Publications

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.

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.

Pineapple cultivation holds great potential for improving farmers’ livelihoods, if they can control diseases. An outbreak of pineapple wilt in the Western region of Uganda made many small-scale producers stop growing the crop, not knowing how to manage the wilt. This case describes how SNV worked to re-energize the process with the help of large regional producer groups and local researchers. Increasing producers’ confidence in their abilities to manage wilt was essential.

Understanding and developing value chains is receiving more attention as a systems-based approach for accelerating and scaling-up development processes. By their nature, value chains involve and connect multiple actors. A value chain approach is, additionally, applicable across economic as well as social domains. In this interesting case, Duncan Mwesige describes a capacity-development intervention in an agricultural value chain in Uganda. He shows how particular multi-stakeholder processes (MSPs) were pivotal in helping chain-connected actors to develop new forms of cooperation that strongly improved efficiency, trust and pro-poor results at many levels. The practitioner will also find a number of practical lessons on the application of MSP methodologies.

Click here for more information on 'Capacity Development in Practice - Complete Publication'

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.

The document presents the summaries of the 12 case studies used to illustrate SNV practices which contributed to the writing of the practice brief N° 4 focusing on Gender and Agriculture (see: www.snvworld.org/en/sectors/agriculture/publications/gender-and-agriculture-practice-brief). The summaries provide an insight of the gender issue and what practices SNV implemented to address to this specific constraint. The document also offers you hyperlinks at the end of each summary to enable you read the full intervention.

Despite markets available and a range of actors involved, not enough oilseeds is being produced to meet consumer demands. The main constraints are a limited supply of seeds for planting, and secondly financing for smallholders, to get access to planting seeds. The case describes how SNV partnered with Centenary Bank, a financial institution that provides business development services and financial services to smaller farmers. In addition, they partnered with VECO East Africa, a development organisation promoting the growing and marketing of sunflowers. SNV and its partners were able to broker contractual linkages between farmers and private businesses, as well as linkages with the Centenary Bank to extend financing tailored to farmers’ needs.

The objective of this assignment is to facilitate the selection of an appropriate design for domestic biogas installations to be supported by the proposed programme in Uganda. In particular, the assignment addresses the following in detail:
• A proposal of the criteria for the selection of the most appropriate technology (performance factors);
• An overview of prices of (un-) skilled labour and construction materials in those locations suitable and
• potential for biogas promotion;
• A proposal of an appropriate design for domestic biogas plants;
• A proposal of an appropriate plant-size range for domestic biogas installations;
• Some detailed construction drawings for the proposed design in its proposed sizes;
• A detailed Bill of Quantities for the
• proposed design in its proposed sizes, and;
• A provision of a complete plant-costing overview for the proposed design in its proposed sizes, with a clear indication which costs can be born by the participating households in kind.

Most of the information is gathered through a survey that identifies prices of needed materials, agreement on performance factors and matching of appropriate existing plant designs with the performance factors as preparation for the constructors Workshop, a field visit and 2- day workshop were a number of relevant stakeholders participated.

This annual report provides more detail of the strategic position choices SNV made in East and Southern Africa in 2007 and illustrates our approach with case studies from our practice.

Towards the end of 2008, SNV Uganda signed a partnership agreement with Mukwano group of companies to implement an inclusive business model for enhanced growth, equity and competitiveness within the oilseed value chain. Initially, the company used to import seed for only farmers it had contracted to work with, but currently imports sunflower planting seeds for all the farmers interested in growing sunflower country wide. In the period up to last year, Mukwano supported an oilseed out grower’s scheme of approximately 45,000 individual smallholder farmers in the mid-north region, and has a processing plant located in Lira with capacity to crush 200 metric tones of raw material per day.

Energy in Africa capability statement

Biogas for better life: an African initiative. Report on the feasibility for a national household biogas commercialization program in Uganda (2007).

Initial screening activities and field work show that Uganda offers one of the best near-term prospects for biogas commercialization in the region. The existence of policies supporting the rural energy investments and institutional mechanisms that have been built through earlier work by the government and private sectors in Uganda, together with the energy crisis being faced by the country, provide a conducive entry point for an integrated household-level biogas program.

This report contains 8 chapters in total. Chapter 1 gives an introduction. Chapter 2 lays out the study design along with the objectives, methodology and limitations. The background of Uganda is presented in Chapter 3, with elaboration of the physical climate, politics and culture, the economy, the agricultural sector, the energy sector, the environment and health and education. Chapter 4 elaborates on the existing
knowledge and practices with the history of biogas, the biodigester models in Uganda and the costs of biogas plants. The potential demand for biogas plants is the subject of Chapter 5, with government policies and programmes, the private sector, the appropriate size and design of a plant, and financial and economic analysis included. Chapter 6 goes into the financing of plants, looking at the microfinance sector, the government microfinance programme, and the funds available. The potential stakeholders are outlined in Chapter 7 with government agencies, NGO, farmer’s organisations, private sector companies and microfinance institutions as possible actors. The final Chapter 8 gives an outline for a national biogas programme.