Facilitating multi-actor change - Capacity.org

Alamy / Michael RunkelTraditional beehive, EthiopiaBoosting the honey trade – EthiopiaIn 2005, Ethiopian beekeepers were producingjust small quantities of high-quality table honey.Most of what they produced was of a standardquality and destined for sale locally to be used intej, the traditional Ethiopian honey wine. Five yearslater, 27,000 producers managed to increase theproduction of high-quality honey resulting in anincrease of average household income by US$150.Now, ten honey processors are providing 400tonnes of honey annually for the export market.How did this change happen? Although asimple story in itself, the reality is a complex oneof facilitating immediate opportunities, stimulatinginnovation, building on or unlocking existinginitiatives, using flexible funding and providingservices.The story started at the 29 th Apimondia tradefair in Dublin, Ireland, in 2005 when Haile GiorgisDemissie, the enterprising director of Beza Marhoney processors recognised that there was a hugeexport market for Ethiopian honey. But he alsorealised that bringing honey to the internationalmarket was not something he could do alone.The spark of an ideaBack in Addis Ababa, he presented his ideas to amulti-stakeholder workshop organised by SNV. Abasic value-chain analysis was carried out and thespark of his idea ignited enough interest amongthe participants to form a coordination group (CG)headed by Demissie. Over time, the CG has beenjoined by processors, exporters, newly establishedproducer associations, apex organisations,certification and auditing service providers,financial institutions, government ministries, andresearch and educational institutions.The CG looked at ways of entering the EUmarket and addressed the issues of how to qualifyfor export licences and how to orchestrate sufficientvolumes of honey to fulfil overseas orders. SNV’srole was to bring the stakeholders together.Consultants were hired to advise on issues whereSNV and value-chain actors had no expertise. Forexample, SNV assisted in liaising with a laboratoryin Uganda to use their facilities, and the Ministryof Agriculture helped exporters to acquire EUaccreditation for Ethiopian honey.A business perspectiveThe next step was the formulation of a StrategicIntervention Plan. This focused on three main areas:establishing export contacts, boosting processingcapacity and qualifying for certification. As thisrequired increasing the production of specificgrades of honey, forging stronger business linksbetween processors and producers was vital. Theselinks helped both parties by assuring a consistentsupply of honey for the processors and reliablemarket outlets for the beekeepers.In order to create these new links, levels of trusthad to be increased and relational risks reduced.New technologies also needed to be taken onboard, the service delivery had to be improvedin almost every area, and new ways had to befound for accessing finance and other inputs. Forexample ‘transitional beehives’, developed by anentrepreneurial farmer and improved by Holeta BeeResearch Centre, were tested for appropriatenessand affordability for Ethiopian beekeepers,specifically women beekeepers, and scaled-up withthe help of processors.All this activity resulted in the establishment ofthe Ethiopian Apiculture Board as a public-privatepartnership incorporating the CG and steeringfurther sector development.Transfer of expertiseSNV’s role was to facilitate the change process,especially through establishing business links,supporting planning, smoothing access to grantsand investment capital, and moderating the CG. Byengaging an Ethiopian CD firm, SNV transferred valuechain facilitation skills to a local actor. In the course ofthis process, SNV’s role changed to ‘value chain coach’for business innovations and CD services, and forreplication to other sectors and programmes.This suggests that action CD should be atcentre stage when we are rethinking the roleof capacity development in policy andpractice. Such action CD is based on threekey principles: multi-actor engagement; thematching of financial support with localresources, dynamics and ingenuity; andsupport that is responsive and flexible to thelocal change process. These present clearchallenges for many sector programmes.There is convincing evidence thatmulti-actor approaches have something quiteimportant to offer. But it needs furtherexploration as a professional domain. Someimportant professional challenges are:• Deepening the understanding of the rangeand variation of multi-actor processes,spaces, platforms and mechanisms, andexploring their relevance for varioussituations and purposes• Looking at the practices and principlesthat help sustain productive multi-actorspaces and dynamics; and doing thiswithout over-institutionalising them ormaking them overly formal• Exploring innovative financing andsupport strategies for multi-actor systemchange (see also the interview with HettieWalters on page 9)• Expanding the professional repertoire offacilitating and brokering multi-actordynamics• Fostering learning opportunities forprofessionals in advanced changefacilitation, especially for in-country andinternational capacity builders.Overall our central conclusion is:effectiveness is created ‘on the shop floor’and spreads most effectively throughbottom-up and horizontal links rather thanbeing imposed from the top. Capacity cannotbe taught. Rather it evolves from helpingactors to deal jointly with real-lifechallenges. So working consciously, ordeliberately, with multi-actor systems is anessential evolution. The concept of action CDhelps to shift away from a supply-pushapproach to responsive support. Workingwith multi-actor systems not onlycomplements and incorporates earliertraining and organisational developmentapproaches, it also has the potential toaddress development challenges moreeffectively and to create more self-sustainingforms of capacity.