IICD supported project: Market Information Service Facility and Training Project - Ghana

IICD has supported the project since 2004. Market Access Promotion Network (Mapronet) supports its affiliated small and medium sized cooperatives with information and capacity building. This project establishes 3 basic business information centres. In these centres, farmers can access market information and other relevant agricultural information. Through the Tradenet platform (a trading platform using internet and mobile phones) members of Mapronetwould broaden their scope of collecting and disseminating market information for their beneficiaries. Members in the Volta Region will be the first to register on Tradenet. During the pilot phase, this system will be implemented together with three member organisations that represent 150 small scale farmers.

In 2008, Mapronet will be focusing on:

• Increasing capacity building of producer and marketing organisations by developing ten modules of business development skills
• Starting an e-bulletin to share knowledge
• Collecting & providing information on relevant market prices to share with members
• Development of ten training modules on Business Development and Management Skills through the support of two consultants/subject matter specialists. These modules were developed based on the needs identified of the target groups and the agreed priority themes and are now tested in the pilot sites
  

Mapronet is working towards establishing a basic Business Information Centre at Mapronet headquarters and at the two focal point organisations with satellite connectivity. Mapronet is also establishing the basic design of a website (partly accomplished) and building ICT- and staff capacity at the headquarters and focal point organisations.

Small scale farmers in Western Africa are confronted with unequal development opportunities. Especially in remote rural areas, literacy rates are low and there is mass poverty. After the Round table workshop on Agriculture in 2003, key stakeholders in this sector selected four areas as a top priority for ICT development to change this situation: enhancing producer organisations, access to market information, improve the quality of production and access to finance. Mapronet was established in 2001 to enhance market opportunities for network members by facilitating access to more effective information and communication strategies.

 Read more about IICD’s Ghana Country Programme.

Interview with Mr Bale Ibrahim

Objective is to improve physical access to information through:

• Strengthening the Mapronet Business Information Centre for information collection, storage and dissemination from both the foreign and local markets
• Strengthening two facilitating focal organisations to provide improved information services to producer organisations
• Providing general information services to selected facilitating organisations and producer groups (via newsletters, website and e-mail)
• Collecting and storing ad-hoc and specific information from selected facilitating organisations
• Providing timely and updated information to a cross section of stakeholders including facilitating organisations, buyers/traders, national and local and producer organisations that showcase and promote available products.

Another objective is to build the capacity of participating organisations and users in ICT skills.

Mapronet member organisations and individuals (farmers and producers) and their families are the main beneficiaries of the project. They will have gained more ICT capacity and access to knowledge that will empower them to improve their livelihood. In total MAPRONET has 15,000 individual members, but the project will first have impact on 150 users.

Read more about IICD’s approach towards Livelihoods.

Interview with Mr Laar Joseph, TradeAid, a Mapronet pilot site

Some key lessons learned are:

• Loss of institutional memory as a result of high staff turnover. New staff should be recruited to replace those who have left. Staff should also be motivated to keep interest in working for the organisation
• Poor financial commitment from other project partners had impact on the planned activities and delayed the realisation of objectives
• Dependency on a third party donor for over 50% of project budget, which created the failure of the first phase after the donor did not deliver
• The project had three operational points, the headquarters and two focal points. This makes coordination, reporting and planning more complex. More attention should have been given in setting up the coordination.

The Market Access Promotion Network Ghana (Mapronet) is a non-governmental organisation formed in 2001 by a wide range of producer groups and associations. Mapronet facilitates cooperatives whose aim is to create market access for its members (producers) and to build their capacity. Through training members can increase the volume and quality of their products.

Through the collaboration between Mapronet and VSO, a British NGO, two expatriates have joined the secretariat to support the management in programme development and fundraising for two years.

Mapronet would like to deploy the same approach in other Western African countries like Mali and Burkina Faso.

Interview with Musah Sadia, Mapronet