Pro-Poor Value Chain Development - Capacity.org

Chapter 2
Business development
Timoteos Hayesso, Piet Visser,
Paulos Desalegn and Mahlet Yohannes
In the previous chapter we described how SNV’s BOAM programme organised its
support for joint action by stakeholders in four agricultural sub-sectors, with a view
to improving market opportunities within the selected value chains.
This chapter turns attention to BOAM’s business development interventions in
support of a limited number of strategically positioned private sector actors within
the value chains. BOAM’s goal was to boost the capacity of individual actors to
seize market opportunities in ways that would also benefit poor farmers and other
actors in the chain. Examples of business development interventions in BOAM’s
portfolio included; supporting businesses to access new markets, linking processors
and exporters to farmer’s organisations, and promoting business arrangements
between processors and exporters on one hand and farmers on the other. The
specific types of support provided ranged from capacity development services such
as organisational support and training, and facilitating access to diverse agricultural
inputs and finance.
Introduction
The term business development support refers to interventions focused on individual
businesses that aim to achieve a number of specific objectives such as exploring
new types of products or services for which there is market demand, attracting new
customers, or penetrating existing markets.
Figure 2.1 illustrates the four types of business development services that BOAM
supported:
• Private Sector Actor Strengthening (PSS)
• Business-to-Business (B2B) Development support
• Producer Group Strengthening (PGS)
• Value Chain Financing (VCF)
Business development
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