This series of Information Sheets provides a summary of market changes taking place at national level within key high value agrifood commodity chains. The intention is to serve as a point for public sector, donor and private sector discussions with particular focus on securing and improving income among the rural poor through their participation in new and dynamic markets.

The Information Sheets were prepared in association with a working meeting 15-17 May 2007, in Zambia, of the Regional Resource Centre for Rural Development (RRD)-Sida together with the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  The meeting shared experiences from the Regoverning Markets programme, the agri-standards programme and other relevant initiatives in the Southern Africa region with Sida regional and country teams on the theme of Linking small-scale producers and processors to dynamic and restructured local, regional and international markets for high value products in East and Southern Africa. 

Amongst the resource persons were the authors of five country information sheets and the information sheet on standards for export which had been prepared through RRD-Sida funding.  The workshop report and the supporting presentations offer possible policy and intervention entry points that can remove barriers and increase access to dynamic markets for small-scale producers in SSA.

Country Information Sheets on Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia, plus information on Public and Private Standards, can be downloaded here [0].

Material from the Zambia workshop can be downloaded here [0].

The funding for this research and publication series was provided by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).