Strategy

While infrastructure across Sub-Saharan Africa is improving rapidly, gaps in last-mile delivery services for agricultural inputs persist, leaving smallholder farmers without timely access to critical resources. The Food Systems Foresight team conducted an assessment of AGRA-supported Village-based Advisor (VBA) and Agro-dealer business models in 4 countries: Burkina Faso, Mozambique, Nigeria, and Tanzania, to increase the financial sustainability of these trusted intermediaries between distributors and farming communities.

We leveraged the popular ‘Business Model Canvas’ framework and customized it based on stakeholder input. Our team adopted a human-centred and food systems approach to capture diverse contexts and examine the wide network of formal and informal actors that last-mile delivery relies on. The assessment produced bespoke recommendations to help VBAs, agro-dealers, AGRA, and partners refine their business models for long-term sustainability and improved service to smallholder farmers.

Through our systems practice, we facilitated a week-long Human Centered Design Sprint for the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN)’s EatSafe project, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).  EatSafe aims to empower consumers and vendors to make safer food choices in traditional markets. With over 30 food safety and behavior change experts from around the world, our Sprint involved brainstorming, prototyping, and iterative testing to bring about 4 unique innovations designed to encourage safer food markets in Kebbi State.

In the decade of action required to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Canada’s International Development Research Center (IDRC) will build on past investments and momentum through continued investments in food systems research under their newly-launched Climate-Resilient Food Systems Program (CRFS).

We analyzed past IDRC programs in climate change and food systems to capture and crystallize insights related to the new strategic focus of CRFS. Our report integrated insights and lessons into a unified narrative, which IDRC used to build future programming and frame pertinent themes of emergent organizational norming.

African farms report the world's lowest yields; often this is due to poor inputs. We worked with a global input provider to develop a market entry strategy in two southern African countries. Through extensive market research and stakeholder interviews, we identified the pertinent dynamics of local and international markets and advised on market models for maximum impact. 

Our in-depth analysis included extensive research into potential partners and allowed the company to follow a well-vetted roadmap for market entry and expansion of their sales, increasing the availability of plant-based protein in the region.

Grants, even with the best intentions, can have varied impact.  To inform it’s forward-looking strategy, a leading corporate foundation asked us to evaluate their $25M portfolio of investments in smallholder farmer development programming.  

Our work highlighted trends in the portfolio, noting areas of high impact and areas of lackluster performance.  Upon analysis of the underlying investment processes for each investment, we identified opportunities to streamline investment selection and increase alignment with strategy going forward.