No more boring conferences – the ultimate coffee break

by Ian Randall/

Complex, interconnected challenges demand new forms of collaboration and innovation between diverse partners. And yet, the many meetings and conferences that are supposed to create this collaboration continue to be managed in didactic formats, with a few dominant voices holding court whilst everyone else though present in body, is absent in mind,  awaiting the short coffee break to have the conversations that they really need to have. New ways of working need to turn this on its head. We need to create spaces that accelerate the number of connections and conversations, and get people energised, aligned and committed to action.

In October I participated in the World Economic Forum’s “Transformation Leaders Workshop” for leaders working on the challenge of boosting agricultural production around the world. This event was bold and innovative about creating the context for transformational leadership. The video below captures the spirit of these highly productive few days. Key ingredients included:

  • Inviting diverse people, united by a common overall challenge and a spirit of entrepreneurial hunger to make change happen.
  • Never, ever, having a keynote speech, formal presentation, or even a stage.
  • Creating as many conversations as possible, but each with a level of clarity and focus about the topic, and with participants free to chose which conversations to participate in.
  • Fostering community by making the event fun, playful even, with dancing and creative construction activities.
  • Focussing minds on what actions they will undertake upon leaving.

Refreshments were always available, and we never took any scheduled breaks, because essentially the event was the ultimate coffee break – two days packed full of people and conversations that were inspiring and pioneering.

Food for Thought on Innovation – A playlist to whet the appetite

by Kate Simpson/

How do you create a culture of innovation, be it in a business, an institution or a country? This was one of the big questions that came up at our recent Change Lab in Kigali – and something I have been pondering on. So here is a short ‘Food for Thought Playlist’ of interesting ideas and unusual people innovating in unconventional spaces.

We would love to hear your thoughts and any ‘food for thought’ examples you have.

Arunachalam Muruganantham – Saw a problem, imagined a solution, built a machine, failed (a lot), ignored some feedback, listened to other feedback, engineered a business model,  ignored old ideas that didn’t work and has created a significant change in the health, education and economic prospects  of rural women in India with health , education and economic impacts. Here is a link to the article:

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26260978

Charles Leadbeater- Suggests that ‘the question we ask will shape the answer we get.’ He looks to Kenya, India and Brazil and into some unconventional places for some innovative ideas in how to deliver education, not just in the developing worlds – but everywhere. So our top tip when searching for innovation is to look not to what’s working ‘now’ but to where change is happening ‘now’. Here is the link to his presentation:

Myriam Sidibe – hasn’t invented anything new, but she argues for a new way to use an old solution to solve a big, global problem – but to do this takes innovative thinking and innovative relationships. Take a look at her amazing presentation here:

Steve Chapman – If innovation is a lovely big cake then it needs some ingredients – here Steve adds in the creativity and imagination which on their own aren’t a great meal but altogether make rocket fuel. Read his blog post here:

http://canscorpionssmoke.wordpress.com/2012/10/13/cpr-for-the-imagination/

And finally – this is an old short favorite of mine. Innovation and a culture of innovation is not just about having ideas, it’s about people adopting and getting excited by one another’s ideas – so how do you create a culture where people will adopt, try and follow each others ideas? Take 4 minutes to look at this priceless way to start a movement.

Grow Africa – a multi-billion model worth replicating?

by Ian Randall/

“Grow Africa, your immense contribution to African agriculture is exemplary.”

Akin Adesina, Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture

 Grow Africa has received some remarkable and enthusiastic plaudits. Yet what is it about it that has enabled it to rapidly deliver change at scale, where so many others have failed?

Grow Africa can claim some big numbers. In May 2014, they announced that, during 2013, the partnership’s private sector commitments to invest in African agriculture doubled to a total of $7.2 billion. Of which $970 million was already invested, creating 33,000 new jobs and reaching 2.6 million smallholder farmers across 10 countries. At Grow Africa’s Investment Forum, leaders, including five Heads of State heralded this as remarkable progress for an initiative that is barely 2 years old. Raj Shah, head of USAID, stated that Grow Africa has shown that “success at scale is now possible. This effort can effectively end poverty and hunger in Africa.” Amena Mohamed, the UN Secretary General’s Special Advisor for post-2015 MDG planning, saw Grow Africa as a model to replicate to ensure that the vision for next MDGs could rapidly translate in to action, in a way that traditional development approaches have not proven able.

For Wasafiri, which has played an instrumental role in conceiving and managing Grow Africa, these accolades are clearly affirming and gratifying. Nonetheless, such unbridled enthusiasm begs the questions “What has made Grow Africa such a success?” and “Why is its approach not adopted more widely to deliver change on other systemic challenges?”

A recent article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review entitled “Shaping Global Partnerships for a Post-2015 World” examined Grow Africa alongside five other pioneering cross-sector initiatives to ask how to unlock collective impact at a global scale. It concluded, “The most important condition is establishing a backbone structure that acts as the glue, holding the partners together and ensuring that the other four conditions are in place. The backbone provides strategic coherence around the common agenda, establishes shared measurement and learning systems, supports the mutually reinforcing activities of the different partners, and facilitates continuous communication.”

While Grow Africa certainly embodies all those features, I believe the story of its success is more complex. Or rather, I think there are underlying aspects of the global political economy that usually subvert the emergence of such elements when people attempt to collectively tackle change at scale.

Alignment of interests

Grow Africa is blessed by emerging at a moment of alignment for political, commercial and social interests. The 2008 food crisis changed the underlying economics of agriculture. The world realized that Africa must become a global food basket if we are going to feed 9 billion by 2050, while accommodating changing consumption habits, and linking food to energy through bio-fuels. Enlightened businesses – small and large – realized that African agriculture was going to grow, and they had a strong commercial interest in being in the vanguard. Africa’s politicians serve citizens who are primarily rural, and half of whom are under 20. Their political imperative is to increase rural incomes and generate jobs, or risk wide-scale unrest and disaffection. And for development aficionados, agriculture represents the best opportunity to reduce poverty and hunger. Everyone from smallholders to multinationals, and from African Heads of State to G8 Development Ministers, could rally behind Grow Africa’s common agenda of accelerating investment for sustainable agricultural growth. The only sustained dissonance has come from a few Western-based, ideologically-driven voices who fundamentally distrust the private sector.

Few other global issues currently benefit from such alignment. Climate change is riven with competing interests and public health issues struggle to attract strong commercial engagement. However, the same would have been said about African agriculture a decade ago. Perhaps part of the secret is sniffing out the right historical moment when interests align, and then to forge global partnerships to drive change at scale as fast as possible while the political window of opportunity lasts.

Coalition of the willing

Grow Africa is also unusual in welcoming all parties, without finding itself paralysed by the outcome. Many multi-stakeholder initiatives end up crippled by one of two effects. Firstly their governance often demands consensus, which means they become hostage to minority interests. For example, whilst a reasonable number of governments and actors seemed willing to act on climate change, negotiations, in attempting to accommodate everyone’s demands, have either ended up in a stalemate or conceding to the lowest common denominator. Secondly, successful initiatives are asked to layer on issue after issue, until their mandate is too diffuse and complex to meaningfully deliver anything. CAADP (Africa’s overarching plan for agriculture) is at risk of this as it is expected to address issues as varied as nutrition, climate change, job creation, regional trade, tertiary education, natural resource management.

So far, Grow Africa has evaded these pitfalls. Its clear focus on the commercial and development opportunity presented by agricultural investment, has allowed it to welcome all parties who are committed to advancing the agenda – a coalition of the willing. Co-convened by AUC, NEPAD and the World Economic Forum, but serving a wide range of stakeholders from Farmers Organisations to Multi-nationals to donors, it has created a space in which minority voices are heard, but that majority interests then drive action.

The World Economic Forum’s role in this cannot be underestimated. Most influential development actors are effectively civil service in culture – whether governments, African institutions, donors, or multilaterals. Too often their accountability pressures are to avoid obvious failure, rather than to deliver results at scale – leading to an aversion to taking risks, a focus on appeasing all interests, and a default towards extending timelines rather than making swift decisions. The World Economic Forum brings a refreshing private sector orientation that, whilst very protective of reputation, is ultimately dependent on showing it can deliver.

For more insight into the work of Grow Africa, view the latest report

Engaging Swiss Re leaders to scale up smallholder insurance

by Kate Simpson/

Swiss Re, one the world’s leading reinsurance companies, runs a leadership programme each year for its next generation of Managing Directors. To make the learning engaging, Swiss Re wanted to present the delegates with a business challenge that was real and compelling.

Wasafiri identified that providing insurance to Africa’s 600 million smallholders offered a huge commercial and social opportunity, but one that was going to demand Swiss Re staff to rethink traditional business models. Swiss Re was already pioneering new models, such as through a partnership with Oxfam and WFP in Ethiopia to strengthen the resilience of rural communities (see video below). But how could such models be taken to scale? Against this question, Wasafiri designed a 2-day business project that threw Swiss Re’s future leaders into the challenges and dilemmas of how to provide affordable, commercially viable insurance to smallholders at scale.

http://youtu.be/JgXEEH3lqXI

2014 will be the fifth year Wasafiri has run the simulation. Each year participants not only leave with rich learning about their leadership skills, but also with renewed passion for the role Swiss Re can play in generating shared value in Africa. Over this period, Swiss Re has also significantly scaled up its engagement in Africa, and programmes like R4, that were once managed as corporate responsibility initiatives, are now managed by commercial teams.

Best practice for smallholder value-chain financing in Africa

by Hamish Wilson/

Agricultural production in Africa, undertaken in the main by smallholders, is a highly risky activity with poor returns. To realise Africa’s potential, there is a need to commercialise smallholder production, thereby increasing returns. But amongst a range of different inputs, such commercialisation requires greater access to finance.

Value-chain finance offers an opportunity to expand and coordinate financing for agriculture, as well as to improve efficiency by facilitating financial access and lowering agricultural costs and financing risks. Agriculture investment of this nature is being provided at different levels and by a range of private- and public-sector actors, with facilities financing smallholders that are integrated into value chains through the use of inclusive business models. Such models are therefore helping financing facilities to access smallholders, because the risks and operating costs for lenders are reduced when farmers are integrated into value chains.

Wasafiri (in partnership with Prorustica) was commissioned to carry out a mapping survey on best practices in this field by the AFRACA-CTA partnership on strengthening smallholder-inclusive value-chain finance in Africa. The study also extended to gauging the use of associated tools such as (mobile) technology and risk management mechanisms for enhancing agri-finance.

The intelligence generated by the survey is expected to inform future decision-making in efforts to advance farmer-friendly rural agricultural financial products and services in Africa.

Billions of investment committed into African farming

by Ian Randall/

Since inception in 2012, Grow Africa has catalysed a historic shift in private-sector engagement in African agriculture, with partner companies announcing over $10 billion in planned investment aligned to the national development goals of twelve target countries. This intent has translated into action, with over $2.3 billion invested, creating 88000 jobs, and reaching over 10 million smallholders in 2015 with new contracts, sourcing, services or training.

Wasafiri has been instrumental in the conception and implementation of Grow Africa. In 2011, Wasafiri realised that while CAADP – the African Union’s plan for transforming agriculture – was making progress with the public sector, it risked stalling unless its aspired private-sector response was triggered. At the same time, the World Economic Forum’s private sector-led “New Vision for Agriculture” was calling for transformative multi-stakeholder partnerships, but needed government counterparts to provide political leadership to advance enabling environment improvements.

Wasafiri connected these two efforts and Grow Africa was born as a partnership platform to accelerate investments for sustainable growth in African agriculture. Convened by the AUC, the NEPAD Agency, and the World Economic Forum, Grow Africa generates concrete commitments by companies for inclusive and responsible agri-investment, and facilitates multi-stakeholder collaboration to ensure this investment delivers shared value, as both commercial returns and a beneficial impact on jobs, incomes, and food security.

In addition, the Grow Africa Investment Forum offers a flagship annual event, bringing together Heads of State, Agriculture Ministers, leaders from business, farmers and civil society, and G8 Development Ministers to report on progress, highlight challenges, and showcase opportunities for investment and partnership (see video).

Grow Africa has contracted Wasafiri to provide programme support since its inception, including:

  • Strategy development, team coordination and programme management
  • Stakeholder engagement, especially with farmer organisations, domestic companies, African institutions and donors
  • Facilitation and communication support at Grow Africa Investment Forums, including event reports
  • Managing stakeholder engagement in Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, Rwanda and Malawi.
  • Producing Grow Africa Annual Reports, to the acclaim of international leaders
  • Developing and maintaining Grow Africa’s first website
  • Securing donor finance worth over $10 mn.
  • Devising a comprehensive M&E strategy
  • Facilitating the Smallholder Working Group, a network of pioneering companies seeking to work with smallholders to make them more profitable an productive.
  • Researching and writing briefing papers on key topics such as Smallholder Delivery Models or Fertiliser Subsidy.

For Wasafiri, Grow Africa provides evidence that our approach to systemic change works. Grow Africa’s alignment of political and commercial interests and its unprecedented cross-sectoral collaboration have combined to generate the commitment, intelligence, direction and action required to deliver change at scale.

Its rapid progress also means this action-oriented partnership-based approach is inspiring the design of initiatives to tackle systemic challenges in other contexts, such as Grow Asia, Power Africa, Move Africa and the Zero Hunger Challenge. As the world looks to new collaborative approaches for delivering the SDGs, papers from the World Economic Forum  and the Harvard Business Review cite Grow Africa as powerful model for transformative, systemic leadership.

Coordinating donors behind Africa’s plan for agriculture

by Ian Randall/

At the L’Aquila G8 Summit in 2009, African leaders called upon the international community to coordinate support for agriculture on the continent through the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) as the leading African-owned initiative. They also called upon donors to do this in a manner embodying principles of aid effectiveness such as coordination, harmonisation, alignment and respect for country leadership.

At HQ level, this was to be achieved by donor agencies through CAADP’s Development Partners Task Team, which would provide a single point of contact for the AUC, NPCA and other African partners to communicate with the international community, and for donors to communicate in a consistent way with their field offices regarding how to advance support for CAADP.

Wasafiri was hired by 4 successive chairs of the task team to coordinate and support its activities, and over the course of 3 years, Wasafiri consultants provided much-valued continuity in managing the engagement of development partners with CAADP. Wasafiri was additionally charged with achieving the following key priorities for multi-stakeholder agreement in the context of CAADP:

  • Facilitating the Addis Consensus on Guidelines for Donor Support to CAADP at a country-level;Producing the Guidelines for Non-State Actor participation in CAADP;
  • Developing a CAADP Mutual Accountability Framework; and
  • Catalysing Grow Africa as the CAADP vehicle for generating private-sector investment.

The on-going alignment and commitment of donors has been key to enabling CAADP’s unprecedented progress in driving agricultural transformation on the continent, with CAADP held up as an international example of best practice for improved donor coordination. With Wasafiri’s support, the CAADP Development Partners Task Team has been the linchpin of working relationships between donors and African partners in advancing this historic progress.

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Forging an Alliance to end famine in the Horn of Africa and Sahel. Forever.

by Ian Randall/

2011 saw the worst drought in 60 years for the Horn of Africa, affecting over 13 million people and leading to famine due to the combination of regional instability, weak governance, a fragile agricultural economy, and low resilience within communities. Six months later, a similar story unfolded in the Sahel, affecting a further 18 million people.

The traditional humanitarian response was failing to create long-term solutions, and at worst was locking people in to a cycle of dependency and vulnerability. A new paradigm was needed that would take an integrated approach to building resilience, by coordinating humanitarian action, with security measures, agricultural growth, disaster risk reduction, long-term safety nets and better governance. This paradigm would require a new level of coordination across humanitarian and development agencies, and with national and regional governments. In 2012, the Global Alliance for Action for Drought Resilience and Growth was launched by African governments and international partners to put resilience at the heart of their efforts in the Horn of Africa and Sahel.

Wasafiri Consulting was called upon to provide independent facilitation of the first meeting of the Global Alliance in mid-2012. Over 2 days, the meeting brought together the international community behind a common understanding of how they could work together to end famine in the Horn of Africa and Sahel – forever. Delegates left with a commitment to collaborate with together and hold each other mutually accountable, and a clear set of actions that would sustain their momentum over the coming year.

Grow Africa: An opportunity for collective action

by Ian Randall/

I am flying home from the first Grow Africa Investment Forum, held at the impressive new African Union Conference Centre in Addis Ababa. Never before have I been in a room with so many powerful people – Jean Ping, African Union Chair; Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda; Jakaya Kikwete, President of Tanzania; Meles Zenawi, Prime Minister of Ethiopia; Nick Blazquez, President, Diageo Africa; Doug McMillon, President, Walmart; Raj Shah, Administrator, USAID; Kanayo Nwanze, President, IFAD; and 270 other leaders from business, government and civil society.

And never before has a development initiative felt to melike a snowball rolling downhill gathering its own unstoppable momentum. Normally it feels like slogging uphill.

For the last 3 years Wasafiri has worked extensively on CAADP – Africa’s plan for transforming agriculture. CAADP has involved hard work for many people, but slow, steady progress has been made. Over half of African countries have developed detailed strategies, increased public sector investment, and elevated political commitment for their agricultural sector. However, Africa’s agricultural transformation ultimately depends on harnessing this foundational work to unlock a vibrant private sector that increases productivity, produces nutritious food, and creates wealth and employment. And until now CAADP has primarily been a public sector initiative with only token engagement by the private sector.

Just over a year ago I called a contact at the World Economic Forum to suggest we try connecting the world of CAADP, with their New Vision for Agriculture Initiative – a collaboration by the major food and agriculture companies to explore ways of addressing the world’s long-term food challenges. The basic concept proposed was to work with the domestic and international private sector to identify investment opportunities that would contribute to national agricultural plans developed under CAADP, and then advance them in partnership. Grow Africa was born and, pleasingly, I had the privilege to name it!

Grow Africa is now lauded by international leaders as a key mechanism for implementing CAADP and driving Africa’s agriculture transformation. Raj Shah (head of USAID) recently announced that Barack Obama and other G8 leaders are expected to add their public support at this week’s G8 Summit.  A year after conception, Grow Africa acts as a partnership platform to accelerate investments, catalyse partnerships and share best practice. Co-ordinated by the African Union, NEPAD and the World Economic Forum, it is connecting governments, businesses, investors, farmers and development partners in order to advance ambitious agricultural partnership initiatives. A first wave of countries are engaged – Rwanda, Burkina Faso, Tanzania, Mozambique, Ghana, Kenya and Ethiopia – with more expected soon.

On 9th May, the first Grow Africa Investment Forum was held in the margins of the WEF Africa Summit. Seven countries showcased investment opportunities aligned to their national priorities for agricultural transformation. Private sector leaders responded very positively, with major companies committing to advancing discussions on investment and partnership with the potential to unlock billions of dollars of investment. The event deepened trust and understanding between public and private sector leaders, and highlighted both challenges and innovations regarding how to unleash the private sector in transforming African agriculture.

Wasafiri believes that deep development challenges cannot be tackled by any single organisation. Systemic change depends upon multiple actors engaging in alignment to rework a failing system. Wasafiri’s work is in facilitating that alignment, and committing people to act in concert. Agriculture is so complex in this regard that the development community abandoned it for decades, choosing instead to focus on sectors such as health and education that are less market-based and diverse. As Raj Shah put it, “Agricultural transformation is a collective action problem”.

Grow Africa, building on the foundational work of CAADP, has suddenly reached a tipping point. Government, business and civil society are engaging together, targeting their efforts on specific areas of common interest, usually along a single value chain or geographical area. In one day at the Grow Africa Investment Forum their collective belief in change made a tangible leap forward. African agriculture shifted from being a problem, to an incredible opportunity – both commercially and in terms of development impact. Sensing this shift, some top politicians from Africa and the world are adding their endorsement, a simple leadership act that will exponentially increase everyone’s confidence and commitment to engaging in concert.

There is still a long way to go. Interest must get translated into investment, and investment into results. And there are obvious risks around ensuring investments are sustainable and inclusive – with complex issues around land, water, labour, smallholders, climate change, women, youth and governance. Nonetheless, it is thrilling to sense collective action generating incredible momentum for change, such that growing Africa is no longer a problem, it is a profound opportunity. Wasafiri is committed to continue serving Africa in its agricultural transformation.

Visit: www.growafrica.com (website managed by Wasafiri for AUC, NEPAD and WEF)

Watch live as Barack Obama and others speak about Grow Africa in the context of the G8 initiative.  8am EST/ 1pm BST to 5pm EST/ 10pm BST, 18th May 2012: http://www.livestream.com/thechicagocouncil

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