PRESENTATION ABSTRACT: "Using an Agro-Enterprise Learning Alliance for Inclusive Value Chain Support," by Shaun Ferris

Development agencies are constantly trying to find new, more effective approaches to combat poverty. This raises two interrelated questions: How to develop and test new approaches? How to upgrade internal capacity to implement new methods?

A learning alliance, as developed by the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), is a model of mutual, participatory learning involving research and development institutions and rural communities. It aims to accelerate institutional change, improve knowledge management, and deepen the level of impact. It consists of a series of training and knowledge sharing meetings where the same individual staff can learn about the new approach, exchange ideas, visit field sites, and decide on activities to implement in the field before the next meeting. In the agroenterprise context the original training road map comprised four components including (i) site evaluation and partnership development, (ii) market opportunity identification, (iii) value chain analysis and agroenterprise design, (iv) investment and linkage to local business development services.

The learning alliance approach has enabled Catholic Relief Services (CRS) to establish strong agroenterprise development projects in over 30 countries across five regions within six years. In this time the agroenterprise learning alliance has profoundly transformed how CRS implements pro-poor agriculture programs. It has strengthened CRS's and its partners' capacity, and positioned the agency to meet new opportunities to link poor farm families to markets, provide access to new finance instruments, develop value chain thinking in the intervention process and help poor farming families climb out of poverty.