Cooperatives for Change - a joint Agriterra & SNV program in Ethiopia Through the project “Cooperatives for Change (C4C): Value Chain Approach for Cooperative Development in Ethiopia”, SNV and Agriterra propose to improve the business performance of agricultural cooperative unions and their member cooperatives by enhancing their capacity in the framework of business arrangements with buyers. More than 42,000 smallholder farmers’ households as members of the unions and their cooperative will benefit directly, through the new relationships established and capacities built with the support of the project. At least an additional 42,000 farmers will benefit indirectly from the models and replication of project activities. As a result of the project interventions, new models for building and strengthening business arrangements that create win-win situations for smallholder farmers’ households, with special attention to women, its organizations, buyers and service providers will be tested and developed, generating incentives for investments on the part of the farmers’ households in their production technology, improving organizational capacities of farmer organizations, and furthering the confidence on the part of buyers by the creation of a reliable supply. The four-year project will provide smallholder farmers’ households a more stable and profitable market for their crops, while enabling them to benefit more fully through their organizations of a strengthened enabling environment.

By the end of the project, 12 unions have established pilot business arrangements with buyers and will have generated an average additional yearly turn-over of output marketing of 2,000 tons of produce per union to these buyers. By facilitating business arrangements between unions and their member cooperatives, buyers supported by service providers among which various Ethiopian government organizations, the project enables the smallholder farmers’ households to increase their productivity by 25%. The project’s objectives are as follows:
1. Sector Development – Consolidation of 10 multi-actor or cluster mechanisms around 5 commodity chains, with participation of unions, their member cooperatives, buyers, service providers and public sector stakeholders for joint strategy development and planning, addressing sector constraints and providing opportunities for and further support the business arrangements. 2. Business Development – Unions and their member cooperatives establish and comply with arrangements with buyers and business and financial service providers and in benefit of the smallholder farmers’ households.3. Service Provider Development – Enhanced and sustainably supply of inputs, agricultural, business and financial services, technology and information from unions, cooperatives, private, NGO and government providers.4. Knowledge Development and Learning – Best practices and failures as general input in “rebranding” and “advanced certification system” documented and shared, further enhancing the crowding in of unions and their member cooperatives in different sub-sectors. 
Key to achieving these objectives will be the successful formation of clusters or multi-actor partnerships based on trust and collaboration, with strong and effective actors that can assess their environment, identify challenges, obstacles and opportunities, and devise means of addressing them. Starting from a clear understanding of market demand, the project will support the clusters through capacity development and targeted financial support for the implementation of specific interventions to deal with sector constraints.

At the end of the project, 12 established pilot business or market relationships in 10 clusters involving 12 unions and 120 member cooperatives have on average reached an additional yearly turn-over of output marketing of a minimum of 2,000 tons of produce per union as a consequence of direct project interventions (see annex 12 for assumptions and calculations). As an effect of this project and additional contributions from others, it is expected that the involved 42,000 smallholder farmers’ households will have increased the productivity with 25% .