Publications

A capability statement concerning our work on Agriculture in Africa which focuses on equity and growth for smallholders.

La présente note thématique est basée sur les expériences de la SNV en matière d’appui aux pasteurs en Afrique, en vue d’améliorer leurs moyens d’existence. Elle se fonde sur une large gamme d’études de cas qui, à travers le continent, mettent en évidence un certain nombre de traits communs aux
pratiques des pasteurs. La collaboration avec les pasteurs nous a appris qu’ils ne sont pas les traditionalistes que l’on décrit souvent. Ils s’adaptent au changement rapide comme tout autre groupe en Afrique. La présente note met en exergue l’éventail de stratégies d’adaptation, d’options de commercialisation et de mécanismes institutionnels qui ont cours à l’heure actuelle au sein de ces communautés. Ces expériences démontrent que le travail de la SNV a permis d’apporter des améliorations  tangibles aux moyens d’existence des éleveurs, tout en augmentant leur contribution au développement écon omique dans certains des milieux les plus difficiles en Afrique aujourd’hui.

In June 2010 SNV, together with IFAD, organised a conference on ‘brokering knowledge for upscaling best practices in Inclusive Markets Access in East & Southern Africa’, which brought together over 70 participants from 11 African countries from donor, public and private sector to share experiences. This report summarizes the main issues discussed during the conference, of which the main focus was seeking to bring about systemic change for larger-scale sustainable inclusive markets with a wider significance.

This publication has been produced as part of a series under the Building Advisory Practice (BAP) initiative of SNV East Africa; conceptualized and supported by a team of SNV staff and advisers. Lead consultant for the BAP initiative is Rob Sinclair.

Livestock production is key for the pastoralist Toposa people living in Eastern South Sudan. Their animals, especially cattle, are an important source of wealth and social prestige but this also makes them unwilling to sell the cattle, locking up the potentially valuable income that could help improve their lives. A local community group – Riwoto Cooperative Society – was set up to support the local community in improving the marketing of livestock, as well as selling animal products such as milk. SNV supported them with a series of activities aimed to help strengthen the cooperative’s capability, and ensure it continues to grow in size and effectiveness. Interventions helped shift opinions of community members, which has especially impacted women who now participate in livestock marketing – once a role traditionally taken on by men.

Children as Change Agents for Gender Parity in Education - Eastern Equatoria, South Sudan

Delivering Basic Services in Southern Sudan (Education, and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene)

Despite various constraints to Southern Sudan’s economic growth, there is huge potential in the agriculture, forestry and livestock sectors. Trade remained limited due to a lack of infrastructure, limited financial services, and low levels of entrepreneurial skills, but these conditions are starting to change. Gum acacia has the potential to make significant contributions to poverty alleviation in many parts of Southern Sudan, which is why SNV conducted a value chain study for various potential sub-sectors, including Gum acacia. The case describes how, together with the local Development Association Toposa, SNV mobilised local communities and collectors and formalized them into cooperative societies, strengthened their organisational capacity and supported them to negotiate favourable prices.

Could community based natural resource development and economic activities be tools for enhancing peaceful co-existence for notoriously conflicting pastoral communities? This is the question that our client, Galcholo Community Based Rehabilitation, attempted to answer through an innovative project – Gum for Peace. Together with SNV, Galcholo undertook a Natural Resource Assessment, used to inform policy formulation for the Gum Acacia sector; SNV supported Galcholo in understanding trade dynamics between local communities; and SNV organised a community training on how to harvest, dry and store Gum Acacia; and SNV helped to establish linkages with the international market.

SNV Netherlands Development Organization subscribes to these developments and devotes considerable part of its advisory services for capacity development in the tourism sector. SNV advisors work with a variety of organizations, stakeholders and actors, such as Ministries of Tourism, Tourism Boards, Hotel Associations, Community Based Tourism Organizations as well as with Associations of Tour Operators and many others. Against this background SNV East and Southern Africa brought together practitioners in the tourism sector to present and exchange experiences around the issue of Government Incentives to Boost Local Economic Impacts of Tourism.

This document is the outcome of that initiative. SNV and Rwanda’s ORTPN hosted a regional tourism workshop in Kigali Rwanda in October 2006. The workshop drew on ‘action research’ by SNV advisors in 6 countries and brought together SNV partners and advisors from East and Southern African countries.

This practice brief shares SNV's experiences in supporting pastoralists in Africa to improve their livelihoods. It bringstogether a wide variety of cases from across the continent that draw out a number of commonalities in pastoralist practices, for instance their management of water resources in Tanzania and Niger. But it highlights as well the diversity of the contexts within which pastoralism operates, as seen in the contrasting scales of dairy processing in Kenya, Niger and Burkina Faso, or the different roles played by local brokers in the livestock markets of Southern Sudan and Benin. Working with pastoralists has taught us that they are not the traditionalists they are often depicted to be. They are adapting to rapid change as much as any other group in Africa. This Practice Brief highlights a variety of adaptation strategies, commercialisation options and institutional arrangements that are currently in use. These diverse experiences demonstrate that SNV support has helped bring about tangible improvements in pastoralist livelihoods, whilst increasing their contribution to economic  development in some of the most challenging environments in Africa today.

SNV’s approach to development is principally to work in an advisory capacity with meso-level organizations. Taking on this advisory role has considerable implications for the way that SNV handles issues. In essence, it is the quality of the advisory service itself, rather than the specific knowledge to be shared or transferred, that makes managing such issues successful. Clearly SNV advisers must be able provide guidance and support to partners and their staff to do this. At the same time SNV seeks to learn from other organizations that may be emphasizing the advisory process.

East African SNV programmes have undertaken an initiative to build new models for advisory practice, what we call ‘Building Advisory Practice’ (BAP). The initiative has examined in detail what characteristics constitute a quality advisory practice, what others are doing that SNV would like to emulate, and the best way to share the knowledge gained with the wider public. Meeting these objectives means building new ways of learning and sharing within SNV and with external partners and knowledge systems. This publication on private sector development is a major product in that endeavour.

The publication, as with the whole BAP process, has involved the energy, commitment and patience of literally hundreds of persons, from partner organizations as well as SNV staff, many of whom are acknowledged at the back of the booklet.