June 7, 2007

ACDI/VOCA’s Steve Collins Presents at Zambia Workshop

ACDI/VOCA’s Chief of Party for Kenya Steve Collins presented at the “International Workshop on Strengthening and Widening Markets and Overcoming Supply Side Constraints for African Agriculture” held June 3-5, 2007 in Lusaka, Zambia. The International Food & Agricultural Trade Policy Council and the Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa organized the workshop to bring together key stakeholders including farmer associations, policymakers, local and international private sector interests, and donors to explore ideas in order to increase coordination in developing Africa’s food and agricultural trade options and overcoming supply side constraints.

Collins presented during the first day of the conference, which focused on strengthening markets in Africa to develop economic opportunities. Often neglected in development efforts of the past, Africa’s agricultural sector is now recognized as a critical part for the promotion of food security, economic growth and poverty alleviation. Collins, who heads ACDI/VOCA’s Kenya Maize Development Program (KMDP), presented an overview of the East Africa Grain Council in the context of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), a preferential trading area with 20 member states stretching from Libya to Zimbabwe.

Since 2002 KMDP has been ACDI/VOCA's flagship project in Kenya. The project focuses on increasing the efficiency of the maize industry, which is critical given the status of maize as a staple crop for many countries within East and Southern Africa. ACDI/VOCA implements the project using the Business Development Services (BDS) paradigm along with the value chain approach. This is unique since maize is not an export crop, but rather a crop that plays an important role in ensuring food security.

ACDI/VOCA’s impact in African development was also recognized in a panelist’s presentation from the National Smallholder Farmers' Association of Malawi (NASFAM). NASFAM’s CEO Dyborn Chibongo gave credit to the success of the association, which currently has 38 member associations representing 108,000 farmer members, in large part to the early support of ACDI/VOCA. In 1995 ACDI/VOCA launched the Smallholder Agribusiness Development Project to increase farmer incomes and capacities in Malawi, leading to the development of NASFAM. ACDI/VOCA provided ongoing assistance through the NASFAM Strengthening Project, which was implemented from 2000-2003. Today NASFAM creates smallholder income security, increases farm input sales, supports rural financial services through commercial banks and credit unions, engages in policy advocacy, trains association boards and smallholders in management, literacy, numeracy and Farming as a Business, and organizes sales of value-added products including polished rice and Fair Trade-packaged groundnuts.

Presentations are available on the International Food & Agricultural Trade Policy Council 's website here.