Regional Markets

Regional Markets for Local Development
This chapter will analyse the dimensions introduced in Chapter 1, based on the case
study examples of regional market value chains, presented in Chapter 3. The chapter
will end with a theoretical reflection on the governance model designed by Gereffi et al.
(2005) and elaborated in Chapter 1, and with a brief set of recommendations.
Pro-poor development
The discussion on pro-poor economic development, and agricultural development in
particular, is guided by an urgent question. To what degree do local markets offer
opportunities for poor, small-scale producers to engage in marketing and improve their
incomes? The answer depends on how inclusive present power and governance structures
in those markets are. Vital concepts to bear in mind here are the importance of
smallholder initiatives, the ethics of development interventions as employed by actors,
and the degree to which empowerment forms the basis of market development.
It should be emphasised that shifting the focus to regional markets is in itself not an
immediate solution to the challenge of redesigning value chains for pro-poor development.
Taking into account that a pro-poor approach should focus first and foremost
on those most vulnerable, all the surveyed projects seem to follow this reasoning. Most
organisations have the organisation of farmers, producers and smallholders at the core
of their strategies. In the concluding part of this section we will come back to this
point, and position the cases in a framework according to their pro-poor strategies.
Promoting small-scale producers implies the strengthening of their economic power
and enhancing their position—at the household and value chain level. The NGOMA
case from Kenya has chosen the image of a ‘beating drum’ to emphasise the point of
giving a voice to the vulnerable. We specifically chose the NGOMA case due to its
success of in assisting the formation of about 1,000 autonomous farmers groups, cooperative
societies and farmers federations (average membership is between 25 and 30
far mers, but larger farmers groups can have as many as 200 members). The estimated
number of smallholders across these groups has surpassed 50,000 members. With
average family size around seven persons, the estimated number of direct beneficiaries
climbs to an impressive 350,000. This is notably more than the number of beneficiaries
typically reached in a project with an export market focus. 17 It is very challenging to
organise such a large number of farmers in a real chain (for example, through formal
contracts). NGOMA has been able to overcome this hurdle by working at the level
of networks of member organisations, with a focus on lobbying, rather than working
on production support and contracting. It aims to help farmers’ organisations improve
17 In most cases, the number of famers involved in production for export market–oriented projects is less than
2,000. With outgrower schemes, cooperatives and policy-based interventions in niche markets, a larger number of people
can be reached, as many as 14,000–15,000 farmers (KIT/ Faida MaLi/ IIRR 2006).
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