REgIOnAL LEARnIng ALLIAnCE ExpERIEnCES
BuiLDing agroenterprise skiLLs to increase ruraL incomes in West aFrica JOSEpH SEDgO, CRS WEST AFRICA
In West Africa, food insecurity continues to be one of the greatest challenges faced by millions of households, particularly in rural areas. About 40 million adults are undernourished, as well as up to one-third of the children under five. A contextual analysis of the region undertaken by CRS revealed that limited access to income was the overriding factor that prevented most vulnerable farming households from accessing food, education, healthcare, as well as farm inputs and other services. As a result, in 2003 CRS’ West Africa regional office developed a regional agriculture strategy focused on increasing agricultural incomes among the most vulnerable rural households.
The Learning Alliance in West Africa As part of the regional agriculture strategy, in January 2003 CRS West Africa conducted an initial training workshop to expose staff to key basic agricultural marketing techniques. While important and useful, this training was only a first step towards building capacity, maintaining a lasting impact, and facilitating learning over time. After participating in the launch of the CRS Global Learning Alliance workshop in January 2005, the CRS West Africa countries decided that the learning alliance approach for agroenterprise development could serve as an important new approach to strengthening and combining food and financial security. Accordingly, regional and country staff designed a two-year program to build skills that would more cohesively impact the livelihoods of project participants by increasing both productivity and incomes. Over the period 2005–2007, the learning alliance in West Africa concluded a cycle of four workshops following the roadmap outlined in Figure 1. Participants came from CRS programs in Burkina Faso, the Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Sierra Leone; the Democratic Republic of the Congo from CRS’ Central Africa region also participated. Benin started but withdrew after three workshops. The West Africa region’s experience and success with the learning alliance approach can be attributed to strong regional commitment and support to agroenterprise development, a well-defined regional income-led agriculture strategy that provided a guiding framework, and country programs with a keen interest in promoting agriculture as part of their respective strategies. As an illustration of the support received from country programs, the four workshops were hosted by different CRS country offices: Niger, the Gambia, Senegal, and Burkina Faso. Combined with the respective national governments’ commitment 26
Working together, Learning together LEARnIng ALLIAnCES In AgROEnTERpRISE DEVELOpmEnT