Building an agri-agency in Southern Africa The project emerges from a request for Agriterra’s technical support in establishing an agri-agency. 

The goal is clear: to have established an operational agri-agency by the end of 2016.

SACAU upon requesting this support, states that Agriterra can mobilize the necessary capabilities and resources towards this end and that SACAU lacks the requisite technical knowledge, skills and experience, as well as financial resources for this undertaking. Yet, the establishment of an agri-agency anyway will require time and effort form SACAU. An agri-agency cannot be something parachuted from abroad. 

The agri-agency needs to be established considering the relation with SACAU as political body uniting the farmer’ organizations of the region, as well as with SACAU Development Enterprise ltd. It might even pass through a process of disentangling activities now undertaken by SACAU and place them in the agri-agency, establishing the clear economic relations between SACAU and the agri-agency. 

As the new agri-agency does not start form zero, Agriterra has to come to a thorough understanding of how things are organized now, and is depending for that on inputs from SACAU. 

The envisaged steps, are the following:

1. A Quick scan of the SACAU organization visiting SACAU HQ, talking to staff and directors, combined with a desk analysis of the formal documents of the organization. This refers to: statutes or articles of association, by-laws, annual financial statement, external audit, act of constitution, prof legal personality, list of board members, minutes of general assemblies, strategic plan, annual plan of operations, manual of procedures. This first step should lead to a more detailed plan of action, obtaining the formal commitments of SACAU, Agriterra and probably AgriCord. It would be good also to consider the involvement of We Effect, the agri-agency that during a long time has been supporting farmers’ organizations in the region and could be instrumental to the objective. 

This phase results in a plan of action and a memorandum of understanding between all parties, defining the mutual commitments in the process leading to the establishment of the agri-agency.  2. A complete assessments of SACAU which includes a financial health scan, profiling, M&E scan, assessment of systems and procedures, analysis of the administrative organization in general, as well as a more extensive notion on the wishes of the members in terms of exchanges of services between members and core services to be provided by SACAU, the agri-agency or the limited. This phase which will be introduced by an extensive Terms of Reference will lead to a first note on the design of the agri-agency, with options for the following points:1. Conceptualization and development of the overall framework of the agency, including its goal, purpose and objectives, as well as type of registration 2. Strategy and structure 3. Corporate governance framework and its operationalization 4. Design of the internal organization5. Setting up the secretariat, including installation of systems, procedures and controls 6. Development of a 5-year business plan7. Membership to Agricord8. Resource mobilization9. Operationalization of the agency 

This phase leaves to a GO on the design and to start implementing the way forward. 

3. For implementation, one might need to station an additional staff member in SACAU in order to provide you with hands-on assistance in the build-up of the agri-agency. 

4. Training will be provided on the AgriCord management tool agro-info.net. This on line tool provides the possibility to administer many aspects of the agri-agency work load.

In the process, the following aspects need to be reviewed: • An aspect of the functioning of the agri-agency will be the organization and operation of the exchange of advisory services between SACAU members. The needs and wishes of members will be taken in. The agripool of farmer experts will proof to be an effective tool for integration of SACAU. It can link to Agriterra’s agripool and provide advisory services even outside the SACAU region. SACAU’s agripool can tap into Agriterra’s Agripool and obtain additional services not available in the region. You started, but did complete the on line survey on this matter. • Another aspect to discuss will be the services to be provided from SACAU and the agri-agency to members’ organizations in Southern Africa. Of course this parts from the things you do for the member organizations. Agriterra would like to look into the viability that SACAU or the agri-agency might act as an implementer of Agriterra’s very successful approaches, like Farmers Advocacy Consulting Tool (FACT) for improvement of advocacy processes; promoting farmer entrepreneurship, and making cooperatives bankable.• The whole exercise will be embedded in a strategy towards financial sustainability, combining sources of income

to have established an operational agri-agency by the end of 2016.