KIT Royal Tropical Institute is assisting the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to help smallholder farmers and SME agribusinesses improve productivity in sub-Saharan Africa by improving sustainable business links with lead firms.

Sustainable sourcing can contribute to the local economic development of suppliers, small and medium enterprises (SME) and their communities. However, leading firms are not able to succeed on their own, and various methods of support can be instrumental in their success.

Agribusiness Supplier Development Programme (ASDP)

ASDPs are intended to improve the productivity of smallholder farmers and SME agribusinesses by facilitating capacity building (training, advice, access to inputs, organisation, standardisation etc.) and linking up with lead firms. Sustainability and inclusion, especially of women and the young, play an important role. An ASDP is funded both by public partners (governments, donors, NGOs) and private business.

KIT’s toolkit for establishing successful ASDPs

Through desk research, interviews and pilot studies KIT has produced a toolkit which explains the various components of the programme. This provides the frameworks and methodologies for developing and implementing an ASDP, and generates commitments from within the national government and forges links between partners, beneficiaries and service suppliers.

A complementary training manual was developed and validated by KIT during a workshop in which eleven African countries participated. As a result of the workshop we piloted ASDPs in Angola, Nigeria and Kenya and are proposing the programme in new countries such as Tanzania, Rwanda and Zambia.

The toolkit and training can be found at the UNDP website