Moving forward together : Partners’ perspectives International Development Partners

Overview Different types of partners, with overall positive feedback despite diversity of development partners and the challenges 1.Howard G. Buffett Foundation 2.Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Donors with limited duration of support 3.SNV 4.Development Credit Authority (DCA)- USAID Long term and operational

Successes P4P : catalyst for smallholder farmer development Leverage for partnerships based on value chain and partners’ comparative advantage, including RBAs P4P is a learning and sharing platform : central in explaining challenges faced by farmers, understanding the livelihood of the beneficiaries Opportunity to influence policy change on public procurement Key part of the overall effort of each partner, bringing together the other initiatives.

Successes Ability to procure substantial volumes from smallholders changes the way WFP is perceived amongst host governments Food safety : use of blue box as effective and new way to address and deal with food safety issues P4P has promoted discussions on the role of smallholders in agricultural development Partners commend WFP for its flexibility and patience to take risks and adjust particularly in the procurement procedures

Challenges WFP perceived as very bureaucratic and overwhelming to engage with smaller and more clearly structured partners Difference in entry point, WFP nationally focused while operational partners more district and community focused WFP restrictions on particular commodities Lack of clear strategy for engagement with private sector

Challenges The expected evolutions and results take time to be achieved Development partners not availing funds for actual food procurement through P4P Finding supply-side partners and the time for functional markets to evolve with smallholder engagement Access to credit (high interest rates, collateral, farmer capacity, …) DCA expects that the guarantee scheme will incentivise lending to FOs by financial institutions, but will not reduce interest rates substantially M&E will not be able to draw all the lessons that we may have expected

Looking forward Exit strategy Key issue for international development partners Engagement with governments Needs to be increased Some governments are showing signs of this, leveraging their own purchasing power Engagement of private sector SNV embed the ideas of P4P in civil society (social accountability) Increase RBA collaboration Credit remains a challenge we would like to look closer into with governments and development partners Partnership is expected to continue post-pilot, however: Depends on the capacity of WFP to innovate