Opportunities to achieve genuine African development through markets eMkambo

IMAGINE 15 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that are working in Buhera district coming together to identify groundnuts and small grains as key economic drivers for the district. They go on to set up a viable community industry based on these economic drivers. Imagine another group of 12 NGOs working in a single county of Kenya identifying fruits as economic drivers in that county and going on to set up a vibrant fruit value addition industry. Imagine the kind of difference similar initiatives by several NGOs in Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, Ethiopia, Uganda and every African country would achieve.

Besides developing domestic and regional markets, these efforts will cultivate markets in western donor countries where NGOs working in Africa get their funding. The fact that development organisations prefer competing in implementing piece-meal fragmented projects instead of coming together for holistic and comprehensive interventions indicates lack of genuine interest to develop African communities through existing abundant natural resources.

Market analyses should guide investment

Before writing proposals to donors for implementing agricultural projects in Africa, development agencies should first invest in analysing the market in terms of what to produce, when, where and for who.

Such details will properly guide investment and avoid cases where some investments are made in areas where commodities just grow naturally with no need for further investment in production but more on the demand or market side. For instance, what new knowledge can an external investor or development organisation bring to a community where people have been producing legumes, small grains, goats and other commodities very well for generations without any external support?

In these situations, thorough evidence gathering can reveal that the biggest need is the market not production knowledge which is already abundant. Where indigenous fruits grow naturally, investing in the market can assist in turning that resource into a viable economic driver.

Compared to private companies, it appears NGOs are often not interested in detailed investment analyses because donor money is not usually associated with return on investment.

If they took investment analyses as a priority, most NGOs would notice that investments in high producing regions should focus on developing markets and turning value chains into viable economic drivers as opposed to supporting individuals through beneficiary models. For instance, banana ripening and packaging facilities can be ideal investments for a community of banana producers as well as appropriate transport whose absence could contribute to more than 10% of the total losses.

Instead of continuing to pour resources on the production side, development organisations should ask themselves where can we invest postproduction? As farmers produce commodities, their growth is found on the market. Data should be collected to show the best way of synergising farmers in one region of the country with those in another region so that they do not engage in cut-throat competition in the same market. It is unfortunate that most development organisations are not bringing anything new besides just going along what communities have been doing for decades and selling in the same dilapidated markets. Some NGOs have been in the same communities for more than 20 years doing the same thing but communities have remained in the same state of poverty, if not worse off. Where is the conscience of Africans who work in these NGOs, knowing very well that they are squandering opportunities to change the lives of their relatives? For how long will African poverty continue to be used to siphon donor money to enrich individuals?

From beneficiary models to community investment models

Many NGOs continue to work through a beneficiary model which selects a few households in a community for support on the pretext that they are vulnerable. What is ignored is that these beneficiaries are part of the entire community and depend on other community members who may not be part of the new project. Introducing an irrigation scheme or nutrition garden for a few beneficiaries in a community where everybody does horticulture can be counter-productive because the new project will continue to compete with farmers outside the project in the same market. It might make sense for the development organisation supporting the selected beneficiaries to develop a community investment model that embraces all farmers in the community including those outside the project who are already producing the same commodities using their own resources.

Lack of attention to market development has seen investments in horticultural production falling into the same trap as ordinary horticulture under which communities have been producing their own vegetables for decades. Producers in new investments like nutrition gardens using the same knowledge and technology are not getting a new lease of life because there is no market due to limited interest in funding information and knowledge gathering in order to understand the market.