AFD has been supporting Guinean for nearly 20 years in the development of the mangrove rice sector in Lower Guinea. To allow the formulation of a new intervention in this complex and fragile environment that is the mangrove, an evaluation and capitalization of past interventions is realized.

The objectives of the mission are:
i) Carrying out an evaluation and capitalization study of the support projects for the development of the rice sector in Lower Guinee financed by the AFD from 1997 to the present day;
ii) The development of a gender-sensitive strategy and intervention methodology that takes into account lessons learned from previous experiences;
iii) Identification of factors limiting the development of the rice sector in Lower Guinea and the constraints faced by women;
iv) The definition and implementation of the feasibility study of a future project.

The development of the mangrove rice sector illustrates perfectly the stakes of sustainable development, articulating environmental issues (protection of mangrove and hillsides), economic (income generation for family farms and other stakeholders in the rice sector, competitiveness of the sector in front of imports) and social (urban-rural balance, place of women and young people). The evaluation and capitalization of past interventions and the feasibility of a new intervention must therefore involve a large panel of experts in order to question the models of development.

This process of evaluation, capitalization and feasibility study is conducted in a participatory way and in close collaboration with national agencies and the agricultural profession.

(IRAM: 59%; BRLi: 33%; INSUCO: 7%; APDRA: 1%)

IRAM has set up a consortium comprising an engineering consulting firm (BRLi), a well-established design firm in Guinea (INSUCO), a fish farming NGO (APDRA) and a few independent consultants to provide experts in the fields Agro-economics, rural development, environment, economics, anthropology, gender, social water management, financing, networks, land, fish farming, salt farming, agricultural advice and producer organizations. 66% of the expertise is provided by international experts familiar with Guinea, while 34% is provided by national experts. As leader of the consortium, IRAM provides the majority of the technical expertise (59%), coordinates the whole project in relation to the client and is responsible for the deliverables.

The process is conducted in four phases :
1) inception and document review,
2) evaluation and assessment,
3) capitalization and proposals,
4) feasibility. An important field work is carried out to visit the achievements and meet all the actors (70% of field-work and 30% at the headquarters).
Multi-stakeholder workshops for restitution and debates are regularly organized in order to share findings, enrich thinking, test the proposals and thus guarantee ownership of the results by the actors.

In addition to "standard" deliverables (start-up, evaluation, pre-feasibility and feasibility reports and technical reports), IRAM set up a capitalization website using its Jessica tool.

Context: Poverty levels among the general population have worsened as a result of the ongoing political crisis in Madagascar, which began in 2009. Poverty has increased significantly in several regions - especially Analamanga, which is home to the capital city Antananarivo. This is the most densely populated city in Madagascar, with over 2 million inhabitants. Retail prices are high due to the chronic gap between supply and urban demand for certain market garden products, traditional poultry, fresh milk and fish, and fuelwood. Producers face multiple constraints, many capture very little of the added value created by value chains, and are seeing their environment deteriorate due to the effects of erosion. All these factors are exacerbating the insecurity of a large number of consumers and agroforestry producers around Antananarivo.

The 5-year, €20m Antananarivo area Agroforestry support programme (ASA) was designed to help resolve these problems. Its global objective is to make a sustainable contribution to poverty reduction in Madagascar and help protect the natural environment. Its specific objective is to improve producer incomes in the Antananarivo area and help local people access a secure market for agricultural produce and fuelwood.
Three results need to be achieved in order to realise this specific objective:
R 1. Producers and other actors involved in agricultural and forestry value chains are organised and have an increased operational capacity.
R 2. Producers face an enabling environment for secured investments.
R 3. Quantitative and qualitative improvements in agricultural, livestock, fishery and forestry production.

The programme aims to tackle major constraints in production and outlets, by supporting a number of voluntary initiatives in agroforestry value chains selected for their potential to create added value: market gardening, free-range poultry production, dairy sector, aquaculture, fruit farming and forestry. The post-project strategy is to transfer responsibility to farmers’ organisations via established networks or existing farmers’ organisations.

DUEM is responsible for direct decentralised management of the ASA programme: mobilizing operators through calls for proposals (CUMA, fruit farming, free-range poultry farming, fisheries and fuelwood), awarding direct grants to SNGF (producing plants for forestation activities) and the Malagasy Dairy Board (support for the dairy sector), and delegating the subsidy to AFD to implement the land component. DUEM is supported and advised by a programme Coordination Unit that is responsible for overall coordination, harmonising the different approaches, certain crosscutting functions and the following activities:

• overseeing coordination between the different value chain components and the land component
• establishing the baseline situation in the intervention zone
• helping evaluate proposals for ‘value chain support’ and selecting grant beneficiaries
• awareness raising and support to ensure that programme activities take account of crosscutting issues such as gender, environment, climate change and governance
• designing and implementing a communication and programme visibility plan
• designing an overall mechanism to monitor and evaluate programme actions, monitoring activities in the field, measuring the results and impacts generated by the project across the entire intervention zone
• preparing steering committee meetings
• facilitating monitoring by the ministries and ensuring that the programme is consistent with their sub-sectoral policies.

The Coordination Unit is responsible for the following project management activities as per the programme estimates:

• supporting interprofessional dialogue in the timber sector
• media activities
• advice and support to input distributors
• strengthening market information systems
• putting producers in touch with financial services
• product labelling
• demand-led technical support for all operators in the value chains.

The project supports the implementation of part of the National Rice Sector and Rice Export Development Policy.
It comprises 5 components as follows:

• Support the development of professional and inter-professional organizations in the Cambodian rice sector,
• Improve Cambodian Rice quality consistency and international market recognition : development of quality standards and quality label (collective trademark) and of control and certification mechanisms.
• Support the involvement Farmer Organizations in the commercialization of paddy,
• Up-grade Rural Development Bank,
• Project Management and Coordination.

Support overall coordination and management of the project:

• Project management, organization of steering committee and consultation meetings.- Monitoring and Evaluation of activities, and reporting.
• Development of ToR for external consultants and organization of procurement process (AFD procedures),
• Coordination with other stakeholders interventions in the sector.

Technical expertise for the implementation of all the project components:

• Institutional advise and strengthening of capacities of professional and inter-professionnal organizations (Federations of Farmer Organizations, Federation of Cambodian Rice Exporters, Cambodian Rice Federation).
• Development of FO Federations services to their members.
• Coordination of market study and promotion events. Support the development of a certification mark for Cambodian Jasmine rice and the elaboration of compliance control mechanisms.
• Development and facilitation of the implementation of pilot innovative action for paddy commercialization by or with Farmer Organizations (development of commercial activities of cooperatives or other farmer organizations, contract farming agreements…).
• Development of an organic paddy supply chain through Contract Farming between cooperatives and rice exporters: 19 cooperatives involved, 2 exporters, supply of more than 8,700 tons of organic paddy (certify for both EU and USA organic standards), and seeting up of a sustainable Cooperative Union.
• Support to Farmer Water User Organizations on paddy commercialization activities.
• Development of MAFF Manual on Contract Farming in Cambodia.
• Supervision of consultants and contribution to the institutional consolidation and up-grading of the Rural Development Bank.
• Development of an innovative mechanism of credit dedicated to Agricultural Cooperatives within the Rural Development Bank + guarantee mechanism.

The general aim of the project is to improve the supply of local milk in urban centers in the Sahel, in favor of small suburban farmers.
The specific aim is to support the collection, the quality control and the commercialization of local milk on the outskirts of Niamey by an innovative multi-collection centers controlled by local farmers. The direct beneficiaries are: (i) Cooperative organizations of farmers-producers and the breeders who deliver to collection centers, (ii) women involved in the industry (iii) buyers (industry, dairies) and (iv) consumers from Niamey.
Expected Result 1: 1000 families benefit from the collection centers a technical and economic support to the production and marketing and an access to inputs.
Expected Result 2: two milk collection centers are functional (technical, economical, financial, social, institutional and legal viability)
Expected Result 3: an interprofessional dialogue promotes the organization of the dairy industry to meet the demands of processing units;
Expected Result 4: capitalization and sub-regional trade help to strengthen the local milk sectors.
The project will run for three years. It is part of a project (APROLAN, financing of the Belgian Technical Cooperation) covering the entire industry, which will both synergies of action and a more efficient implementation (human and local resources shared)

AFD, CFSI funding

IRAM performs two annual monitoring missions and handles remote monitoring.
The expertise is mobilized primarily on the sector approach and the monitoring-evaluation device as well as the project funding device.