Ethiopia - Scoping missions and assessments 2016 [14-08-2017] FL: project closed manually in database. No track record of set to active and finished.BackgroundIn the framework of the Agriterra Farmers Fighting Poverty program (FFP) in Ethiopia, continuous scoping assignments, company assessments and paid services related asingments.Scoping and Company assesmsnts will be enrolled in order to identify ambitious and entrepreneurial cooperative unions - with a reasonable business track record and good management potential. These scoping missions will be executed in different value chains, among others oilseeds, horticulture, coffee, grains (wheat), barley, dairy, sesame, and chickpeas. Potential (pioneer) cooperatives to be scoped have been identified based on the following criteria:• Organization provides services in the area of output marketing and has the ambition to increase output marketing performance.• Demonstrable and realistic growth ambitions related to the business case.• Positive track-record as regards to business management and implementation.• Sound financial management.• Qualified management.• Necessary systems and structures in place.• Demand for business development services.• Demand for finance (for investments and/or working capital).

This scoping round among farmer organizations has been specifically focussing on the SNNPR and Tigray area of Ethiopia. So far Agriterra is supporting only a limited number of unions in these two areas . Agriterra has the ambition to expand its operations in this area as there seems to be various unknown farmer organizations that show high potential and demand for receiving business development services. Furthermore, the Cooperative Promotion Agency (CPA) has notified Agriterra that it is eager to have broader presence of Agriterra in the regions and provided a list of potential unions in SNNPR and Tighray to be scoped. 
As a result, Agriterra has in the period May 2016 carried out 5 scopings of potential farmer organizations in the SNNPR region and appr. 10 in Tigray region of Ethiopia. The assignment has been carried out by Agriterra using the Agriterra Scoping Tool for farmer organizations. The key objective of the assignment was to identify and screen cooperative organizations with business and development potential and to assess opportunities for a partnership in business development. The specific objectives were:Specific objectives:• To obtain a better understanding of each organization through review of formal documents (constitution, minutes of last held AGM, financial statements, audit reports, etc.) and by assessing it’s governance, membership, organisation structure, HRM policy, financial management and service delivery to members.• To conduct an appraisal of the current performance of each organization in terms of production, bulking, processing and marketing in order to identify bottlenecks and propose improvements. • To assess the business models of the organizations in terms of feasibility, relevance, sense of reality and profitability.• To identify a business case to be developed as well as possible gaps in knowledge, skills and finance.
The Agriterra scoping team has reported all the scopings (attached to this report) and based on the results has assessed the various scoped organizations in 3 categories: High potential, medium potential, low potential. For those organisations graded as ‘high potential’ the scoping team advices Agriterra to carry out a Company Assessment at these organizations in the near future (preferably within 2016). For those organizations graded as ‘medium potential’ the scoping team advices Agriterra to not immediately carry out a Company Assessment, but keep in contact with the organization in order to see if its development results in the organization entering in the ‘high potential’ category in the near future. For those organizations graded as ‘low potential’ the assessment team is of the opinion that it does not make sense at this moment and in the near future to work with the organization as it is either too weak or does not comply to the Agriterra minimum requirements for cooperation. The ranking of the unions was based on the following criteria 1) added value of Agriterra services (development impact) 2) an energetic and ambitious management team and leadership in place 3) a healthy fundament – financially and management wise 4) a clear business case available benefitting the members 5) presence of a membership and service orientation/focus.

The underlying project aims to facilitate scoping missions as well as missions for company or organisation assessments in Ethiopa in order to build up a client portfolio of producer organisations and cooperatives with sound development potential and that are in demand of the services Agriterra is able to provide.