Sesame Business Network Ethiopia

Short brief on second phase SBN support project

SBN national stakeholder meeting, Addis Ababa, December 17th 2015

• 4 years extension of 4 projects (2016-19): – CASCAPE (scaling GAP, research-extension)– ISSD (seed sector development) – ENTAG (agribusiness support facility)– SBN support project.

• One proposal : BENEFIT, with 5 components: BENEFIT office and 4 projects

BENEFIT = Bilateral Ethiopia-Netherlands Effort for Food, Trade and Income)

Background (1)

• Same level of funding (5M Euro for 4 years)– SBN project staff and running costs (29%), Project

components (56%) and Wageningen UR support (13%)

• What is stressed: – More collaboration between Wageningen UR

managed projects– Stakeholder ownership, scaling, leverage and

institutionalization – National coordination and policy alignment– Value addition and marketing and sales

Background (2)

1. Context 2. First phase3. Justification and directions for next phase4. Result chain5. Collaboration6. Implementation strategies7. Organisation8. Planning, M&E and communication9. Budget

Second phase approved on December 10th 2015, some adaptations have to be made before end of the year

Proposal structure

• Sesame sector stands to gain, for farmers, related agribusiness activities and country at large

• Sound foundation has been laid during first phase, allowing to go to scale

• Proof of stakeholder ownership and contributions

• Policy environment supporting sesame sector

Justifications for 2nd phase (1)

• Good results at production side, but challenges to be addressed at the market side and in rural finance

• Collaborative relations with other projects • Likelihood of high return on investment– Cost SBN support project = 0.3% of sesame sales

value– Targeted outcomes represent millions of dollars• For instance : 10% yield improvement is 260 million ETB

(> 10M Euro), even at current low prices

Justifications for 2nd phase (2)

• Product and Place are clear: sesame (and rotation crops) in Northwest Ethiopia

• Focus on: ‘How can farmers earn more?’ and socio-economic spill-over effects

• Moving back and forth between production and market side of value chain development

• Result-oriented objectives with clear performance indicators

• Field presence, with focus on scaling GAP (20 steps)

Positioning SBN support project (1)

• Policy alignment and institutional embedding• Strategic orientation : supporting network

and policy development for sesame sector • Sesame agribusiness system innovation, for

ongoing agronomic innovations and for value addition and marketing

• Access to sufficient and affordable credit; input and output finance as conditions for agribusiness sector development

Positioning SBN support project (2)

• Production-push and market-pull VC development

• Stakeholder collaboration at local and strategic level

• Stakeholder ownership and institutional embedding

• Collaboration agreements and co-funding• Field presence - roll-out and further

improvement of ‘20 steps’ • Orientation on collaboration and synergy with

other projects

What remains

• More attention for economic aspects (rural finance, in-country value addition, market linkages and sales) – extra staff will be recruited

• SBN support project manager based in Addis• Stronger embedding in cooperative

movement and focus on cooperative business• Stronger collaboration with private sector • BENEFIT collaboration : CASCAPE and ISSD

(production side), ENTAG (market side)

Adaptations – new orientations

31 ACCs identified across the four main regions of the country for initial focus

11

Tigray RegionAmhara RegionOromia RegionSNNP Region

ACCExample of prioritized commodities in the cluster

• Barley• Durum / Bread Wheat • Potato

• Wheat• Honey• Maize

• Maize• Tef• Cattle and dairy

• Sesame• Banana• Cattle

• Sesame• Cotton• Sorghum

• Durum Wheat• Spices

Cluster/commodity specific strategies

• Both in Tigray and Amhara, sesame clusters are prioritized

• Tigray: extra woreda (Taytay Adyabo) so as to have same intervention area

• Stong intention to move together; with both SBN and ATA in a supporting role and (private and public sector) stakeholders taking the lead

Alignment to ACC

Result chain

Key performance indicators

Project structure

Four service areas of SBN support project:1. Innovation development2. Capacity strengthening3. Scaling4. Network and policy development

Project services and outputs

Innovation, scaling and institutionalization

At production and producers’ side: yield and quality improvement

At market-pull side: product and market development

At the heart of the agribusiness system: rural finance

Supporting change and performance ....

Farmers listening to radio programs

Model farmers

Farmers observing demo plots

Farmers delivering organic sesame to company x

Farmers delivering grade 1 or 2 to processing company Y

Farmers in seed producer groups

Farmers trained in 20 steps by DA’s or MF’s

Members of coops supplying to directly exporting Unions

Farmers having saving accounts and increasing loans from IMF or banks

Farmers calculating production costs

Farmers watching mobile cinema on losses or 20 steps

Farmers participating as innovators or enumerators in research trials

Diversity of extension options with different reach of farmers and different levels of intensity

Linkages with Ethiopian partners

Collaboration with organisations that are there to stay

Linkages within BENEFIT• Practical collaborative action plans – GARC – SBN – CASCAPE – ISSD – Other– HuARC – SBN – CASCAPE – ISSD – Other

• Joint action plan SBN stakeholders – SBN - ENTAG (value addition and marketing)

• Collaborative relation with specialists in financial sector (Rabo/RIAS, Terrrafina MF, Achmea)

• MoU with CommonSense (geo-information and ICT solutions)

• MoU with SNV/C4C, Agriterra and IFDC/2SCALE (Unions and cooperatives)

• Other projects, whenever the opportunity arises

• Golden rule: coordination and synergy, collaboration driven by stakeholder agenda setting

Collaboration with other projects

• Intervention zones: 9 woredas (> 100 kebeles), alignment to ACC approach

• Towards 45 local clusters• 5 unions, up to 100 cooperatives• 20 Ethiopian companies• 5-10 international companies• 5-8 financial institutions• Multiple governmental organisations and authorities

• Improved targeting: small, medium and investor farmers, conventional and organic farming

• Farming systems perspective / rotation crops

Reach and target groups

Social inclusion• Services for different farmer categories• Female (8% MF; 22% coop members)• Young farmers – towards entrepreneurial new

generation • Labourers and labour conditions

Farmer categories Nb of farmers

% of farmers

Cultivated land (ha)

% cult. land

Overview small-scaleand investor farmers

Farmers Acreage

Small-scale XS 48,000 69% 102,500 20%

68,000 97% 267,500 53%S 12,000 17% 100,000 20%

M 8,000 11% 65,000 13%

Investor L 1,500 2% 37,500 8%

2,000 3% 232,500 47%XL 500 1% 195,000 39%

Totals 70,000 100% 500,000 100% 70,000 100% 500,000 100%

• Purpose: SBN stakeholders, SBN project staff, funding partners– From impact to activities/resources– From activities and resources to outcomes and

impact• Diverse information sources and triangulation• Innovating M&E: crowd sourcing and use of

geo-information

Monitoring and evaluation

Main actions (cf. current TEC activities) • SBN Newsletter• SBN website • Films and documentaries• Profiling SBN actors• Radio, television and newspaper• Use of social media

Reporting• Quarterly: newsletters • Semester reports : tracking project implementation and

adaptations • Annual reports : evaluation of annual results, more

analytical and strategic

Communication and reporting

Grafting = BENEFIT

An interdisciplinary team is at your service

Sesame Business Network Ethiopia

A short introduction....Thanks for all your contributions during the first phase

Looking forward to an even more enjoyable and fruitful second phase

Amasegnalehu!!!