Over the past few months we’ve managed to bring together valuable partners into the Agricultural Guarantee Fund Scheme. Standard Bank Group started the scheme to help fund small farmers and small-medium-sized enterprises in Ghana, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda.
Here is an outline of some partners we have joined up with.
Kilimo TrustKilimo Trust was established in 2005 through funding from the Gatsby Charitable Foundation. Kilimo Trust focuses its work on finding and putting into use innovations leading to market-led sustainable agriculture for development in East Africa.
The Kilimo Trust has a Vision of Broad-based Wealth Creation in East Africa through agriculture and agri-business. It is a Trust Registered in the Republic of Uganda, with International Trustees and headquartered in Kampala. The mandate of the Trust cuts across the countries that are members of the East African Community. It was established in 2005 and its work focuses on finding and putting into use innovations leading to market-led sustainable agriculture for development in East Africa.
Kilimo Trust also owns a majority interest in an investment company, African Agricultural Capital, which provides risk capital to SMEs operating in the agriculture value chain in East Africa in ways which benefit smallholder farmers and local economies.
See for more on Kilimo Trust:
http://www.thekilimotrust.org/ The Millennium Development AuthorityThe Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) is the in-country development partner for the USA government’s Millennium Challenge Corporation in Ghana.
Millennium Challenge Corporation is an agency designed to work with developing countries based on the principle that aid is most effective when it reinforces good governance, economic freedom, and investments in people that promote economic growth and the elimination of extreme poverty.
Established in 2006, MiDA looks at sustainable reduction of poverty through growth. See
http://mida.gov.gh/site/ for more.
Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) Mozambique is also financed by the USA government's Millennium Challenge Corporation. The MCA has received US$506-million to reduce poverty and increasing economic growth in Mozambique, investing in farmer income support, water and sanitation, transportation, and land tenure services.
OPEC FundOPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) is an intergovernmental development finance institution that promotes cooperation between member states of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other developing countries. This is mainly done by providing financial resources to assist the developing countries in their economic and social advancement. See
http://www.ofid.org/. For more about the Agricultural Guarantee Fund Scheme, see
http://www.blog.standardbank.com/blog/2010/08/something-africas-farmers