The Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) is an inclusive, multi-stakeholder partnership to rapidly develop the region’s agricultural potential. To advance this pioneering effort, the SAGCOT Centre was formed to provide coordination and facilitation for the partnership. For a development initiative, the SAGCOT Centre has an unusual governance structure that ensures it is genuinely multi-stakeholder and inclusive of government, farmers organisations, companies, and donors. This important innovation has however presented problems for structuring donor finance. Multiple donors means multiple procurement requirements, plus SAGCOT Centre’s unique structure did not sit comfortably with establish protocol. The SAGCOT Centre’s work was severely hampered until structures could enable funding to flow.
The challenge was both technical and human. A technical solution was needed on how to structure parallel funding, whilst at the same time a relationship-driven process was required to encourage each institution to make some concessions to their established protocol in order adopt a common approach.
Wasafiri Consulting was hired by Grow Africa to support this process, both by facilitating a consensus and developing a technical solution. The SAGCOT Centre can now plan their finances with a degree of confidence.
