Publications

Looking back at the history of SNV in Rwanda since its inception in 1981

SNV Ethiopia supports fruit marketing cooperatives in Southern Ethopia since 2007. They facilitate business to business arrangements, business planning and improved operational management, and access to critical services. This case describes the results of the support to two fruit cooperatives focusing respectively on mangos and highland fruits.

This case study describes the transformation of coffee cooperative COCAMU from being a donor driven association to a business oriented cooperative. COCAMU’s mission is to contribute to a positive change in the livelihoods of its members through the improvement of quality and quantity of the coffee production, and accessing better markets. SNV Rwanda has been providing capacity development services, with the aim of strengthening the organisational and institutional capacities of COCAMU in the coffee industry.

Ninety per cent of the household in Samburu District practice traditional pastoralism. For most pastoralists, livestock is not produced for subsistence alone, but livestock sales ensure conversion of the livestock value to cash currency when the need arises. However, as is common in most pastoralist communities, inefficiencies in livestock value chain result in low returns for producers. SNV, in partnership with Samburu Integrated Development programme (SIDEP), a local NGO, and Samburu County Council explored establishing primary markets with the aim of increasing income for producers and the county council, without compromising the quality of the produce. This case describes the successes and lessons learned from this business model.

The African Biogas Partnership Programme (ABPP) is a Private Public Partnership (PPP) between DGIS, SNV and Hivos aiming at supporting the construction of some 70,500 digesters over a period of 5 years. The purpose of this partnership is to improve living conditions of households in six African countries.

A monitoring plan which focuses on measuring the expected outputs (number of biogas digesters, biogas construction enterprises, trainings etc.) has been set up. Besides outputs, the quantitative and qualitative results on outcome and impact level, from the perspective of the end-users will have to be measured. To be able to assess these results in the future, baseline data needs to be collected. This study sets the baseline for evaluating the outcomes and impacts of the programme. This baseline study establishes a reliable database on socio-economic and gender aspects in Uganda; serves as a basis for monitoring and evaluation of programme activities; enriches monitoring and evaluation through development of participatory indicators; and provides benchmark data for an Impact Assessment of the UDBP at a point in time that remains to be defined.

Chapters of this study are respectively: Introduction; Baseline Study Approach and Methodology; Socio-Economic Characteristics; Current Energy Situation; Gender Dimensions Related to Adoption of Biogas Technology; Policy and Institutional Mechanisms; Summary of Study Findings; Developing Indicators; References.

This case study describes the innovative mainstream approach used by SNV Mozambique to link the tourism There is a follow up case in 2009 entitled "The case of the Programmatic Approach in Tourism– Inhambane peninsula, Mozambique (“A Terra de Boa Gente (The land of good people) – PART II)"

This Working Paper presents key findings and case studies from the partnership on Domestic Accountability between the Minister for Development Cooperation of The Netherlands and SNV. The partnership was initiated in 2008, and has been operational since in four countries in East and Southern Africa, i.e. Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zambia.

This Working Paper germinated in a meeting in Dar es Salaam (December 2010), bringing together SNV staff from various countries involved in the Domestic Accountability partnership with their respective Netherlands Embassies.

This case study focuses on the northern part of Ghana, where for many women the main source of income is the production of shea butter processed from shea nuts. In order to create alternative funding sources for female shea harvesters, SNV supported the development of a community-based micro finance initiative ‘Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs). SNV provided capacity-building to more than 480 VSLAs, equipping them with the skills to manage their own saving and credit system, and enabling them to engage in contractual arrangements.

In West Africa, domestic investors acquire plots of farm land using their connections, powers and resources. Some policy makers view these investments as a shift towards agribusiness and state that these “new actors” will modernise and professionalize farming and smallholders are asked to make space. Who are those new actors, how did they obtain the land, under what conditions, and how are they investing? Why are authorities engaging in these land transactions and what are the consequences for local farming, rural livelihoods and the environment? This paper presents results of a 2010 survey on the acquisition of rural land by agro-investors in Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. It explores implications for agricultural “modernisation” and discusses local responses to regulate this phenomenon.

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

Although they do not receive much recognition, agro-dealers are major economic drives in rural areas. This case describes SNV’s experiences with the Rural Agriculture Revitalisation Programme (RARP). The programme is designed with other partners to encourage wholesalers to avail inputs to smallholder farmers by placing inputs in agro-dealer stores close to rural farmers. The programme is operating in all eight rural provinces of Zimbabwe.