Harvesting Lessons as We Build Africa’s Food Systems

As AMI Impact’s work to develop and grow SMEs, managers and leaders across Africa expands, we’re placing intentional focus on sectors with outsized potential for impact.

One of these is food systems, where the opportunity to drive food security and support livelihoods – especially for youth, women and those in rural areas – is disproportionately high.??

In 2022, 31% of the 4,000+ SMEs on our programmes came from this sector, with 54% of these SMEs working to open up markets for smallholder farmers. We have also developed hundreds of high potential cross-sector food systems leaders through our work with AGRA on the Centre for African Leadership and Agriculture (CALA) and beyond.?

From this work, we highlight 3 emerging learnings for those working to strengthen Africa’s food systems:

1. Cross-pollination: Deep and lasting impact lies where the public, private and civil society sectors meet.?

In partnership with AGRA, AMI is supporting leaders across food systems in Africa, with action-oriented leadership programming offered by the Centre for African Leaders in Agriculture (CALA) . The Centre’s 16 month Advanced Leadership Programme is focused on upskilling 80 collaborative leaders from 8 countries, with equal focus on participation from the private sector, civil society, and government. Developed by cross-cutting teams from these three areas, AMI’s “Action Learning Projects” are a central part of the design of the unique action-based learning approach to collaborative leadership and agroecology . The goal of this is to forge meaningful cross-sector working relationships and develop critical interpersonal leadership skills – but the results have been more powerful than we could have expected.

In Tanzania, for example, entrepreneur Elizabeth Swai found herself working side by side with public, private and civil society sector leaders to implement reduction of poultry mortality rates through promotion of cluster production systems across Tanzania, which contributes 16% to their national GDP. This has led to training of youth, women and poultry vendors, while building capacity in partner organizations and providing linkages for smallholder farmers.?

Ghana’s cross-sector “Team Sustainability” team explored innovative approaches to improved soil fertility for smallholder farmers using dynamic kraaling and composting. Dynamic kraaling offers smallholder farmers a pathway to achieve food and income security sustainably and could be critical for sustainable food systems and environmental sustainability.

Just last month, CALA graduated it’s second cohort with incredible outcomes; 100% of Action Learning Projects were successfully funded by CALA’s ALP grant fund, with 96% of delegates expressing regularly applying what they learn in sessions to enhance their leadership capacity among others.?

We believe that an intentional and structured approach to cross-sector project work has exciting potential for informed policy, and will be continuing to prioritise this programme element as CALA expands to serve leaders in new geographies, and at different career stages.

2. Targeted support: Food systems SMEs must be segmented carefully for BDS to work.

It seems obvious – but too often, we see calls for proposals for catch-all technical assistance (TA) programmes to prepare a wide variety of ag-SMEs for accessing finance. This results in low rates of final finance matching - and, frustratingly, TA programmes getting a reputation for ineffectiveness. We’ve learned that multiple levels of screening and diagnosis are needed: first, what segment does this SME fall into (we like the framework from Argidius and the Collaborative for Frontier Finance as a base) and what types of finance are most suitable to that segment? Here, understanding both past performance and growth potential / entrepreneur profile is key. Next, if this SME is to access that type of finance, how bankable are they currently, and what are the gaps in their model or operations? We’ve developed a 25 question framework for diagnosing operational / business model gaps. And, only finally, are they ready to communicate that bankability to investors or a bank rep? Pitch prep, while useful, is most valuable once operational gaps have been tackled. By segmenting and diagnosing, we can pathway SMEs to the right support for their stage – getting more capital in the hands of entrepreneurs in the short term, and preparing a large future pipeline of bankable businesses. This saves scarce TA dollars and ensures SMEs remain engaged throughout TA programmes, as they are more immediately relevant.?

With our partner Aceli, for example, we have redesigned our TA programme by more clearly defining the profile of the targeted SME. We? removed less critical content, and have seen an increase in SME engagement. Participating SMEs have appreciated the changes. Margaret Mutie, founder of Ndalani Farm, Kenya,? is a participant who successfully accessed finance post-programme. She comments; ‘ I am excited about what the future holds. We can barely satisfy the demand for quality and affordable dairy products in this region. I look forward to access more funding to continue to accelerate our growth, as we now have the structures to support our growth thanks to AMI.’

3. Engineering serendipity: Creating spaces for SMEs to engage in structured networking across value chains can yield unexpected impact.

It is well documented that networks are a critical precursor to entrepreneurial success, The African ag-SME, working in a rural area, is often unable to access those networks typically thought to control resources – like international and local finance providers, market access gatekeepers etc. Less attention is paid to the value of SME-SME networks, however, and there is much to be gained by cultivating these. In our experience, the structured peer problem solving built into our SME growth programmes has resulted in both peer learning and tangible and value-adding partnerships. Consider Radoney Abwatsi Opakwa of Cubicana Safety and Hygiene Ltd, who, after participating in an AMI Grow Your Business Programme, was contracted by fellow participant Janet Bakasa of Ushindi Poultry and Marketing Cooperative Society to provide pest control services to her business.?

We encourage the ecosystem to carefully curate group experiences to ensure a relevant mix of related businesses. Importantly, don’t neglect network-building activities in favour of pushing content - too often, it’s where the gold can be found.

In 2024, we’ll reach thousands more ag-SMEs and leaders across the continent with our private, public and civil society partners. We’ll continue to share learnings as we refine our work, and welcome feedback from others focused on developing the skills required to strengthen Africa’s food systems and build a sector that is creating jobs, and a continent that can feed itself.