Attach_8-USAID_Ghana_FTF_Activities.pdf

Agriculture Development and Value Chain Enhancement (ADVANCE)

The ADVANCE project, re‐focused to support Feed the Future, focuses on increasing the competitiveness of the maize, rice and soy value chains in northern Ghana. The project is designed around three areas of interventions: 1) value chain competitiveness; 2) market access and development; and 3) financial services, and takes a value chain approach to increase efficiency, value‐addition and value and volumes of product delivered to market. ADVANCE aims to benefit smallholder farmers through a market‐driven, value chain approach. This strategy creates commercial opportunities for target farmers that result in access to growth markets; long‐ term relationships with businesses investing in the value chain;

improved access to market information; improved access to services and products such as financing, high‐quality inputs, new technologies, and mechanization services; and improved ability to meet market requirements. The end result is increased productivity and profitability for smallholder farmers. The central approach of ADVANCE’s strategy is to focus on end‐market opportunities that provide compelling incentives for businesses throughout the value chain to invest in the chain, including upgrading their own performance.

ADVANCE activities include:

Facilitate linkages between markets and producers to improve efficiency of market linkages and the flow of information and services

Build the technical and business management capacity of firms to improve the efficiency of their supply‐chain management, processing.

Facilitate access to finance to upgrade facilities and in supply chain management practices

Strengthen relationships between nucleus farmers, aggregators, outgrowers and buyers to build reliable market channels

With the Ghana Grains Council (GGC), improve the consistent use of grades and standards, post‐ harvest handling practices, and storage availability and management.

Assist input and equipment suppliers to increase the availability and adoption of improved inputs; develop the capacity of smallholders through training and demonstration farms;

facilitate investment; build the financial and business management capacity of input suppliers and equipment firms; and promote increased mechanization.

Build capacity of financial institutions in understanding the agricultural market, risk assessment, and cash flow analysis and develop new finance products.

Improve seed producer access to foundation seed and align foundation and certified seed production with end market requirements for volumes and varieties of seed

Build the technical and organizational capacity of input and equipment firms to test new products and troubleshoot production issues; provide their clientele with information on product benefits and use; and promote new products and services through demonstration plots.

Increase numbers of communication channels used to disseminate information, including radio, SMS and drama

Ghana Commercial Agriculture Project. GCAP will be a Government of Ghana owned and managed program to facilitate commercial agricultural investments in the North of Ghana. GCAP will be co‐ financed through a USAID grant and a World Bank loan to the GOG. GCAP is structured to carry out activities jointly with large private investors, both Ghanaian and international, and through these private investors create viable market solutions to the country’s agricultural challenges. A top‐down approach to value chain development will be used to develop a “Growth Pole” to spread benefits more widely, e.g., from commercial (nucleus) to smallholder farmers. Activities supported by GCAP will focus on the

Accra Plains (WB funds) and on the North of Ghana (USAID and WB funds). Public Private Partnerships

(PPPs) will be a key instrument to engage the private sector.

The three components of GCAP are:

1) Strengthening private investment promotion and PPPs for infrastructure investment and other facilitation activities;

2) Securing PPPs and smallholder linkages in the Accra Plains; and

3) Facilitating private sector investments and smallholder linkages in Ghana’s North. USAID funds support components 1 and 3.

Analyses are required to more precisely identify investment opportunities for investors under GCAP.

Some possible focus areas:

Intensification of rice, maize and soy production

Use of nucleus farmer with outgrower schemes to increase efficiency of production of inclusive agriculture

• Agriculture Business Centers with warehouses, drying, milling, other value added services

• Irrigation schemes with dams

• Roads and other transport systems

• Power

The proposed model for GCAP investors would be to set up PPPs with private sector investors that will transform their interest into actual investments. In return for government or donor support on land access, feeder road investments or patient capital, the investor/nucleus farmer would be expected to farm maize, rice and soya and support smallholder outgrowers with a range of services (inputs, extension, storage, post harvest, marketing). In order to extend the flexibility of GCAP, USAID will more closely integrate all its agricultural program activities in the North to support and expand on the GCAP investments and PPPs.

Financing Ghanaian Agricultural Production (FinGAP). FinGAP will support the identification and realization of private investments important to modernization of the rice, maize, and soya value chains, to the benefit of rural entrepreneurs and smallholder producers engaged in outgrower schemes and other contract farming arrangements. It will take a comprehensive and integrated approach to facilitating agriculture related investment, engaging a broad range of Ghanaian FIs (banks, private equity firms, leasing companies, investment funds, etc.) in providing agricultural financing. FinGAP interventions are expected to mitigate both perceived and actual risks to agricultural lending, and increase the availability of financial products that are appropriate for the intended investment. The project will operate on both the supply and demand sides through two integrated components: (i) an

Agribusiness Development Unit and (ii) Agri‐Finance Unit.

The Agribusiness Development Unit will support agricultural enterprises to develop their ideas and create well‐managed, financially sustainable operations, thereby creating a pipeline of investment opportunities. The Unit will provide agribusinesses and commercial farmers with both pre‐ and post‐ investment support; including advisory services; market information; and BDS.

The Agri‐Finance Unit provides capacity building support and incentives to financial institutions (FIs) to expand their capacity to undertake agriculture related investment. The Finance Unit will seek to motivate FIs to better serve the agriculture sector with a number of tools offered through the Financial

Incentives Facility. FinGAP will support Ghanaian banks, NBFIs, as well as specialty investors (impact investors) and venture capital firms to expand their capacity to undertake agriculture related investment and/or to develop agricultural lending units and agricultural certification programs.

Ghana Strategic Support Program (GSSP)

Currently, the primary mechanism for agricultural policy research and data collection and analysis is the

Ghana Strategic Support Program (GSSP), implemented by the International Food Policy Research

Institute (IFPRI). GSSP addresses specific knowledge gaps concerning agricultural and rural development strategy implementation and methods to improve the data and knowledge base for applied policy research. The program focuses on agricultural research and policy platforms to modernize the agriculture sector in Ghana.

GSSP works with the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) to improve the agricultural statistical system by developing analytical tools that help decision makers evaluate the impact of strategies on poverty reduction and food security. GSSP assisted with developing a 15‐year plan for surveys and censuses for the GSS, and strategies for improved household/district level agricultural data collection for MOFA's Statistics, Research, and Information Directorate (SRID). The recent GSSP/SRID program was piloted in 20 districts in 2011 and will conduct a follow‐up pilot in late

2012.

This Contract will need to work closely with GSSP to build on their capacity building and data collection efforts with the GOG and fill the gaps to effectively implement and evaluate the METASIP. To date, GSSP has worked on capacity building, data generation, and policy analysis. This project will fill the gaps through quick response policy analysis facilitation by working with GOG, private sector and civil society.

In addition, this contract will have a much stronger focus on technical and institutional capacity building and play an important coordinating role to assure that that the GSSSP, as well as other organizations working in policy research and capacity building.

Business Sector Advocacy Challenge (BUSAC)

The Business Sector Advocacy Challenge (BUSAC) Fund aims to enhance the capacity of business associations, trade unions, and the business media to research and advocate effectively for change by engaging in dialogue on the legal and regulatory conditions that impede business operations. In operates primary through a small grants fund. BUSAC I, designed by Danish International Development

Assistance (DANIDA) in 2004, became a multi‐donor program in 2005 with support from USAID and the

European Union. By the end of the first round of project in 2010, BUSAC I issued 362 grants to producers organizations, trade and business associations, and community‐based organizations.

Building on the successes of BUSAC I, USAID is partnering with DANIDA through a new delegated cooperation agreement to implement a four‐year activity called BUSAC II. BUSAC II will continue to work on improving the business environment in Ghana to facilitate private sector growth, including in the agricultural sector. BUSAC II has strong focus on the three northern regions.

Africa Lead

Africa Lead has provided leadership training, institutional capacity needs assessments, and innovative learning experiences through partnerships with the ultimate goal of ensuring that there are leaders trained to maintain a critical mass of food security “champions” who will drive agriculture‐led development by leading and implementing the National Agriculture Investment Plans within the CAADP framework.

Monitoring, Evaluation and Technical Support Services (METSS)

Through an arrangement with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), USAID/Ghana has contracted with Louisiana State University (which has partnered with Cape Coast University in Ghana) to provide an array of technical support and M&E services for FTF. METSS is the mechanism that monitors and evaluations FTF programs. METSS also supports four senior long‐term embedded advisors who provide technical and policy guidance to Ministers and other high‐level policy‐makers in the Ministries of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), Trade and Industry (MOTI), and Finance and Economic Planning

(MOFEP).