Just another WordPress weblog
Nuffic sponsors cooperation projects between Higher Education Institutes in the South and in the Netherlands. Southern partners formulate the project and Dutch organisation tender for the implementation. I was involved, mostly as chairman of the so called ‘Technical Evaluation Committee’ in assessing the bids for projects in Ghana, Rwanda(2), Brasil, Indonesia, South Africa and Ethiopia.
In 2010 an Irish NGO asked me to research the “Potential role of Marketing Cooperatives, Saving and Credit Cooperatives and traders in improving the income of Borana pastoralists”. For this I interviewed 20 coops and SACCOs, numerous traders, traditional leaders, NGOs and GOs. One striking conclusion was that SACCOs were more effective in increasing the income of pastoralists then marketing cooperatives. The findings were validated in workshop with all stakeholders. Based on its outcomes recommendations were formulated on how to improve the impact of development interventions. The report can be downloaded here.
In 2010 I evaluated the MFS programme of a Dutch NGO in Afghanistan. It had three components: Water and Sanitation, Livelihood and Civil Society Strengthening. Next to assessing the approach and impact on the ground, also the role of the MFS funding system (from DGIS) on the partnering policies of the NGO were analysed.
In 1995 I worked for 10 months in Northern Albania in an IFAD/WB project to develop an extension service in four districts. My tasks were training on participatory extension planning and establishing research-extension linkages. One outcome was a manual on Participatory Extension Planning which has been used later to train all Albanian extension worker.
In 2002 I provided Business- and Organisation Development support to CHUREDA, an independent consultancy unit created by LITI-Morogoro, an Agricultural TVET institute in Tanzania. The main issues were improving the client-relationships and internal organisational issues (mainly around their acquisition process).
In 2000-2002 I undertook 12 support missions to assist Kyrgysh farmers in creating the Naukat Seed Potato Cooperative. My tasks were organisation development, business planning, credit supply to members (via a MFI) and marketing. A strong and sustainable seed potato cooperative was formed with 250 small farmers that provides members acces to inputs and markets. Due to its very strong quality control mechanism, it has the best seed potatoes in Central Asia. It sold these, among others to the World Bank and neighbouring countries. I wrote a paper on this experience: The balancing act of creating a cooperative.
In 2004-05 I was teamleader of this project sponsored by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs to create a Horticultural Marketing Unit in Albania, a commercial organisation offering business development services on (export) market, match-making, linking farmers to processors and training on quality standards and certification (HACCP, EuroGAP).
In 2004-05 I assist three farmers associations in four support missions to create a Horticultural Marketing Cooperative in Albania. Key elements were designing and drafting an economic simulation model to facilitate the decision making process, clarifying the tasks and responsibilities in the coop and facilitating the link with the national market.
In 2007 I provided an on-the-job training on Value Chain Analysis (NUHDA) to the staff of the National Union for Horticultural Development in Afghanistan. We took apricot as the pilot chain and did considerable field work on this. NUHDA was enthusiastic about the result and subsequently asked me to make a publication on it: Apricot in Afghanistan. A value chain approach..
In 2008 I trained the staff on five Afghan NGOs in project development (OOPP style), proposal writing and business planning.
In 2007 the National Union for Horticultural Development in Afghanistan (see elsewhere) asked me to train their staff and those of four other Afghan NGOs in Value Chain Analysis and Development.
In 2007 the National Union for Horticultural Development in Afghanistan was created as part of a World Bank project. As Institutional and Organisational Development Advisor I drafted the long term strategy and the organisational set-up. Next I translated these into statutes and an Operational Manual.
In a series of four missions I designed the first Horticultural strategy of Kosovo. The strategy was based on the data and ideas collected by four public-private Working Groups (installed by the Ministry of Agriculture) on fruits, vegetables, grapes and ornamentals. The strategy covers all aspects of the value chains and deals with access to inputs, technologies, information and skills, markets and credit. The government used the strategy to set up a first subsidy scheme for horticulture.
As director of the project Development and Implementation of an Organisational Development Plan for l’Institut d’Enseignement Supérieur de Ruhengeri, in Rwanda. I was responsible for the overall strategy development and implementation of the project. The main components were: design a business plan for the institute, setting up a quality management system and improving the links with the labour market.
As director of the project ‘Establishment of a Programme Management Unit’ at the National University of Rwanda I was responsible for the overall strategy and the implementation of the project. It foucesed on strengthening the departments of planning, human resource management and financial planning.
In a series of fourteen missions over seven years I supported and coached AGROinform Federation in designing and implementing the programme ‘Alliance for the Support of Agricultural Markets’. It consists of 4 components:
My main activities were: backstopping, training on coop development and Business Planning, design a credit line for SME’s and(export) coops.
AGROinform Federation is an umbrella organisation of NGOs providing Rural Extension and Business Development services. In a series of 18 backstopping missions over nine years I supported and coached them in strategic planning, institutional development, organisational strengthening, M&E and programme management. Main activities were:
In this period AGROinform grew from 13 staff members to over 100 staff and over 3.000 members. It is the only organisation charging payment for services; leading to a cost recovery of one third.
This value chain based Livestock strategy for Uruzgan is part of a four years rural development programme implemented by the Dutch Consortium for Uruzgan. The focus is in setting up cooperative feed banks, introducing milking goats and creating semi-commercial poultry units.
In 2010 I completed 3 missions to train and coach the staff of five NGOs in Value Chain Development and in Business Planning for Cooperatives in the context of the EU-funded Building Resilient Pastoral Communities in Borena zone (South Ethiopia). The coops dealt with marketing of livestock (camels, cattle, goats), arabic gum and incense and of Aloe soap.
In 2010-2011 I supported a local NGO in setting up a Union for Carpet Weavers in Balkh, Northern Afghanistan. The first step was an evaluation of an ongoing project; the second to coach and train the staff in analysing the carpet Value Chain and the third to design an extension of the project to create a carpet union out of six village based cooperatives to export carpets.