Tools and guidelines

These guidelines assess previous Agricultural Value Chains (AVC) development efforts across Africa, propose policies and strategies for developing AVC pathways, and identify the policy and institutional factors needed for successful implementation.

This brief identifies and describes the principal challenges, and outlines possible solutions that development programmes can support.

This How to Do Note is part of a series of five Notes that accompany the NUS Operational Framework.

This How to Do Note is part of a series of five Notes that accompany the NUS Operational Framework.

This How to Do Note is part of a series of five Notes that accompany the NUS Operational Framework.

This How to Do Note is part of a series of five Notes that accompany the NUS Operational Framework.

This How to Do Note is part of a series of five Notes that accompany the NUS Operational Framework.

These guidelines address recommendations on ensuring that IFAD’s pro-poor value chain development projects reach out to women and the very poor, apply a programmatic approach when needed, promote an inclusive value chain governance, work with the appropriate expertise and partners, and build capacity for implementation.

This How-to-do Note is a practical step by step operational guidance on mainstreaming nutrition in IFAD-supported country strategies and investment projects for use by IFAD staff, consultants and partners.

IFAD’s support for the better use of agrobiodiversity with specific reference to neglected and underutilized species (NUS) and a greater recognition of the traditional knowledge of Indigenous Peoples are important for fighting food and nutrition insecurity

This guide provides validated guidance for design of nutrition-sensitive value chain (NSVC) projects for smallholder farmers. The guide comprises two volumes.

The Nutrition-sensitive value chains: A guide for project design has been produced to fill a key knowledge gap in the emerging field of value chains for nutrition by providing guidance on how to design nutrition-sensitive value chain (NSVC) projects, with a particular focus on smallholder producers.

Investments in smallholder goat development and related value chains are effective means to reduce poverty and increase the incomes of men and women from resource-poor households. They are also effective channels to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in remote mountainous
areas.
 

Why is FO mapping and profiling essential? 

A business model is a means by which a farmers’ organization (FO) structures its resources, services and collaboration with members, stakeholders (traders, suppliers, public and private sector), clients and partners to create and capture value. 

​Smallholder farmers use different strategies to improve their market presence and to capture more value added in the agricultural sector. These strategies include the creation of cooperatives and other farmers’ organizations (FOs).

​Smallholder farmers use different strategies to improve their market presence and to capture more value added in the agricultural sector. These strategies include the creation of cooperatives and other farmers’ organizations (FOs).

​With populations growing, fast emerging middle classes are demanding quality produce, luxury goods (tobacco, alcohol) and animal proteins, and there is pressure on domestic agricultural production to meet these needs. 

This HTDN provides guidance for project design teams on how to design a 4P component and how to support the implementation of 4Ps within IFAD-funded projects.

It builds on findings and lessons learned from previous IFAD-supported projects, as summarized in the 2013 report, IFAD and Public-Private Partnerships: Selected Project Experiences, and the Institute of Development Studies (IDS)/IFAD publication, Brokering Development: Enabling Factors for Public-Private-Producer Partnerships in Agricultural Value Chains.

This HTDN begins by defining the 4P and related concepts and then analyses the basic elements that need to be considered when designing and establishing a 4P followed by recommendations for the implementation of 4Ps.

 This note helps IFAD design and supervision teams to improve the M&Eindicators of VC projects

The step-by-step approach to VC analysis and project design follows the basic IFAD project design cycle.Each step is briefly described and followed by guiding questions for the project design team. The VC approach should be adopted early in the project cycle, such as when developing project concept notes for a country strategic opportunities programme (COSOP).

Since the mid-1980s, Ghana’s impressive development has made the country one of the strongest performers in Africa, although economic challenges and a fiscal deficit are currently slowing down the pace of growth. 

​Indonesia is the largest economy in South-East Asia and has developed rapidly over the past decade into a competitive and decentralized electoral democracy with a fast growing middle class. Despite the country's positive progress in reducing poverty, vulnerability and inequality remain high. Nearly 40 per cent of Indonesians are highly vulnerable to shocks, which can push them back below the poverty line. 

​This HTDN is directed primarily at the design phase of IFAD value chain projects, though it does have some relevance for both pre-design and implementation phases.

Smallholder livestock production is largely based on family farming and is key to poor rural people’s livelihoods, food security and employment creation. 

The purpose of this Lessons Learned note is to provide design teams with observations based on lessons from IFAD and other donors’ projects that may help in the design of value chain projects.

Strong links to markets for poor rural producers are essential to increasing agricultural income, generating economic growth in rural areas and reducing hunger and poverty. Every product that is sold locally, nationally or internationally is often part of an agricultural value chain (VC). From a development perspective, VCs are one of the instruments through which market forces can be harnessed to benefit poor rural women and men – not just producers, but wage earners, service providers and others.

GALS has been developed under Oxfam Novib’s (ON) Women’s Empowerment Mainstreaming and Networking (WEMAN) Programme since 2008 with local partners and Linda Mayoux. The use of GALS in value chain development (VCD) was piloted by ON and partners in Uganda through a small IFAD grant (2009- 2011). It was rolled out by ON with local partners in Nigeria, Rwanda and Uganda with the support of a large IFAD grant (2011-2014) and in other countries with cofunding from other donors.

The objectives of this How To Do Note are to provide a practical introduction to basic concepts, identify key issues to be analysed at the design stage and provide references to the most relevant literature.

This technical note serves as a guide to the design of appropriate programme interventions that apply value chain financing approaches to the development of competitive agricultural value chains. 

It emphasizes interventions that promote financial inclusiveness and the overall development goals of governments, as well as those of technical and funding agencies.