Venue: Waridi Paradise Hotel and Suite, Nairobi, Kenya
Date: October 17-18, 2024
The Centre for African Bio-Entrepreneurship (CABE Africa) in collaboration with the Partnership for African Social and Governance Research is hosting and implementing the Utafiti Sera (Research-Policy) Project on Youth Employment Creation in Agriculture and Agro-processing Phase IV (YEC IV). This project is funded by funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and aims to enhance research evidence uptake in Agribusiness and Agro-processing and focuses on building more inclusive policies and practices for the agri-based micro, small, and mediumsized enterprises (MSMEs) in Kenya.
In order to catalyze uptake and application of research evidence to inform policy and decision making by MSMEs, capacity building through short trainings and development of learning materials was prioritized as one of the objectives of YEC IV project. Capacity assessment of 106 MSMEs was undertaken and administered using a digital capacity assessment tool in July 2024 for the selected Agri-based MSMEs in Makueni, Nyandarua, West Pokot and Kakamega counties to identify opportunities and challenges in mango, potato and avocado value chains. The study revealed capacity gaps that required a design of capacity strengthening plan for effective MSMES participation in successful sustainable businesses, entrepreneurship and policy process.
The key assessment areas included: Sales Marketing and Quality Control, Use of Information and/or Technology, Business Relationships and Networking, Resources and Financial Management, Leadership and Governance. These assessment areas were informed by the synthesis of evidence from secondary literature, prior rapid assessment of the MSMEs, and input from stakeholders at the Launch of Utafiti-sera Youth Employment Creation in Agriculture and Agro-processing (YEC IV) in March 2024.
The capacity strengthening or building envisages to improve an individual’s or organization’s ability “to produce, perform or deploy” by enhancing capacities in four strategic areas including Operational, Management, Financial Management, and Personal capacities for a strong and successful entrepreneurship. While some capacities are gained through career experience, through educational avenues, some capacities are strengthened through learned responses in the business environment.
The capacity building intervention envisages to address the identified capacity gaps in the following areas:
Market access and market linkages
Digital platforms for marketing
Market information
Quality standards for agro-processing
Appropriate transport logistics
Resource mobilization
Financial literacy and financial management
Digitalization of records and e-payment
Leadership skills and governance
Objectives
To facilitate knowledge sharing among MSMEs in Mango, Potato and avocado value chains, including entrepreneurship practices, leadership and governance, technology and innovation, Finance, marketing and market access for products
To Create a platform for collaboration and linkages among MSMEs to access accurate and timely access information on markets and innovation to improve entrepreneurship
Promote the utilization of research evidence to inform policy in agribusiness.
Expected Outcomes
Co-created short training curriculum for use by MSMEs to improve entrepreneurship.
A platform created for collaboration and linkages with industry players in specific enterprises in targeted counties.
A culture created on the of use of evidence to inform and influence policy in decision making at county level.
Approach
The convening will adopt PASGR’s innovative Utafiti-Sera approach to which is an innovative evidence- informed policy making approach to issues identified by MSMES in the capacity assessment study to co-create capacity plan.
The two day training workshop will be held on Thursday, 17th and Friday 18th October, 2024 at Waridi Paradise, Kilimani, Nairobi, approximately 40 participants are expected to attend drawn from MSMEs from Makueni Mango value chain, Nyandarua Potato value chain, West Pokot, Mango and potato value chain; and Kakamega Avocado value chain, PASGR and CABE staff and facilitators.
Youth Employment Creation (YEC IV) Training Programme
Time
Day 1 – Thursday 17th October 2024
Facilitator
8:00-8:30
ARRIVAL & REGISTRATION
Susan Malema
8:30 – 9:00
Introduction: Introduction, Expectations, and climate setting
This book provides an all-inclusive approach to farming in small spaces, especially in urban, and peri-urban areas. The book contains food recipes of African indigenous vegetables and fish from the Lake Victoria region of Kenya.
The ‘Women Food Entrepreneurs book’, consisting of 8 chapters, is based on a research project undertaken by multidisciplinary experts between 2015-2019 in city slums in Kisumu, Kenya and Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The Women Food Entrepreneurs (WFEs) research project was implemented by social and natural scientists from the Netherlands, Germany, Kenya and Burkina Faso, as well as with Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and community-based women groups. The project aimed to strengthen women’s food entrepreneurship in city slums based on an understanding of the interactions between soil quality, food production and marketing for vulnerable groups.
The book focuses on six themes comprising constraints on women food entrepreneurs, soil, water, and food quality interactions. It also integrates women’s knowledge on food production and processing to add value and enhance business skills. This chapter presents important ways to improve market access, contribute to the development of enabling policies for women food entrepreneurs as well as share lessons and best practices for upscaling (Ch 6). In efforts to contribute to development of the private sector, the book presents opportunities whereby women farmers can strengthen their position in the value chain and business knowledge and skills and networks.
In view of the findings, the book proposes recommendations for consideration in policy making processes. A few outstanding recommendations include first the need to recognize women food entrepreneurs’ role in the provision of fresh foods to city populations. Secondly, women food entrepreneurs’ innovative traditional and scientific knowledge in food production, processing and marketing should be valued, documented and upscaled. In this regard, this book highlights two stories of change. In the first one, a leading female trader champions the use of organic fertilizer among WFEs and subsequently gets nominated as a finalist for the Agrofood Broker of the Year Award. The second story highlights different policy moments in which some of the books’ recommendations have informed policy making by Kisumu County government.
Finally, the book presents the project’s impacts which can be upscaled. A notable impact is the ‘Connector-model’, which arose from the continued involvement of local non-governmental organizations (NGOs); the Centre for African Bio-Entrepreneurship (CABE), Nairobi; Victoria Institute for Research on Environment and Development (VIRED) International, Kisumu; Ėtudes Actions Conseils (EAC) in Burkina Faso; Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), the Netherlands; Netherlands Agro, Food &Technology Centre (NAFTC) Africa; Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics(IBED), the Netherlands; Institute of Soil Science and Site Ecology, Germany; Dresden University of Technology, Tharandt, Germany; BodemBergsma, the Netherlands; Institut de Recherche en Sciences de la Santé, Burkina Faso; Institute of Social Science Research (AISSR), and University of Amsterdam (UvA), the Netherlands. The model has successfully connected WFE groups with each other as well as with the public and the private through innovation and capacity building. The result is stronger synergy among the Women Food Entrepreneurs for an inclusive business model. The Annex, provides illustrations of food recipes of African indigenous vegetables and fish from the Lake Victoria region of Kenya. The food recipes are both English and dholuo.
About the Agricultural Policy Research in Africa (APRA) Research Programme Consortium Agricultural Policy Research in Africa (APRA) is a new, five-year, Research Programme Consortium (RPC), includes regional hubs at the Centre for African Bio-Entrepreneurship (CABE), Kenya among other partners in the region, which is funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and will run from 2016-2022. The new programme will be based at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), UK (www.ids.ac.uk ) and will build on more than a decade of research and policy engagement work by the Future Agricultures Consortium (www.future-agricultures.org ).
APRA aims to produce new information and insights into different pathways to agricultural commercialisation in order to assess their impacts and outcomes on rural poverty, women’s and girl’s empowerment and food and nutrition security in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Consortium has four interlinked objectives:
generating high-quality evidence on pathways to agricultural commercialisation in Africa, using a rigorous mix of quantitative and qualitative methods.
undertaking policy research on agricultural commercialisation to fill key evidence gaps and define policy options.
ensuring the sharing and uptake of research by a diverse range of stakeholders.
strengthening the capacity of the research team, and associated partner institutions, to deliver high-quality research and advice.
Beginning in mid-2016, APRA is work in six focal countries across East, West and Southern Africa (Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania and Zimbabwe), representing both DFID priority countries and New Alliance countries.
The APRA Coordination Team is led by John Thompson, senior Research Fellow in the Rural Futures Cluster at IDS (Chief Executive Officer) and Ephraim Chirwa, Professor of Economics at the University of Malawi (Research Director), along with Regional Coordinators based in Ghana (Joseph Yaro), Kenya (Hannington Odame) and South Africa (Cyriaque Hakizimana and Ruth Hall), an Impact, Communications and Engagement Coordinator (Beatrice Ouma) and a Programme Manager (Oliver Burch). Together, they have extensive experience in leading complex, multi-country, cross-disciplinary, research programmes in Africa.
At the core of the APRA Consortium is a commitment to academic excellence, policy impact, stakeholder engagement and value for money, rooted in long-term partnerships and a solid regional base. In order to achieve its objectives, the programme will work in sites that examine diverse pathways of commercialisation (influenced by the relationship to markets and scales of operation) and linked to different types of commercialisation (e.g. estates, medium-scale commercial farming, contract farming and smallholder commercialisation).
Consortium researchers will carry out in-depth studies in contrasting sites with varying levels of commercialisation intensity and longevity (i.e. established/ mature vs. recent/emerging sites of commercialisation) and different market connections and infrastructure. To analyse and understand these contrasts, the APRA researchers will employ a combination of quantitative (including quasi-experimental) and qualitative (including participatory and ethnographic) research methods and policy analysis tools to examine different types or forms of commercialisation, including comparing low-value staples, high-value horticulture, and industrial and export crops, and their differential outcome.