Growing Together
Description
This co-created initiative facilitates farming communities to self-select and self-organize the poorest farming households into farmers groups. These groups receive organizational capacity building and elect lead farmers to receive intensive agronomic training in rice intensification and crop diversification (potato, vegetable and fruit). Lead farmers then cascade knowledge within the groups using small demonstration plots and across the community through farmer field days. <br />
Central to the success of the project has been the piloting of six for-profit farmer centers, learning from an approach introduced to Bangladesh by the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture. Centers provide physical spaces where farmers can access quality inputs such as seeds, crop protection products, rent simple farming equipment and aggregate crops. Farmer center facilitated contracts have led to increased market driven technical assistance, pre-financed seeds and a significant increase in income through export and domestic wholesaler contracts in vegetables. In parallel, with the support of Accenture Development Partnerships, the project is advancing its ambition to form a social franchise which not only holds a growing network of farmer centers to account (through a standard catalog of fee and no fee based services) but also further facilitates market systems collaboration. Current and future volunteers will work on assignments that develop the social franchise that can be replicated to support smallholder farmers across the country. <br />
That facilitation draws on a second significant innovation in viewing value chains as nested rather than linear. Traditional linear views of value chains reinforce transactional relationships between one actor and the next. They discourage systems thinking and longer term strategic decisions and interactions between actors at different stages of the chain. For example this could include retailer investments in agribusiness entrepreneurs. A nested view encourages that interaction and inward investments into farming communities for the longer term benefit of the whole market system. It is this that then creates a very different perspective where each actor has a vested interest in the success and viability of farming. <br />
75 Syngenta leaders have participated and have helped to increase the internal awareness about smallholder challenges and by displaying Syngentas contribution to mitigate these they also raised peoples pride in the company. The insights from the field help all colleagues to connect back with customers, putting them at the centre of the Syngenta operation. It also highlights the importance of working in partnerships to achieve the companies sustainability strategy, Good Growth Plan targets.<br />
Syngentas investment in the Growing Together community is intentionally time-bound and will complete June 2018, driving VSO and the development sector to think differently about sustainability and scale. Opportunities for market systems investment through additional contract farming, or first and last mile distribution and retail, enables the ambition for the project to reach 100,000 farming households, supported by a social franchise of up to 100 farmer centers. This will support the development of thriving communities totaling more than 2 million people and generate opportunities for other initiatives in health, nutrition, education and economic development. <br />
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In January 2017 Growing Together opened its first retail finance bank in collaboration with a leading Bangladeshi bank, Bank Asia. This initiative is reducing the cost of borrowing and facilitating more strategic investment finance for farmers and the entrepreneurs in the broader communities. <br />
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In 2017 the project will become a pilot partner with Blue Number. This is a UN-led data initiative that will support farmers to self-report and own impact data against the Sustainable Development Goals and project performance measures. Project youth group members will act as data collectors and the aggregation of this information will provide a platform for young people and farmers to engage with local government around the issues identified. This digital platform will also provide farmers a unique identification number, online presence and traceability along the value chain. <br />
Bangladesh faces an increasing challenge to feed a growing population. It is in this context that VSO and Syngenta in 2014 spent time with farmers in town-hall meetings, taking time to understand their frustrations on market prices, debt driven cycles of high interest crop financing and crop protection products and applications that simply did not work. Often they were using counterfeit products or using products incorrectly based on questionable advice from local retailers. The Growing Together project, born out of these discussions, has been co-created over the past two and a half years with a goal to create impact in three core areas by June 2018. <br />
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- Work with communities to build their assets and capabilities in order to support sustainable positive change for poor and marginalized smallholder farmers in North West Bangladesh. <br />
- Facilitate an experiential leadership development programme for senior-level Syngenta leaders; addressing current and future business challenges by supporting staff to work in new, challenging and resource-constrained environments. <br />
- Leverage insights from the programme to respond to smallholder challenges and find new ways of doing business that can make a positive contribution. <br />
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The volunteering model is central to the programme. Every six months cohorts of 15 senior level employees travel to Bangladesh to work alongside VSO and local delivery partner RDRS to share their business and agricultural expertise to develop specific technical areas of the project. Between cohorts VSO staff, volunteers and partner organization staff deliver the recommendations developed by the cohort. This model facilitates a co-created and adaptive programme development process where cohorts review, learn and develop the model every six months. This model of cross-sector partnership also allows each party to bring their own expertise to the table - with VSO leading on community development and participatory methodologies and Syngenta bringing leading expertise in agriculture and business. We believe this innovative way of working has enabled us to create a programme that is far stronger than anything we could have developed on our own. <br />
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The programme is governed by a steering committee from VSO and Syngenta who meet every two weeks to review progress and make decisions together. Biannual workshops also take place after each cohort to learn, adapt and agree on the next phase of the programme.<br />
SDGS & Targets
Goal 2
End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
2.1
By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round
2.1.1
Prevalence of undernourishment
2.1.2
Prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity in the population, based on the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES)
2.2
By 2030, end all forms of malnutrition, including achieving, by 2025, the internationally agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age, and address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women and older persons
2.2.1
Prevalence of stunting (height for age <-2 standard deviation from the median of the World Health Organization (WHO) Child Growth Standards) among children under 5 years of age
2.2.2
Prevalence of malnutrition (weight for height >+2 or <-2 standard deviation from the median of the WHO Child Growth Standards) among children under 5 years of age, by type (wasting and overweight)
2.2.3
Prevalence of anaemia in women aged 15 to 49 years, by pregnancy status (percentage)
2.3
2.3.1
Volume of production per labour unit by classes of farming/pastoral/forestry enterprise size
2.3.2
Average income of small-scale food producers, by sex and indigenous status
2.4
By 2030, ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters and that progressively improve land and soil quality
2.4.1
Proportion of agricultural area under productive and sustainable agriculture
2.5
By 2020, maintain the genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants and farmed and domesticated animals and their related wild species, including through soundly managed and diversified seed and plant banks at the national, regional and international levels, and promote access to and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, as internationally agreed
2.5.1
Number of (a) plant and (b) animal genetic resources for food and agriculture secured in either medium- or long-term conservation facilities
2.5.2
Proportion of local breeds classified as being at risk of extinction
2.a
2.a.1
The agriculture orientation index for government expenditures
2.a.2
Total official flows (official development assistance plus other official flows) to the agriculture sector
2.b
Correct and prevent trade restrictions and distortions in world agricultural markets, including through the parallel elimination of all forms of agricultural export subsidies and all export measures with equivalent effect, in accordance with the mandate of the Doha Development Round
2.b.1
Agricultural export subsidies
2.c
Adopt measures to ensure the proper functioning of food commodity markets and their derivatives and facilitate timely access to market information, including on food reserves, in order to help limit extreme food price volatility
2.c.1
Indicator of food price anomalies
Goal 17
Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development
17.1
Strengthen domestic resource mobilization, including through international support to developing countries, to improve domestic capacity for tax and other revenue collection
17.1.1
17.1.2
17.2
Developed countries to implement fully their official development assistance commitments, including the commitment by many developed countries to achieve the target of 0.7 per cent of ODA/GNI to developing countries and 0.15 to 0.20 per cent of ODA/GNI to least developed countries; ODA providers are encouraged to consider setting a target to provide at least 0.20 per cent of ODA/GNI to least developed countries
17.2.1
17.3
Mobilize additional financial resources for developing countries from multiple sources
17.3.1
Additional financial resources mobilized for developing countries from multiple sources
17.3.2
17.4
Assist developing countries in attaining long-term debt sustainability through coordinated policies aimed at fostering debt financing, debt relief and debt restructuring, as appropriate, and address the external debt of highly indebted poor countries to reduce debt distress
17.4.1
17.5
Adopt and implement investment promotion regimes for least developed countries
17.5.1
Number of countries that adopt and implement investment promotion regimes for developing countries, including the least developed countries
17.6
Enhance North-South, South-South and triangular regional and international cooperation on and access to science, technology and innovation and enhance knowledge sharing on mutually agreed terms, including through improved coordination among existing mechanisms, in particular at the United Nations level, and through a global technology facilitation mechanism
17.6.1
Fixed broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, by speed
17.7
Promote the development, transfer, dissemination and diffusion of environmentally sound technologies to developing countries on favourable terms, including on concessional and preferential terms, as mutually agreed
17.7.1
Total amount of funding for developing countries to promote the development, transfer, dissemination and diffusion of environmentally sound technologies
17.8
Fully operationalize the technology bank and science, technology and innovation capacity-building mechanism for least developed countries by 2017 and enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology
17.8.1
17.9
Enhance international support for implementing effective and targeted capacity-building in developing countries to support national plans to implement all the Sustainable Development Goals, including through North-South, South-South and triangular cooperation
17.9.1
Dollar value of financial and technical assistance (including through North-South, South‑South and triangular cooperation) committed to developing countries
17.10
Promote a universal, rules-based, open, non-discriminatory and equitable multilateral trading system under the World Trade Organization, including through the conclusion of negotiations under its Doha Development Agenda
17.10.1
17.11
Significantly increase the exports of developing countries, in particular with a view to doubling the least developed countries’ share of global exports by 2020
17.11.1
Developing countries’ and least developed countries’ share of global exports
17.12
Realize timely implementation of duty-free and quota-free market access on a lasting basis for all least developed countries, consistent with World Trade Organization decisions, including by ensuring that preferential rules of origin applicable to imports from least developed countries are transparent and simple, and contribute to facilitating market access
17.12.1
Weighted average tariffs faced by developing countries, least developed countries and small island developing States
17.13
Enhance global macroeconomic stability, including through policy coordination and policy coherence
17.13.1
17.14
Enhance policy coherence for sustainable development
17.14.1
17.15
Respect each country’s policy space and leadership to establish and implement policies for poverty eradication and sustainable development
17.15.1
17.16
Enhance the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development, complemented by multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources, to support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals in all countries, in particular developing countries
17.16.1
Number of countries reporting progress in multi-stakeholder development effectiveness monitoring frameworks that support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals
17.17
Encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships
17.17.1
Amount in United States dollars committed to public-private partnerships for infrastructure
17.18
By 2020, enhance capacity-building support to developing countries, including for least developed countries and small island developing States, to increase significantly the availability of high-quality, timely and reliable data disaggregated by income, gender, age, race, ethnicity, migratory status, disability, geographic location and other characteristics relevant in national contexts
17.18.1
Statistical capacity indicators
17.18.2
17.18.3
Number of countries with a national statistical plan that is fully funded and under implementation, by source of funding
17.19
By 2030, build on existing initiatives to develop measurements of progress on sustainable development that complement gross domestic product, and support statistical capacity-building in developing countries
17.19.1
17.19.2
Proportion of countries that (a) have conducted at least one population and housing census in the last 10 years; and (b) have achieved 100 per cent birth registration and 80 per cent death registration
SDG 14 targets covered
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Contact Information
Zoe Ives , Private Sector Engagement Manager