and 'process' topics such as stakeholder analysis and policy development. We will deliver the same course again in East Africa in March 2010 and plans are underway to extend the capacity building programs to other continents. Exciting! More information: course report.

SNV Uganda - Third MSP Course

From 30 March to 3 April I facilitated another Multi-stakeholder course for SNV-Uganda in Kampala. This was the third course Wageningen International has done for SNV to increase the capacity on multi-actor engagement.

In May 2008 a 4-day course was facilitated with senior advisors and portfolio
coordinators. In August 2008 a 4-day follow-up was conducted focused on a
value chain approach to MSPs. This course in 2009 is the last one in the
series and included another group of SNV advisors from 3 sectors and 4
portfolios.

This training introduced the concepts and practice of how to facilitate change
processes through a MSP approach as understood and practiced by
Wageningen International.

This last MSP course as part of the learning programme for SNV Uganda that
started in 2008 was mainly focused at consolidating the capacity on MSPs in
SNV Uganda. It involved a group of advisors that has been working on MSPs
before, but did not take part in previous courses. It allowed for the
development of a common language and approach to Multi-stakeholder
processes.

It has been a rewarding programme to work with SNV and I hope the relationship will continue to grow.