Brokering development: Enabling factors for public-private-producer partnerships in agricultural value chains
This publication (PDF) from IFAD and IDS seeks to understand how public-private-producer partnerships (PPPPs) in agricultural value chains can be designed and implemented to achieve more sustained increases in income for smallholder farmers. PPPPs involve cooperation between government and business agents, working together to reach a common goal or carry out a specific task, while jointly assuming risks and responsibilities, and sharing resources and competences. They also explicitly involve farmers (or producers), hence the fourth ‘P’ is added to the more familiar designation of ‘public-private partnerships’. The research also considers the role of PPPP brokers as independent facilitators who support the process of exploring, designing and implementing PPPPs. The research is based on four case studies of agricultural value chain PPPPs developed through projects financed by the IFAD in Ghana, Indonesia, Rwanda and Uganda. The aim was to gain insights into the outcomes of the PPPPs so far, and how these have been influenced by the way the PPPP was designed, implemented and brokered. The study lists eight enabling factors for PPPPs, for example: the need for prioritization of farmer ownership; ensuring a clear market pull; and building capacity to respond to changes in complex market systems. Overall, the conclusion is that overall agricultural value chain PPPPs are a variation, on, rather than a departure from other value chain approaches and therefore bring similar opportunities and challenges.