Harvesting 1 Year Old Fruits

I have a suspicion that I’ve started previous blog posts with a line akin to “the new year started with a bang”, but once again that feels like the reality. 15% of 2017 has already passed before the dust has even settled, and in 40 days I’ve already come and gone from Kenya 4 times. To catch my footing in this rush, I want to spend this post reflecting on the immense shift my work has undergone over the course of the last 12 months.

This time last year I was focused on 2 long-shot ideas: creating an operational partnership with an MFI in Ethiopia and convincing MIX Market to collaborate on and host our farm finance database. Mixed into my regular work, I was writing concept notes and memos, and holding calls to pitch our ideas. I was excited, but also increasingly frustrated as both initiatives became bogged down.

Now, a year later, I still feel a little amazement when I think about the status of each idea. I feel proud of what we’ve accomplished after the energy we’ve poured in, and what we’re positioned to accomplish going forward.

MIX Market database:

I was sitting across a table from my manager in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso when he shared this idea. Our new team would build a database of the best examples in the world of microfinance institutions working with smallholder farmers. We would go visit these examples personally to truly understand them, and we would construct the database with an average “operations manager” user in mind: simple to use, with relevant and practical information.

After personally visiting 24 microfinance institutions in 11 countries, I am deeply invested in this database. I have seen firsthand how many innovative ideas about working with farmers exist in the world, but also how great the need is for institutions to learn from one another. The wheel is being reinvented time and again, leading not just to inefficient use of resources, but an increasing perception that there are high barriers to working in the smallholder farmer space. Each time an agricultural product stumbles or fails it decreases an institution’s appetite to undertake this type of work in the future. This reality is one reason I feel strongly that creating this database, the first of its kind, could bring down barriers and unlock huge growth in the rural financial inclusion space.

If you had told use 2.5 years ago that we’d bring MIX Market, the go-to online resource for financial inclusion data, on board as a partner and host for this database I’m not sure I would’ve believed you. One of the amazing things about developing this into a formal collaboration with MIX, beyond accessing their decades of expertise in online product design and their networks, is the amount of web traffic (including those operations managers) that will be funneled past this information. From the results of an experimentation stage late last year, in which we tested the value and strength of our proposed solution through 2 dozen interviews, we felt confident in fully investing in making this database a real, functioning part of MIX Market’s data product lineup. I am approaching the product build and initial release in mid-2017 with a real sense of optimism and excitement and the potential impact this could have on the sector.

(Our current database coverage)

Ethiopian partnership:

This idea was also born around a table, but this time sitting across from the executive director of a microfinance institution (MFI) in Ethiopia.  This was late 2015- I was on a field visit with this MFI to develop content for the database, and had been thoroughly impressed with their work. Despite being a fairly standard MFI with no agricultural expertise, they had undertaken serious efforts to better tailor their financial products to the needs of smallholder farmers. They also expressed a clear commitment to investing further in these products and expanding their agriculture services.

Walking away with a sense there was strong alignment between our organizations, and that they would make a great collaborator, I wrote up a partnership concept note revolving around building their internal capabilities to deliver agricultural trainings to their clients. Now, a full 12 months after that note received initial approval, after wrangling internal stakeholders and navigating a turbulent 2016 in Ethiopia (politically and environmentally), we are officially engaged in a pilot partnership. We aim to roll out the trainings we’ve developed to a selection of their farmer clients during the 2017 growing season, from May to November. Based on the results for farmers and the institution, they might then scale the trainings to all their agricultural clients (50,000+ clients) I’ve enjoyed the chance to work so closely with a strong team at this other institution, to spend time on the ground learning from their staff and clients, and to be able to design something from scratch with exciting potential impact. I look forward to what the next busy few months of implementation bring!

(Finalizing our 2017 workplan!)