Multi-stakeholder partnerships in value chain development
Date
2017Author
Mutebi Kalibwani, Rebecca
Twebaze, Jennifer
Kamugisha, Rick
Kakuru, Medard
Sabiiti, Moses
Kugonza, Irene
Tenywa, Moses
Nyamwaro, Sospeter
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that agricultural commodity value chain development
using multi-stakeholder partnerships (MSPs) can fast-track improvement in the livelihoods of rural farming
households. With the view that such partnerships can raise farmers’ incomes, the study uses the case of the
organic pineapple (OP) value chain in Ntungamo, Western Uganda, to understand the governance features
that hold the value chain partners together, to analyse the costs and margins to the participating farmers, to
identify opportunities for demand-driven upgrading of the farmers’ skills and knowledge, and the role that
partnerships play in such upgrading.
Design/methodology/approach – The study uses the qualitative tools of value chain analysis: value chain
maps of stakeholders, processes and support services of the OP value chain, and a quantitative tool to analyse
costs and margins to the participating farmers. Interviews were conducted with key informants from the OP
innovation platform, and survey data collected for the planting season, February–July, 2014, across three
farmer categories of certified organic, conventional, and farmers not participating in the innovation platform.
Findings – Careful selection of partnerships to develop the value chain is found to be critical. Partners to
involve should be those that enable the upgrading of farmers’ knowledge, skills and technologies to position them for better markets. Partners should also include those that enable the improvement of margins to the
farmers and efficiency of the value chain. The strategic MSPs should be bound by formal contracts, to ensure
stable relationships in the value chain and hence sustainable market access for the farmers.
Research limitations/implications – Although carried out on a specific value chain in a specific local context,
this is not likely to limit the applicability of the findings to commodity value chains in a range of local contexts.
Originality/value – The study fulfils the need to highlight the role that stakeholder partnerships can play in
value chain development and how they can be sustained by governance and institutional arrangements