Mapping a Way Forward – working meetings on dynamic market change and implications to small-scale producers

The new and emerging wholesale and retail structures have implications to consumers, producers and market chain actors including the agri-processors and public policy.  The importance of developing both public and private sector policies and interventions that can anticipate and accompany these changes is being recognised in many regions.  Single and multi-stakeholder meetings are seen as one way to open space for dialogue and debate.

The key questions for producers, for the dynamic market sector, and for public policy makers including development partners include:

• Can the new agri-food business drivers be partners in enabling broad-based procurement?
• Can small-scale producers and their organisations be partners in new business?
• Can anticipatory public policy help to ensure that small-scale producers and processors are able to participate in dynamic markets?

Framework for Action

Through working together with representatives of the public sector, the private sector, farmers and their organisations, civil society and the media on a collective understanding of the value chain, key trends are identified. Moreover insight into the drivers for these trends and possible future scenarios opens up space for new ways of thinking and exploring both anticipatory policy and intervention. 

Identifying these key trends and drivers is part of an approach, or framework, which has been developed to explore with single and multi-stakeholder groups options for greater small-scale producer participation and strategies to support change - moving from theory to action.

The framework structure which guides the working groups is as follows:

The Regoverning Markets Programme has supported and moderated multi-stakeholder meetings in Turkey, Indonesia, Morocco, South Africa, the Philippines and Bangladesh. The programme comprises single and multi-stakeholder working sessions and recognises the unique institutional and economic policy environment of the given country. Where available the teams draw on the evidence generated through the studies of the programme and other centres of excellence.

Emerging lessons and observations

These include:

• the working meetings were valued and appreciated by the stakeholders in all the countries
• there are only either limited or weak structures in place at country level where multi-stakeholders can explore opportunities for enhanced or enabled small-scale producer participation
• the voice and concerns of the small-scale producers are rarely called upon and included in policy dialogue and there are major gaps in information flows at all levels
• the tools and methods applied provided an open and non confrontational space for dialogue and for the generation of new or changed modes of working
• all meetings called for better sharing at country level and between countries of good and innovative practice for small-scale producer inclusion and of public policy and intervention in the light of rapidly changing markets
• outputs from meetings have fed into wider national policy dialogue and contributed to next stage actions in some cases.

Training and Capacity

In May 2007, the Regoverning Markets Programme held a capacity building short course for moderators interested to develop and strengthen their skills in working with stakeholders on small-scale farmer inclusion in dynamic markets. This short course, held in the Philippines, attracted some 21 participants from Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. They represented the public and private sectors as well as NGOs

For more information contact the policy outreach and learning coordinators through the webform at http://www.regoverningmarkets.org/contact