AGRA and UNDP host training on Resilient and Sustainable Food Value Chain Development

Date

06 - 10 May 2021

Location

Virtual event

Host

Assan Ng’ombe
Alliance for a Green Revolution
angombe@agra.org

Through the Regional Hub, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) developed a training manual to facilitate the development of resilient and sustainable (green) food value chains. Over May and June, they hosted remote regional training events to troubleshoot the manual and kickstart the greening process.

About “greening” agrifood value chains

“Greening” refers to the transformation of a process or practice towards a more holistically sustainable and resilient outcome. Green food value chains proactively promote the sustainable use of natural resources to mitigate adverse impacts on the landscape and generate positive results for nature and communities. A resilient and sustainable food value chain considers proper disposal and recycling and has a plan for recapturing value at every stage to reduce environmental, socio-cultural and economic impact overall.

“Greening” intends to provide a holistic, circular, open-ended framework that creates sustainable economic, environmental, and social outcomes for all stakeholders involved. Greening a food value chain leads to increased economic opportunities, innovation in processes and operations, upgraded technology and myriad social benefits, especially for smallholder farmers.

Past training events and outcomes

RFS Regional Hub partners AGRA and UNDP have supported country projects in developing resilient and sustainable value chains since the programme's start. In September 2019, AGRA and UNDP hosted a regional training workshop focused on greening agricultural value chains for RFS country project teams in Nairobi. The event's purpose was to teach country project teams to apply value chain concepts to farming operations, raise technical awareness on how to make food value chains more sustainable and resilient, and, importantly, identify further training needs.

Thirty people attended, representing Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Niger, Nigeria, Malawi, Senegal, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. The trainees attended seminars on integrating climate-smart agriculture into value chains, building community resilience and adapting to climate change. At the end of the training, each country project developed specific action plans for greening their food value chains.

With the knowledge gained from the initial training session, UNDP and AGRA developed a training manual to help guide RFS country teams as they work to green food value chains. The guide aims to build value chain actors' capacities and analytical skills, focusing specifically on smallholder producers and service providers.

The manual blends best practices and lessons learned from projects, programmes and initiatives that promote resilient and sustainable food value chain development in Africa. It will help country teams implement a holistic approach to agricultural productivity and agribusiness development in their smallholder farming systems.

The training sessions

In May and June, AGRA and UNDP hosted a second round of targeted training to promote and encourage the use of the manual. The training built country team capacity to develop multi-stakeholder platforms (MSPs), identify priority value chains, map value chains, and develop action plans. AGRA-UNDP planning and assistance will cover all aspects of value chain development, from mapping the value chain to financing its “greening”.

To ensure training is tailored to each geographical context, AGRA-UNDP held region-specific sessions:

  • East Africa: 6 May 2021
  • West Africa: 19 May 2021
  • Southern Africa: 10 June 2021

 If you missed the AGRA-UNDP training or are interested in attending future training sessions, please contact Assan Ngombe for more information.


Event Resources

  • Resilient and Sustainable (Green) Food Value Chain Development

    10 June 2021

    To promote the use of the Training Manual for Resilient and Sustainable Food Value Chain Development in Africa, Regional Hub partners AGRA and UNDP held regional training sessions in May and June 2021. Each training session focused on building country team capacity to develop multi-stakeholder platforms (MSPs), identify priority value chains, map value chains, and develop “greening” action plans.  

     

    The presentation provides an overview of key concepts in value chain greening and sustainability, examples of value chain lists and approaches for shortlisting, and examples of value chain maps. The group work exercise leads participants through a stakeholder mapping exercise to identify strong candidates for a value chain “greening” multistakeholder platform. 

    More info

    Training Manual for Resilient and Sustainable Food Value Chain Development in Africa

    05 May 2021

    Through the RFS programme, the United Nations Development Programme and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa launched a training manual to advance a holistic approach to agricultural productivity and agribusiness development in smallholder farming systems.


    The guide aims to build capacities and analytical skills to help value chain actors, especially smallholder producers and service providers, such as extension officers and marketers, embrace value chain greening. These skills will help target value chain actors to identify and understand relationships with other key value chain players. The manual blends best practices and lessons learned from projects, programmes, and initiatives that promote food value chain greening. 

    More info

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