Photo: USAIDUSAID's Microenterprise Development office (MD) and USAID Mali hosted the workshop: "Developing and Financing Value Chains: Increasing their Productivity to Reduce Poverty" April 10-13, in Bamako, Mali.
The workshop drew a wide variety of stakeholders, including banks, producers, transporters, and exporters, as well as donor and project staff, to discuss the competitiveness and finance issues of the tomato, potato, rice, and shallot value chains. MD's purpose for this workshop, and the field work which preceded it, was to:
- Add to the body of knowledge on value chain finance-more countries, commodities, and cross cutting issues
- Broaden the group of actors in value chain finance research / field work
- Increase the role of private sector in value chain finance discussions
- Tie research to mission objectives
- Test sequencing of field work and workshops
The workshop presented sector information collected by Abt Associates and Chemonics International during fieldwork conducted in March 2007, and allowed for dialogue among stakeholders around the opportunities and constraints identified.
Topics included:
- End-market competitiveness in global and regional economies
- Constraints and Opportunities for each of the value chains
- The use of technology to increase finance and information flows
- The role of the private sector versus that of government and donors
There were both limits and benefits to bringing stakeholders from all value chains together in one workshop. An obvious limit was that some participants would have preferred a multi-day discussion on just the value chain in which they are engaged. On the other hand, a benefit of this multi-value chain approach was the ability to identify cross cutting issues affecting all value chains. Participants recognized that they were all equally affected by failures in transport systems, lack of trust both horizontally and vertically, and insecure money transfer systems.
The workshop was organized by the USAID/EGAT/PR/MD office under the AMAP FS award, with USAID Mali, leadership from Abt Associates, Chemonics International, and Enterprising Solutions, and support from the QED Group.
Read more and download the workshop summary presentation here [1]