Multi-stakeholder activities and their role in value chain

upgrading

Andrew W. Shepherd

Pacific Value Chains Conference17-19 April, 2013

2

Types of multi-stakeholder activities

• Inter-professional and other commodity associations

• Value chain roundtables• Ad-hoc activities to address specific value

chain problems

3

Roles of associations/ councils/ roundtables

• Improving policy formulation and implementation by promoting communication between commodity sectors and government(s)

• Improving communication within sector• Providing information for chain actors• Promoting products• Developing infrastructure• Developing standards and monitoring their

application

4

Types of commodity body

• French inter-professional associations

• USA industry or trade associations

• Value chain roundtables, or tables-filières, and other stakeholder bodies

5

Main features of French system

• associations of associations

• unanimity• parity• voluntary participation• clear legal status• private sector

6

US industry associations

Coverage. Most major agricultural products in USA, e.g. U.S. Apple Association, American Soybean Association, American Sugar Alliance, National Cotton Council

Membership. • Members join individually but national committees

appointed by state organizations • Broad chain membership

7

USA (Cont)Functioning • Majority decisions, i.e. no parity or unanimity• Often supported by Government-mandated levies (the

“check-off”) but no Government representation• Check-off funds cannot be used for advocacy• Some associations use only check-off resources

8

Value chain roundtables• Not associations, but carry

out some of same functions• Primarily function in

advisory capacity to Ministry of Agriculture, which usually provides the secretariat

• Found in Quebec (tables-filières), nationally in Canada, in some countries of Francophone Africa, in Ecuador, Brazil ...

9

Experiences with association development in developing countries

• many examples from Francophone Africa; some from Asia

• evidence does suggest that associations have been successful in influencing policy formulation

• some have the foundation to work further with governments to address policy formulation weaknesses and develop necessary enabling environments

10

However, sustainability is a major issue

• difficulties in mobilizing funds and no long-term guarantee of government or other external support

• donor-developed associations often have inappropriate structure– trying to run before they

can walk by taking on too many activities

11

Future approaches to association development

• diversity of contexts and laws means that there is no single formula that can be recommended

• options have to be explored by the relevant chain

• cost minimisation through maximising use of ICTs and Web2

12

In the Pacific• Industry boards and corporations, e.g. coffee

and cocoa, in PNG, but not independent of government;

• New Crop and Livestock Council in Fiji– Previous industry councils for wide range of products

established with ADB technical assistance– Lack of legal framework and lack of funding from

members said to lead to collapse– Elite capture– Can these problems be addressed this time round?

• Vanuatu Cocoa Forum

13

Commodity associations

14

Ad-hoc interventions• Can be used to address specific problems in specific

chains:– e.g. FAO project in the Caribbean brought together

stakeholders from five chains to discuss chain problems and ways of overcoming them. A possible model for the Pacific?

• As a way of bringing together all individuals from a particular sector to identify future policy, TA and other interventions required by that sector:– e.g. ITC’s activities with the horticultural sector in

Samoa under the AACP programme

15

Thank you!

Shepherd@cta.int