Markets, value chains and development

We herewith invite you to an exiting day; with a program centering on the question what do we actually know about how value chains and markets work for development. In the morning, bilateral dialogues of businesses, NGOs, and governments with researchers aim to make intervention theories explicit and to seek bridges between frameworks of different actors. In the afternoon, small-scale farmers’ agency in setting the development agenda is the focal point of a combination of provocations from La...

Making markets work for small-scale farmers?

The first of a series of ‘provocative seminars’ on smallholders and the ‘pro-poor markets’ agenda (view background [pdf 717kb]) [2] took place in The Hague, the Netherlands, on 28th September 2010. Local and international participants gathered to discuss a series of questions put forward by ‘provocateurs’ from Africa, Asia and Latin America. The three-hour long debate proved exciting as a string of Hivos’ partners and guest speakers challenged conventional beliefs and brought fresh insights a...

Markets, smallholders and empowerment

With the global population expected to rise to 9 billion by 2050, there has been growing attention at the highest policy circles to the contribution of small-scale agriculture to food security and poverty eradication. However, the creation of an enabling framework towards this end has been hampered by contradictory approaches and policy ''pendulum swings" alternately on 'rights-based' and 'market-based' support strategies. This issue of  Capacity.org aims to refocus attention on the...