GROW 2 GROW 2 Det övergripande målet är att stödja utvecklingen av inkluderande och hållbara marknadssystem i utvalda värdekedjor som effektivt kopplar småskaliga jordbrukare och jordbruksbaserade mikro-, små och medelstora företag (MSME:s) till inhemska, regionala och /eller globala marknader genom klustersamarbete och i syfte att främja lokal förädling. Programmet förväntas bidra till Liberias ekonomiska diversifiering, gröna tillväxt, samt fattigdomsbekämpning genom att generera ökade inkomster och anständig sysselsättning, särskilt för kvinnor och unga. The project constitutes a new programme planned by the Embassy of Sweden in the context of its cooperation with Liberia. The overall objective is to facilitate the development of inclusive and sustainable market systems in selected value chains, which effectively link smallholder farmers living in poverty and agriculture-based Micro, Small and Medium sized Enterprises (MSMEs) to domestic, regional and/or global markets through clustering and with the aim to foster local value addition. The programme is expected to contribute to Liberia’s economic diversification, green growth as well as poverty alleviation by generating income and decent employment, in particular for women and youth. The overall objective of GROW-2 is to contribute to Liberias economic diversification, green growth as well as the alleviation of rural poverty, covering farmers living in poverty (with particular attention given to women and youth).  

Its specific objective is to contribute to increasing production (through both expansion and diversification), local value addition, market access and, accordingly, employment opportunities for farmers living in poverty in selected agro-based value chains.

The programme structure is proposed to cover two overarching and complementary outcomes, identified as the key transformation areas to foster production, value addition and market access in the selected agro-based value chains, which is expected to contribute towards sustainable and inclusive prosperity of farmers living in poverty in rural areas. These outcome areas cover facilitation efforts at the level of the value chain actors (cooperatives and MSMEs) and at the level its policy and support environment.

The programme will foster local value addition and improve access to domestic, regional and/or international markets. In the case of the horticulture and cassava value chains, enhancing production and value addition is expected to contribute also to food security challenges. The target group will have a gender balance, with gender equality and women empowerment being mainstreamed throughout the programme. Special attention will be also given to youth economic empowerment and entrepreneurship.

Whereas the ultimate targets are farmers living in poverty in the selected value chains, the programme interventions take place on the policy level and at the level of support services with the aim to make the overall business environment more enabling and inclusive for vulnerable groups (men, women and youth). This ensures that impact is sustainable, scalable, and responsive to the locally defined constraints. More precisely, these are aimed at:

- fostering public-private dialogue and streamlining of the policy and regulatory framework to address market system wide challenges in the selected value chains;

- strengthening both public and private non-financial service providers to support the target beneficiaries in production/(pre-) processing improvements based on market-driven needs and requirements;

- stimulating linkages with financial service providers in order to enable actors in the value chain (cooperatives and other producer groups; MSMEs) to (co-) invest in market driven upgrading of production and processing (paying special attention to constraints faced by women to access finance).

Support will cover interventions aimed at fostering production, productivity, value addition, driven by demand. Within the spirit of the MSD approach, flexibility to adapt interventions to specific constraints and opportunities in different segments of the value chain as they arise is a crucial feature of the implementation strategy.

It is expected that the programme will improve income and employment opportunities for farmers living in poverty through their cooperatives and MSMEs engaged in the selected value chains. The programme is targeting 10 cooperatives engaged in horticulture with an average number of 200 members, 10 partner cooperatives in cassava value chain with an average number of 400 members, and 10 cooperatives in cocoa value chain with an average number of 1000 members. As some farmers are members of different cooperatives, it is expected that 12,000 farmers will benefit from improvements in income and employment.