Pro-poor Value Chain Development

This practitioners guide on Pro-poor Value Chain Development has been developed by Lone Riisgaard and Stefano Ponte of the Danish Institute of International Studies (DIIS) together with a team of experts at the Agribusiness Development Branch at UNIDO under the leadership of Frank Hartwich and Patrick Kormawa.

Governments and development agencies increasingly use value chain development as a key element in their development strategies. Frequently such strategies aim at improving the income of poor groups of the society however, often, strategies and interventions fail to consider the entire value chain, and how developments will bring social benefits to poor and marginalized population groups.

This guide provides guiding questions, checklists and tools for designing and implementing agricultural projects. It aims to assist programme designers and project managers working for governments, development agencies and the private sector alike, in designing and implementing projects for the development of agricultural value chains. In particular it addresses the challenges of designing value chain development initiatives that focus on social benefits, especially poverty reduction and gender equity. It also addresses the challenges of making transformation and value addition processes integral to value chain development, in addition to primary agricultural production and marketing.

The guide can be downloaded here (2.05 MB, pdf)