Rural Business Development Services, by John Belt, Royal Tropical Institute)

2. Rural Business
Development Services
John Belt, j.belt@kit.nl
CTA Making the Connection Conference
7 November 2012, Addis Ababa

3. KIT and value chain development
• Amsterdam-based knowledge institute on
sustainable development
• Track record in value chains:
• Writeshop publications
• Value chain portal
• Advisory trajectories
• Capacity development projects
• Learning/knowledge management
Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl

4. Chain Empowerment:
Supporting African farmers to develop markets
Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl

5. Trading Up: building cooperation
between farmers and traders in Africa
Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl

6. Value Chain Finance Book

7. Challenging chains to change

8. Learning
and
Earning:
Learning
alliance
Ethiopia
Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl

9. Rural business development services
• Farming as a business
• Entrepreneurial farmer needs services
• How can we learn and combine the
lessons from the past?
• Specifically from past promotion of public
extension services & urban business
development services
Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl

10. What are RBDS?
Rural / Agri-Business / Agricultural
Business Development Services are
services that improve the performance of
an agricultural enterprise, be it individual
or cooperative, in its access to markets,
financial services, and enhanced
agribusiness environments
Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl
From: UNDP

11. Writeshop in Addis Ababa
• Brought together 15 cases from
practioners across sub-Sahara Africa
• From different sectors, applying different
business models
• Focus on:
• Inclusiveness
• Financial sustainability
• Accountability
• Impact
Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl

12. Some key issues from the writeshop
• Pluralist systems involving complex
private/public/NGO/donor relations
• Highly diverse business models
• Always combination of business models
• Traditional rural providers embrace market-
orientation and entrepreneurship
• Urban business providers go rural
• High diversity in services, no specialization
• How to get and keep qualified staff
• Organizing quality assurance
Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl

13. Writeshop participants
Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl

14. Follow-up with CTA partners
• Involves specialists from agricultural
universities across sub-Sahara Africa
• RBDS trends and opportunities at
country level
• Focus on:
• Capacity development of service
providers
• Supportive policy measures
Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl

15. Thank you for your attention
Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl