Regional planning meeting on ‘Scaling-Up Climate-Smart Agricultural Solutions for Cereals and Livestock Farmers in Southern Africa – Building partnership for successful implementation’,13–15 September 2016, Johannesburg, South Africa

1. Engaging the Private Sector in
Scaling up Climate Smart
Agricultural Solutions in Southern
Africa

2. Why Engage the Private Sector?
The private sector is important for a number of reasons:
• Plays a central role in value and supply chains;
• A major investor;
• Provides a strong link to the market place;
• Ability to go to scale with global supply chains;
• Has access to technology, skills and know how;
• Has Access to quality control systems;
• Can be a major sources of income in the form of grant
funds coming form of corporate social responsibility funds;
• Can share risks with other stakeholders;
• Has the ability to leverage local to global scale; and,
• Provides potential for long term financial sustainability.

3. Understanding the Private Sector
• Wide range of players from local SMEs in the agro-food
sector to global MNC working on the food system;
• Important to understand who are the private sector players
involved in each stage of the value and supply chains and
their market position ;
• Investing time and resources in engaging with the private
sector and understanding the value proposition critical;
• Partnerships with the private sector have potential benefits
and risks, they should only be entered when these are clear
on all sides;
• Partnerships that are only on paper or for visibility should be
avoided;
• Business models that have a realistic ROI are central to
understanding the value proposition for engagement with
the private sector.

4. What Are the Emerging Opportunities
to Engage the Private Sector?
A few have emerged so far:
1. Weather insurance part of a bundle of services for
farmers;
1. ICT based information services like weather linked to
mobile providers service delivery;
1. Private sector engagement in livestock research;
1. Partnerships with the private sector for dissemination of
new seed varieties.

5. Key Questions for Discussion
1. Can we identify more opportunities for private
sector engagement?
1. Are there opportunities for PPPs?
1. How can we engage donors to support new
partnerships?
1. Can we develop farmers organizations and
unions to play a bigger role in building
partnerships with the private sector?