1

MECIS ECONOMIC JUSTICE

COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE

LEARNING WORKSHOP

MARCH 17-20, 2014, RAMALLAH, WEST BANK

FULL REPORT

This is the final report on the MECIS Economic Justice Community of Practice Learning

Workshop that took place on 17-20 March 2014 in Ramallah, West Bank. It has three levels

of increasing detail as follows:

Executive Summary (2 pages)

Summary Report (6 pages)

Appendices 1-3 giving fuller details including typed out flipcharts (25 pages)

There are also the original Learning Papers (105 pages) and presentations (99 PowerPoint

slides) on which the Workshop was based, available from Shekhar Anand.

Peter Moore 13April 2014

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

About 35 Oxfam staff and partners took part in the MECIS Economic Justice Community of

Practice Learning Workshop in Ramallah on 17-20 March with the following objectives:

To promote peer to peer learning across the region

To develop a strong Economic Justice Community of Practice and support structure in

the region

To enhance the ability of Oxfam and partner organisations to gain greater impact

through a systems approach

The overall design of the workshop was as follows. After an introductory morning, including

dialogue with the Regional Director, the next day and a half consisted of case studies from

the MECIS region grouped under themes that were linked to Oxfam’s theory of change for

market systems. Field visits on the third day gave an opportunity to study in depth projects in

the West Bank as case studies. All the cases studies offered opportunities for sharing learning

on specific practical points as well as deeper lessons based on a systems approach. On the

fourth day results of the case studies were brought together and plans were made for the

future development of the MECIS Economic Justice Community of Practice (CoP).

This Executive Summary of a meeting rich in detail gives only a few key points from what

was a workshop rich in details and lessons on a wide range of topics. More details are given

in the following 6 page Summary Report, with a fuller record of plenary and group work in

Appendices 1-3.

Systems thinking led to key questions throughout the workshop about underlying

causes, wider impacts beyond immediate beneficiaries, factors causing inequality

between men and women and key relationships.

Points made by the Regional Director, Olga Ghazaryan, included:

o Importance of learning from others and making best use of exchanging

experience.

o What distinguishes Oxfam in Economic Justice is the social dimension and

outcomes.

o Wider impact through systemic change in the whole sector by influencing

national players.

o Economic Justice comes 2nd only to humanitarian work in the strategic plan.

Participants shared positive and negative factors of the context in their localities

with some common ground as follows:

o Public Sector: Lack of technical skills and investment.

o Private Sector: Good experience (interest, willingness, technical skills) but

also common challenges that included monopolies and regional disparities.

o Civil Society:Very strong and proactive in many countries, but organisations

increasingly represent donor rather than people’s needs.

Guest Speaker Mr Ziad Anabtawi, CEO of Anabtawi Group, said Oxfam’s role was

on the right track; farmers needed help with marketing, quality and costs.

3

Case study results under 6 themes from the theory of change for market systems included:

Innovative Services: Getting farmers to use fee-based agricultural services through

village advisory models and demonstration of increased incomes (Tajikistan)

New Business Models: Value of initial clarity on stakeholders and responsibilities

(Azerbaijan) and diversified products and a strong domestic market (Azerbaijan and

oPt); need to shift cooperatives’ thinking from charity to business mentality.

Influencing: Value in some contexts of informal alliance with accountability and

legitimacy through membership-based organisations (Georgia); key Oxfam role in

capacity building of alliance members eg ways of working.

Gender:

o Household dynamics very important to understand women’s rights.

o Women-owned businesses for networking and as role models (Palestine)

Enterprise Development: Question whether cooperatives are the best business model

at scale above 50 members )oPt); gendered market and household economic mapping

to reach beneficiaries effectively (Azerbaijan).

Resilience Building, defined as improving the capacity of individuals, systems or

natural resources to recover performance after a shock: presenting pilots to attract

replication (Armenia); vulnerability assessment tool (Armenia); need to emphasise

sustainability of sector driven by emergency focus of donors (Oxfam Italy in oPt).

Field visit lessons included:

o Significant impact in most projects beyond immediate beneficiaries

o Donor-created subsidies and temporary free services can be very destructive of

attempts to build long-term sustainability

o It takes a long time, the order of 10 years, to achieve success.

Conclusions on specific themes included the following:

o New Business Model conclusions included suggestions on how to ensure poor

women are at the centre of the work:

Select a value chain where women are already involved

Understand household dynamics

o Influencing conclusions included need to operate locally, regionally and

nationally

o Innovative Services conclusions included charts of three different models of

services

Next steps on developing the Community of Practice included:

o Sharing of offers of and requests for help.

o Recognition that learning through the CoP requires time, perhaps 10%.

o Building a support structure to address learning needs, especially in the

following areas: systems and approaches, concepts, strategies and tools.

o Learning paper materials to be refined over the next few months.

Peter Moore, drawing heavily on notes by Ismail Abu Arafeh 13 April 2014

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MECIS ECONOMIC JUSTICE COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE LEARNING WORKSHOP

MARCH 17-20, 2014, RAMALLAH, WEST BANK SUMMARY REPORT

About 35 Oxfam staff and partners took part in a four day workshop in Ramallah on 17-20 March

with the following workshop objectives:

To promote peer to peer learning across the region

To develop a strong Economic Justice Community of Practice and support structure in the region

To enhance the ability of Oxfam and partner organisations to gain greater impact through a

systems approach

The overall design of the workshop was as shown below. After an introductory morning, including

dialogue with the Regional Director, the next day and a half consisted of case studies from the MECIS

region grouped under themes that were linked to Oxfam’s theory of change for market systems. Field visits on the third day gave an opportunity to study in depth projects in the West Bank as case studies.

All the cases studies offered opportunities for sharing learning on specific practical points as well as

deeper lessons based on a systems approach. On the fourth day results of the case studies were brought together and plans were made for the future development of the MECIS Economic Justice

Community of Practice (CoP).

Sharing experience within themes Field visits Integration and

next steps

Monday 17 March Tuesday 18 March Wednesday 19 March Thursday 20 March

Introduction

Workshop design Regional Director link

Contexts

Enterprise Development: private

sector guest speaker

Influence &

Investment: learning from Georgia and Gaza

Strip

Gender: developing indicators, learning

from oPt

Briefing on field visits

Field Visits in 3 teams

Reports from field

visits

Resilience Building:

learning from Armenia

Integration within three themes

LUNCH LUNCH LUNCH LUNCH

Innovative Services: learning from

Tajikistan

New Business Models: learning from

Azerbaijan and West

Bank

Enterprise Development: learning

from West Bank and

Azerbaijan

Resilience Building:

learning from Armenia

and Oxfam Italy in

West Bank

Discussion of field

visits on return journey

Next Steps: developing the

Community of Practice

Review of Workshop

The rest of this Summary Report summarises what was heard and concluded during the workshop.

This is a very brief summary of a meeting rich in detail and fuller details are given in Appendices 1-3.

1. SYSTEMS THINKING

A system is a space where multiple relationships exist, with both formal and informal structures

and behaviours and unpredictable changes of events. Systems adapt and change themselves.

Key questions about underlying causes, wider impacts beyond immediate beneficiaries, factors

causing inequality between men and women and key relationships.

2. THEMES from Oxfam Theory of Change for market systems - Enterprise Development - Influence and Investment

- Resilience Building - New Business Models

- Gender - Innovative Services

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3. LINK WITH REGIONAL DIRECTOR, OLGA GHAZARYAN [Fuller details in Appendix 3]

3.1 Three “provocations” from Regional Director

a) Importance of learning from others and making best use of exchanging experience.

b) What distinguishes Oxfam in Economic Justice (EJ) is the social dimension and outcomes.

c) Wider impact through systemic change in the whole sector by influencing national players.

3.2 Questions to Olga and her answers included:

Position of EJ work in OI confederation: a key sector all affiliates are interested in.

Importance of Economic Justice: strategic plan shows that EJ comes 2nd

after humanitarian work.

Cases where upscale worked: India farmers and policy & advocacy eg OPTI and Azerbaijan.

Influencing poor, uninterested government: identify other actors eg Yemen post offices for cash.

4. CONTEXTS [Fuller details in Appendix 3]

Participants shared positive and negative factors of the context in their localities under five headings:

Public Sector

Some support from governments, some more at local level.

Lack of technical skills and investment.

Private Sector

Good experience in private sector (interest, willingness, technical skills).

Common challenges: monopolies, trade rules, lack enabling environment, regional disparities.

Civil Society

Very strong and proactive in many countries, however organisations are becoming more

dependent on donors and therefore increasingly represent donor rather than people’s needs.

Smallholder Agriculture

Overlap and commonalities on problems and opportunities for small scale farmers: fragmentation,

lack of knowledge, no opportunities for scale, cooperative laws and development

Household/Domestic Culture

“Male dominance”, yet household dynamics enable some women to influence decisions.

Sometimes gender roles forced and lack of opportunities for women involvement, but changing.

Lots of sharing between communities (social capital).

5. Enterprise Development: Guest Speaker: MR ZIAD ANABTAWI, CEO of Anabtawi Group

[Fuller details in Appendix 3] Major Palestinian family business, importer then exporter, recently olive oil as social contribution.

Agricultural products not ready to compete in international markets after damage in 3 decades of

occupation. Studies by Oxfam are considered key references. Need to improve the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) performance in planning, training etc. 80% of government budget spent on

salaries. Area C access (called for by Oslo Accords) could add $3bn pa to Palestinian economy. The

MoA share of budget only changed two years ago from 1% to 3%.

What should Oxfam do? Oxfam’s role right now is on the right track. Need more attention to

marketing products, improved quality and lower costs. Farmers’ margins are high.

Sessions during the next day and a half were grouped under the 6 themes identified in the theory of

change for market systems:

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6. THEMES AND CASE STUDIES [Fuller details in Appendix 3]

6.1 Innovative Services

Video introduction by Alvaro Valverde: access to information and financial services eg cash

transfers in Kenya and connecting women with microfinance. Move to facilitation approach,

engaging government and private sector in innovative services to ensure sustainability.

Tajikistan Case Study 1: fee-based agricultural services. Lessons included: demonstration effect

of village advisory models leading farmers to pay; CBO mobilisation to develop self-help.

Tajikistan Case Study 2: agricultural services by SAS Consulting including information

services. Lessons included: services increased incomes so farmers work with SAS.

Group work results included:

o Worked well: work with larger farmers, exchanging experience, extension services

o Worked less well: work with smaller farmers, not demand-based, lack of sustainability, not targeting smallholders, lack of marketing

6.2 New Business Models

Video introduction by Juni Sul mentioned challenges: managing expectations (eg returns) and

ensuring local enterprises own projects to ensure sustainability. Key steps in developing new

models: identify opportunities, design model, engage stakeholders and ensure pilot is scalable.

Azerbaijan Sunrise Case Study: global value chain: onions for Unilever. Lessons included need

for clear stakeholders and responsibilities at start. Need to focus on a product with a strong

domestic market and beware of global price collapse. Start with realism including on timeframe.

Palestinian Case Study: olives from grove to market. Lessons included value of diversification

of products and bringing in more than one institutional donor. Develop specific advocacy

programme, encourage research by universities and focus on trends in local consumers.

Group work results included:

o Farmer aggregation and gender empowerment are two key lessons from olive case study. o Shifting cooperatives’ thinking from charity to business mentality.

o Importance of peer role models in changing women’s economic empowerment.

o Need for multi-stakeholder forums at national level to address issues raised.

6.3 Influencing

Video introduction by James Whitehead: see paper “Leverage: reaching scale in our work”.

Oxfam has to explore how best to work with influencers, as well as using our international

capabilities: networking with small farmers, ministries and partner organisations at all levels.

Georgia Case Study: multi-stakeholder alliance on agriculture and rural development. Lessons

included value of informal structure in this context with accountability and legitimacy through

membership-based organisations in the alliance. Challenge of ensuring sustainability.

Georgia: responses to group questions:

o Reaching agreement between stakeholders: signed ways of working, board of advisors o Agricultural sector is well represented at all levels: national (government and donors),

regional and local (representatives of CBOs and small holder farmers).

o Attraction of alliance is market access, policy dialogue and advocacy influence. o Oxfam must play a role in capacity building of alliance members eg ways of working.

Gaza Strip Case Study: local economic development. Lessons included need for substantial

early work on monitoring, evaluation, gender, advocacy and exit strategy.

6.4 Gender

What affects women’s ability to control their circumstances & fulfil their interests and priorities?

Participants commented on indicators under headings that came mainly from work in Asia:

o Ability to make decisions and influence

o Self-perception and personal freedom o Access to and control over resources

o Support from social networks

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Other comments included:

o Household dynamics are very important to understand women’s rights. Eg men in

Armenia taking loans for women and then disappearing or failing to pay back the loans. o The role of women is affected by their social status (married, single, divorced etc).

o While laws and religions guarantee certain rights of women, many women are not aware

of these rights and accordingly cannot secure them.

o Assets are often registered under men’s ownership so women lack collateral for credit.

Palestinian Case Study: Business Development Centre. Lessons included: women-owned

businesses for networking and as role models; do not push formal if informal business preferred.

6.5 Enterprise Development

oPt Case Study: women’s products and markets. Lessons included need to build on local

experience and advice to channel revolving loans through microfinance institutions.

oPt: responses to group questions:

o Attracting new members to cooperatives: initiatives to persuade farmers they could profit.

o The most effective cooperatives are those with 40-50 members. Oxfam is exploring whether cooperatives remain the best business model at a larger scale.

Azerbaijan Case Study: engaging poor farmers in strawberry value chain. Lessons included use

of gendered market and household economic mapping to reach beneficiaries effectively.

Azerbaijan: responses to group questions:

o Identifying need at the start: 13 sub-sectors were examined. Strawberries offered strong

demand and good opportunities for benefiting women.

6.6 Resilience Building

Definition: improving the capacity of individuals, systems or natural resources to recover

performance after a shock. In Oxfam, often includes adaptation eg to climate change.

Armenia Case Study 1: facilitating productive and resilient smallholder agriculture

development. Lessons included: more intensive work with agricultural cooperatives to

promote group work and build financial management capacity, presenting the efficiency and

affordability of piloted models as attractive for replication and work on government policies.

Armenia: response to group question:

o Addressed gender by increasing women’s capacity for running social enterprises and

campaigning on social issues including male immigration.

Armenia Case Study 2 (presented on Thursday): vulnerability assessment tool. Lessons

included the value of systematically identifying the causes and impacts of a range of hazards.

oPt Case Study from Oxfam Italy: Palestine Livestock Development Centre. Lessons

included need to emphasise sustainability of a sector too much driven by emergency focus of donors and to provide capacity building to a partner such as PLDC in organisational

management and governance, including via local universities and international institutions.

oPt: responses to group questions:

o Sustainability as fodder is now imported: fodder is the main issue for livestock holders in Palestine. Oxfam Italy built a fodder centre in Jordan Valley which

improves quality. A sustainable fodder supply is yet not feasible owing to lack of

resources from donors. o Gender: 17 women producer groups making dairy and wood products. Rapid

assessment to better understand gender programming.

7. FIELD VISITS

7.1 Notes on Group 1 Field Visits Visited NFC social enterprise centre, which acted as a marketing and retail store for cooperatives, an

olive oil federation and a women business centre for the region in Jericho. Discussion focused on the

range of governance and legal structures with their implications for taxation and donor interest.

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7.2 Notes on Group 2 Field Visits

Visited the Palestine Livestock Development Centre (PLDC in Tubas: see 6.6 above), Tubas Holy Tree Cooperative (olive oil) and Al Ard, Mr Ziad Anabtawi’s company in Nablus (see 5 above).

Comments shared at the end of the day included:

Each of the visits revealed significant impact on those beyond the immediate beneficiaries,

notably other breeders, olive oil producers and the sector as a whole respectively.

Cooperatives, followed by public sector, seemed to be the weakest links in the value chain.

Compared with a few years ago, more actors seem willing to seek change rather than just

complaining about political issues. Some effective collective action is emerging, such as cooperative and PLDC services.

All three organisations were critical of the Ministry of Agriculture yet seemed reluctant, in the

first two cases, to tackle the issue, seeing it as a deep-rooted cultural issue.

Mr Anabtawi offered to co-sponsor with Oxfam a workshop on the olive oil sector’s

Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) as a route to press for changes.

7.3 Notes on Group 3 Field Visits

Visited Al-Reef company which provided an example of a marketing agent and exporter, a women’s cooperative that focused on crop processing and an olive oil federation in Jenin. Comments in

discussion included:

These were complex projects, professionally run.

They tackled known problems – is there a role for Oxfam in stretching the scope to encourage

innovation, for example?

Donor-created subsidies and temporary free services can be very destructive of attempts to

build long-term sustainability (also noted by group 2)

It takes a long time, the order of 10 years, to achieve success.

8. INTEGRATION [Fuller details in Appendix 3]

Groups reviewed key lessons under each of three themes including major issues, alternative models, how to ensure that poor women are at the centre of work and lessons to take home. Results included:

8.1 New Business Models

Danger of having just one customer: need to develop local market diversity

Subsidies at the start of a cooperative can be effective in developing services and allowing

members to see value before they have to pay

Integration/coordination within the value chain as key to improve efficiency

Smaller cooperatives can be more effective – federations rather than bigger cooperatives as

the way to increase scale.

Ensuring poor women are at the centre:

o Select a value chain where women are already involved

o Understand household dynamics

Lessons to take home included buy local campaign and female food heroes.

8.2 Influencing: focused on the Multi-Stakeholder Forum model in Georgia

Need to operate at all influencing levels: local, regional, national

How to hold the government’s donors accountable?

Capacity of influencers and influencing subjects (5Ws – who, what, when, where, why)

Engage traditional social structures

8.3 Innovative Services

The group developed charts of three different models of services, shown at the end of Appendix 3:

Government to farmers

Cooperatives to farmers

Private sector to farmers

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9. NEXT STEPS

To contribute to the Community of Practice (CoP), participants were encouraged to state both what

they offered to others and what they sought from others: please see results of this “Market Place” in

Appendix 1. Four groups worked on next steps in building the CoP. Shekhar agreed to distil and

combine the results: see Appendix 2. Plenary comments included:

It is difficult to make time for extra work like this in practice

Learning is important – the order of 10% of time seems right

Needs to form part of regular work and projects, balancing learning and doing

Need to distinguish what is helpful from among the huge amount of material on offer within

Oxfam

Shadowing can be a helpful tool

Suggest CoP meetings with narrow focus and limited number of people 3 times a year

Could have thematic webinars say monthly on themes requested

CoP has to be demand-driven - it is a Community of Practice, not the Shekhar and Thomas

CoP

10. PARKED ISSUE

Participants discussed issues arising around a potential foreign member of the Georgian multi-

stakeholder alliance. Although it had to be remembered that Oxfam was a member not the owner of

the alliance, it was agreed foreign potential applicants should be screened carefully.

11. ACTIONS

1. Shekhar to record Market Place requests and offers and organise next steps [see Appendix 1]

2. Shekhar: To distil and combine results of CoP group work [see Appendix 2].

3. Shekhar to place Workshop presentations on cloud and send link to all participants 4. Thomas to add the videos including those made but not used

5. Peter and Shekhar to work on [this] Workshop report: summary of 6-7 pages plus all flipcharts etc

in appendices, based on work by Ismail and Reem

6. Shekhar to follow up with writers of learning papers over the next few months to refine material

7. Shekhar to issue a communiqué linked to this Workshop

8. Beesyna to use the comments given on gender indicators

9. oPt to follow up the next day with inter-affiliate discussions on economic justice

12. REVIEW OF WORKSHOP

Those present completed evaluation forms which are summarised in a separate report.

13. CLOSING REMARKS

Shekhar and Ghazi in turn thanked all those who had made the Workshop a success, including the

oPtI and hotel staff involved, all speakers and participants, the Steering Committee and the facilitator. Other participants added their gratitude to Shekhar, Thomas, oPtI staff, Peter and others.

Peter Moore based on notes by Ismail Abu Arafeh 13 April 2014

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APPENDIX 1

MARKET PLACE

OFFER TO OTHERS NEED FROM OTHERS

Armenia

Rural community

based adaptive

agricultural model.

Use multi-stake

holder platform/

alliances in joint

advocacy.

Pre-vulnerability

assessment tool.

Application of FFH

campaigns (Food

Female Hero) to

promote rural women

to sustain agricultural

development.

Model of rural

business and social

enterprises within the

agri-cooperatives.

Georgia

Setup documentation

for multi-stake holder

alliance.

Info on Coop. law +

regarding framework.

Armenia

Approaches in

accessing foreign

markets.

Linking cooperatives

with Private Sector.

Increasing role of

coops as Business

Enterprises.

Myanmar

WEL/GEM CB for

teams in Myanmar.

Manual “How to

Design & Set Up on

Farm Demonstration

Plots” (Jonathan)

Palestine

COOP Law + by-

laws English version.

Replicate

meeting/workshop in

Gaza please!

Tajikistan

Food security

policies – experience

of other countries.

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APPENDIX 2

BUILDING THE COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE: NEXT STEPS

I. Building the support structure

The EJ CoP will develop a support structure to address capacity gaps. The support structure

will include regional and global organisations, CoP members and regional and global

advisors. It will build the capacity of staff and partners through collaboration, interactions

and engaging in an authentic learning environment that can transform beliefs, behaviour and

culture.

II. The current capacity needs include the following areas:

Systems and approaches: Cooperative systems; systems thinking methodology and

models and how to transform approaches towards them;

Concepts: Business model of social enterprises, value chain approach; power analysis;

concept of GEM and project management;

Strategies: Private sector engagement; influencing strategies; engaging women in

leadership; working in conflict; partner capacity building approaches;

Tools: Measuring gender; technical tool on Rapid Care Analysis (RCA).

III. The support structure will use multiple strategies including:

Motivation: awards and recognition at country and regional level;

Communication: Blogs; annual meeting; bringing the group together;

Training: Coaching, mentoring, thematic webinars and TOTs; facilitated discussions

on EJ subjects; narrow down to thematic discussion groups; invite other regions,

donors, to these discussions; live interaction on success & failures; formal training, in-

country tailored training (e.g. Coady courses); mapping and accessing resource

capacity in Oxfam Federation.

Exposure: regular, sustained exchange visits; expose ourselves to what others are

doing; peer workshops, Jury’s and Donor feedback; experience sharing, study tours/

cross-visits

HR support: external secondments; job shadowing; shadow external missions

Reviews and assessments: Peer country level EJ reviews; resource mapping / gap

assessment; feedback on consultants use; research & dissemination

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APPENDIX 3

DETAILED NOTES INCLUDING FLIPCHARTS FROM GROUP WORK

Please note: numbers refer to sections in main text.

DAY ONE: Monday 17 March

Introductions and Workshop Overview – Peter Moore

Workshop Objectives

To promote peer to peer learning across the region

To develop a strong Economic Justice Community of Practice and support structure in the

region

To enhance the ability of Oxfam and partner organizations to gain greater impact through

a systems approach

Expectations:

To learn what others have done, and what worked and what did not work

To exchange ideas and learning, and further understand challenges faced by others

launching GEM projects

To learn innovative agricultural service delivery models

To learn of the dynamics of programme implementation through partners

To better understand monitoring and finance management, donor obligations

To improve Gender Mainstreaming implementation

Design of Workshop

Balance between sharing specific details and overall learning. For instance, good to share on Olive Oil

programme, yet there will be an opportunity to check how these projects deeply address systems they

work in.

1. What is SYSTEMS THINKING?

A system is a space where various relationships exist, where multiple actors and

relationships between them occur.

Both formal and informal structures and behaviours

Unpredictable changes of events ; systems adapt

Systems thinking: Some key questions

Underlying causes of the development interventions you are implementing

Wider impacts of the intervention

Real factors causing inequality between men and women

Relationships with others that are important

2. THEMES of Theory of Change

Enterprise Development - Influence and Investment

Resilience Building - New Business Models

Gender - Innovative Services

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3. LINK WITH REGIONAL DIRECTOR, OLGA GHAZARYAN

Three highlights

1- Importance of learning from others and making best use of experience exchange.

2- We need to emphasize that we are not only doing Economic Justice, as many competitors are

there that can do the same from private sector and consulting firms. What distinguishes us are

the social dimension and outcomes (gender, environment, equity, etc...)

3- Wider impact through upscale: Think of systemic change in the whole sector with national

level players we are working with. We need to learn how to influence key players to ensure

sustainable change.

Questions to Olga Ghazaryan

Cases where upscale worked?

India farmers (Shekhar could give example). One way to achieve scale is to conduct a players’

analysis and check with them what we could address. Policy & advocacy work is another intervention

that we could embark on to ensure upscale (OPTI and Azerbaijan examples). It is critical to convince

other actors to take on strategic issues and ensure we achieve systemic change.

How does Economic Justice work fit in light of the OI confederation?

Fits with our future plans. Even in Syria we are exploring how we could program Economic Justice

interventions in Syrian refugee camp. OI decided that EJ is a key sector that all affiliates are interested

in, and is a key pillar for other programs and sectors.

Specify frames of Economic Justice to see what other projects could feed into this

programme?

The workshop will answer that.

Influencing challenge: How can you work in a context where governments or the

broader context is very difficult to work (poor, ineffective, uninterested government).

How do you influence such a context?

In such cases, it is important to identify powerful actors whether they are formal or informal. For an

organization like Oxfam, it is crucial that we identify who the actors are, and how to network through

them. An example from Yemen: national government is weak, and the challenge was to distribute

cash to 1.5m population. The team identified the role of post offices which was very helpful in

implementing the project. In cases of a strong government, an example in Russia shows that there are

possibilities where certain actors we could work with can influence the government.

What’s the relative importance of Economic Justice (where does it rank in Oxfam

priorities)?

Oxfam strategic plan explicitly shows a change flow on Economic Justice. The relative weight of

change goals shows that EJ comes 2nd

after humanitarian work.

Taking into consideration the complex context of the region, how can Oxfam enhance

work together and promote exchange among national civil society actors?

The workshop that we’re in now will tackle this question. Opportunities to bring CSOs and people

together on what needs to be addressed. Regional Economic Justice programme emphasizes learning

through this region.

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4. CONTEXTS: First described by Sector at each location:

OPTI

Public Sector

Positive Negative

Absent Selectively supportive

Investment environment is not favourable No empowering roles. Old roles

Lacking economic vision

Corruption Ineffective operations

Private Sector

Positive Negative

Willingness for engagement

Potential for investment

Guarantee of sustainability Willing to take risk + creative

Monopoly

Profit

Lack of Social Responsibility Distribution of wealth

Export + import constraints

Civil Society

Positive Negative

Strong Civil Society

High voice Experienced & motivated

Too many

Aid addicts / donor driven Politically oriented

Small Holder Agriculture

Positive Negative

Good experience

Willing to learn and adapt new technology

Family business High resistance

Not organized

Aid dependant

No control Very fragmented

Household Domestic Culture:

Positive : Negative :

Strong social events Male biased

Armenia:

Public Sector

Positive Negative

Some of the ministries are open for discussions

and cooperation

Insufficient funding centralized poor agriculture

policies.

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Private Sector

Positive Negative

Establishment of community based social

enterprises

Agricultural businesses

Potential to link with small holder farmers.

Barriers for entering the market

Monopoly

Weakly developed

Sms sector

Civil Society

Positive Negative

Proactive in discussing

Availability of multi size small holder platforms.

Low level of consolidation

Low financial opportunities

Small Holder Agriculture

Positive Negative

Good practice in establishing agri coop including women coop.

Available adaptive agri models.

Lack of knowledge Limited access to resources

Extra session technologies

Household Domestic Culture

Positive Negative

High solidarity within families.

Women headed Male migration

Negative stereotypes on gender

Georgia :

Public Sector

Positive Negative

Open government Ready to listen

EU association agreement

Positive prospects

Lack of clear vision Lack of professionals

Lack of technocrats

Private Sector

Positive Negative

Developed system MFI

Importers Agriculture in less appealing sector

Absence of some policies

Civil Society

Positive : Negative :

Strong donor interest in agriculture High civil activism

Presence of primitive strong traditional

cooperation systems

High presence of donor funding Lack of membership based organizations.

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Small Holder Agriculture

Positive Negative

12 dynamic zones

Good climate conditions

Favorable investment climate

Rich markets

Self subsistence

No land markets

Household Domestic Culture

Positive : Negative :

The least gendered sphere of economy is

agriculture

Interactive society

Strict gender divide in household.

Tajikistan:

Public Sector

Positive : Negative :

Local level relationship Successful ppd in the north

Lack of investment support services

Private Sector

Positive : Negative :

Great access to markets

Insufficient investment in agriculture sector

Monopoly

Civil Society

Positive Negative

Active actors in gender sector

Limited actors in agriculture

Lack of engagement ( in practice)

Small holder agriculture:

Positive Negative

Increasing in number of WPGs

Progress on individual accessing land

Small scale production

Lack of infrastructure Access to services

Household Domestic Culture

Positive : Negative :

Increasing number of FHHs

Women’s engagement in lower value added production

Remittances

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Comments on sectors in turn, combining countries, after café-style discussions

Thomas: Smallholder Agriculture

More overlap and commonalities on what problems and opportunities are for small scale

farmers (fragmentation, lack of knowledge, no opportunities for scale, cooperative laws

such as Tajikistan, enterprise cooperative development (OPTI + Armenia)

Notable additions were in Azerbaijan (Lack of CSR), as well as import and export

challenge

Jonathan: Domestic/Household

Agriculture only would be hard for sustainable livelihoods

Male dominance in this sector, yet household dynamics play a role in how the females

influence decisions.

Gender roles forced in some countries, and some have changes in this role.

Lots of sharing among families (social capital).

Lack of opportunities for women involvement.

Busayna: Civil Society

Very strong and proactive in many countries, however they are becoming more dependent

on donors. This presents a dilemma since CSOs are increasingly more representing donor

interests rather than the needs of the population.

Benoit: Public Sector

Some kind of support from governments, such as OPTI

Some support at local level rather than national

Variance of influence and interest from one Ministry to another

Lack of technical skills

Lack of investment

Shekhar: Private Sector

Good experience in private sector (interest, willingness, technical skills)

Availability of resources (oil in Azerbaijan for example)

Monopoly was a common challenge

Trade rules, export rules, and an overall enabling environment is lacking

Local vs. national level work

Disparity within each country based on region

No sectoral focus in certain countries

5. Enterprise Development: Guest Speaker: MR ZIAD ANABTAWI, CEO of Anabtawi Group

Speech

Mr Anabtawi grew up in Palestine and got education in the US. He got involved in his family’s

business since its start in 1963 (second generation). Today, Anabtawi is one of the more organized

family businesses in Palestine. The company is an importer of various products and commodities

through doing business with multinational companies (Nestle, Phillip Morris, Unilever, Delmonte,

etc...). In recent years, they worked on exporting, becoming a leading producer and distributors of

vegetable oils and more recently olive oil.

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In Olive Oil, the company noticed a need to help producers in packaging and marketing, and thus

there was a business opportunity to work with farmers. As cited by Mr. Anabtawi: “We worked

enough with multinationals that we could now be one”. The company started having departmental

division that focuses on particular regions (For example: North America, Middle East, etc...). The

company created a local brand, Al-Ard (meaning the land). The new brand primarily focused on

producing and distributing Olive Oil, basing its packaging using the Palestinian embroidery.

The company increasingly is diversifying its products (soap, sage, dates, tahineh, etc...). Stemming

from its social purpose, the company does not have intentions to compete with locals, and rather help

them fulfil their economic potential. The company works on improving quality of products,

packaging, and improving the product marketing. At the beginning, Al-Ard was surprised that no one

had knowledge of Palestinian products, which was the main challenge the company faced at the

international level.

At the local level, the agricultural sector products were not ready to compete in international markets.

The social culture was also not ready. Over 3 decades of direct occupation, much damage affected

various agricultural sub-sectors. Many farmer experts travelled abroad to work and send money to

their families. Other farmers took an alternative path by working in Israel. As a result, the agricultural

sector was relatively ignored. One example is Palestinian Olive Oil which used to be a main source of

Olive Oil for countries such as Jordan. Currently and due to the setbacks faced in this sub-sector,

Palestine today imports Jordanian Olive Oil.

Producing good quality Olive Oil is a challenge and was supported by many donors (top of the list is

Oxfam). Many studies developed by Oxfam are now considered a reference (such as the cost of Olive

Oil). Another study identified weaknesses and opportunities for investing in this sector (waste in olive

oil presses). These issues stemming from the studies have become main issues that the Palestinian

Ministry of Agriculture is addressing. Al-Ard, as a social investment, organized relationships with

communities by supporting farmers to improve their efficiency, which Oxfam played a role in.

As Palestinians, we need to improve the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) national and local offices. It

is now time to improve the role of MoA as they are the decision makers for this sector. There is a

crucial need to improve their performance in strategic planning, training provision, etc... A challenge

for example was adopting the labour law which private sector was against. Mr. Anabtawi explained

that the budget of government is primarily salaries (80%), which the private sector contributes to

through taxes. Mr. Anabtawi emphasizes: “how can we serve ourselves when we are focused on

paying the debts of the PA. What are we getting in return for paying our taxes. PA has to work to get

our rights as agree in the Oslo Accords.” Mr. Anabtawi cited the new World Bank study which shows

that Area C accessibility (called for by Oslo Accords) could improve Palestinian economy by 3 billion

USD annually.

Questions:

What needs to be done to advocate for more accessibility to Area C?

The chain is moving and the World Bank study is an example.

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What other areas of support are needed besides land from an organization like Oxfam?

We are known for our capability to work hard. Palestinian are aggressive entrepreneurs as

demonstrated from regional experiences. We need to improve our performance as a government, from

all angles. Once we have the plan and will, we could definitely improve our economy. It is about time

to reconsider the role of government and how we could support it in fulfilling its role. For instance,

when focus was directed to security the performance improved, If this could be replicated to other

sectors, similar results could happen.

What is the solution for youth unwillingness to work in the agricultural sector?

Youth are more interested in getting employed in other sectors, however this tendency is changing as

they are not finding job opportunities anymore. We need to facilitate this for them. The budget for the

agricultural sector was not exceeding 1% and was only changed two years ago to 3%. With sufficient

emphasis and focus on this sector, we could change this trend and get more youth interested in this

sector. Even though a change of mindset among youth is evident, Palestinian roots are in this

agricultural sector. With more focus on the sector, more PR, this could easily change.

What should Oxfam start doing and what could it stop doing?

Oxfam’s role right now is on the right track. On a personal level, I think we should give more

attention to marketing products, as well as improved quality. With much support to farmers, they are

getting spoiled (their profit margins are high compared with other areas). They are imposing their

prices on the market rather than the market imposing its conditions on the farmers. The Palestinian

prices are not competitive with even top quality olive oil such as Italian. More marketing and more

pressure on farmer to improve performance (improve quality, quantity, etc...)

6. THEMES AND CASE STUDIES

6.1 Innovative Services

Using ICT (Video)

How to include ICT in OGB programmes. There is a broad range of services that farmers

could improve: access to information services, increased connections within the value

chain, accessing financial services like credit and insurance.

Innovative service we started using in recent years that use ICTs, for example cash

transfers. In Kenya we use ICT to improve access to credit linking with microfinance

institutions.

Added Value: Rwanda, Kenya, Ethiopia. Connecting southern women with microfinance

institutions to ease cash transfers.

Move to facilitation approach. Engaging the government in innovative services to ensure

their sustainability and a good exit strategy. The key to success is through ensuring we

work with key players such as the government or private sectors.

Innovative Service Delivery Case Study (Tajikistan Presentation pgs 1 - 13)

The project “Development of Technical Assistance Groups and Machinery Services” was

implemented in 36 regions. It was a replication of the GIZ model, a market-based approach to

promote fee-based agricultural services through CBOs. The adopted model was to facilitate and link

agronomists and women producer groups. To ensure leverage and sustainability, the project worked

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through local stakeholders through organizing economic forums and promoting this new model of

service delivery. As a result, 36 CBOs were established and improved embedded services to provide

to farmers. Our work in influencing and leveraging work was gradual, first working with local

structures (CBOs) and then with national stakeholders including the government. Some of the key

challenges were: agricultural service providers were a new concept, government lacked willingness,

and private sector was small.

Innovative Agricultural Services in Tajikistan - SAS Consulting (pgs 14-32)

The SAS consulting is made up of 14 full time members that included primarily agronomists. SAS is

the biggest enterprise, which includes an SAS microfinance organization, an open joint stock

company, SAS consulting that provides extension services, and SAS organic that provided services in

organic products. To close information gaps, SAS provided information services that include SMS

agroconsulting, mobile apps for agribusiness, agricultural newspaper agronoform, and agrarian web-

portal. Some of the services provided by SAS initially developed with donor funding, but all services

aim to become self-sustainable. Farmers work with SAS because they have a success story,

demonstrating that incomes of farmers increased through accessing these services.

Innovative Services: Group Work

Group work in relation to innovative services focused on what worked well, what did not work and a

range of probing questions based on systems thinking. Responses included:

1) Technical production on demo led by champion farmers’ exchange of experience study tours (in

country) price monitoring through year but insufficient fund and embedded service.

2) CBO did not work well because project driven direct training to farmers who don’t need to apply.

(Subsidizing ext services).

Notable Relationships:

- Armenia Agricultural Alliance (16 org share learning)

- Networking + multi stakeholder engagement. (Tajikistan)

- Broken / facilitate engagement and building trust between PS+ farmers (Palestine)

- Support / research on food security policy (Armenia)

- Do not by pass national service providers (Palestine)

- Cooperate / build cap of ES to set up demo + train farmers.

What worked and what didn’t?

- Worked with big farmers but not small.

- Not demand based: reluctance to pay.

- What is the exit strategy? Sustainability.

- Joint ventures could be an option.

- Not a value chain approach.

-Service in place, what next?

- Where finances come from?

Gender Blind PPT

- Is gender aspect considered in particular in the services?

- Gender enabling environment.

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- Who decides to receive external services?

- Field officers 30 women or men?

Notes from the last group:

- Cross linking from farmer to farmer (joint purchase and jointly trading).

- Diversification of production + marketing.

- Facilitating linkages between SHFs and extension services providers BUT now ESPS are paid by

SHFs not government.

- Loans have not worked.

6.2 New Business Models

Video on New Business Models by Juni Sul

Challenges:

1. managing expectations. Expecting returns faster whereas developmental projects have

longer-term timeframes. It is also important to manage expectations of farmers, by

ensuring you clarify realistically what could be achieved.

2. Ensuring locals own the project to ensure sustainability.

Key steps in developing new models:

o Identify opportunities

o Design model

o Engage stakeholders

o Ensuring the pilot you are carrying out is scalable

Case Study: Global Value Chain in Azerbaijan – Sunrise

A 3-year project where Oxfam would provide Unilever with dehydrated white onion supply from

Small Scale Farmers. The project attempted to bring together development objectives with Unilever’s

business objectives in a holistic way. In 2010, first trial plots were examined which led to identifying

white onions as a potential product. A trial of white onion in 2011 revealed that products are 4 times

more expensive than others with same quality. Accordingly, the strategy was revisited for Sunrise

project, introducing new agricultural practices to small scale farmers. This has resulted in tripled

yields although Unilever then left following the collapse of world prices. The overall achievement

was the support to an absolutely new value chain (white onions). Among the strengths of the projects

was the convening of several various parties who brought in diverse technical expertise, shared risks,

and ensured sustainability of the project in the case of local market players. Lesson learned was to

focus on a feasible product that has a strong domestic market rather than relying solely on

international markets. Another primary challenge was the global drop in white onion prices.

Case Study: From Grove to Market – Market Access for Palestinian Olives

A 3-year program that is financed primarily through EC and SDC, with 4 implementing partners

along with Oxfam. The programme benefits 3,525 households through working with 88 producer

cooperatives and producer groups. The programme address several market deficiencies:

1. Unfavourable policy and institutional environment.

2. Despite the strong history of cooperatives in Palestine, they still have limited institutional

capacity as they were created based on charitable models rather than effective business

models.

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3. Unstable domestic olive production due to challenges facing the context, with more and more

younger generation opting to work in Israel for higher expected returns.

4. Inconsistent quality of production where levels of quality varied dramatically.

5. Extension services were not provided by the government

6. Limited marketing capacity whereby the Palestinian private sector joined only in 2006 in

marketing, and yet are rarely involved in production and quality assurance

7. Women are only engaged in the production of Olive Oil rather than in the whole value chain

Key best practices:

Facilitating diversification of products including olive paste and olive soap

Adopt the M4P approach to ensure our intervention is facilitative that guarantees

sustainable and growth-oriented olive sector for small scale farmers

Incorporate GEM approach to ensure gender is also reached

Reduce donor fragmentation by bringing in more than one main institutional donor for the

support of a unified strategy in the sector.

Bringing in the experience and knowledge of various local partners as well as Coady

Institute

Key programme learning:

Developing and prioritizing a specific advocacy programme agenda to address

impediments created by the occupation

Encourage Universities to invest in Research & Development

To focus on the domestic market by understanding better the preferences and trends of

local consumers

Review of Day 1

Farmer aggregation and gender empowerment are two primary learnings from Olive Oil

project in Palestine

Sunrise project in Azerbaijan a good case study that could improve similar approaches

and engage similar players in new value chains in Azerbaijan

Beneficiary farmers are faced with unfavourable conditions in the OPT, and thus try to

relocate to other areas with more favourable conditions for production

Do women have any say in how income is spent? Are traditional roles the norm for

women (some families take the shortcut with their daughters by getting them married,

whereas they invest in education for their sons)? Who owns the lands?

New approaches of work in women economic empowerment (organizational

development, marketing, etc...)

Shifting cooperative social mentalities into business mentalities.

Role models peer-to-peer are very important in introducing change in gender economic

empowerment

Introducing multi-stakeholder forums at national level to address issues introduced by the

programme

Important to bring people together to bridge the gap between producers and distributors,

as well as reducing the mistrust between both

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DAY 2: Tuesday 18 March

6.3 Influencing

Video: James Whitehead on Influencing and Leverage

Check paper “Leverage: reaching scale in our work”

Leveraging is about achieving positive change in scale. Oxfam has to explore how to work with and

ensure we are including influencers, as well as how to best make use of their capabilities along with

our international capabilities. It is about how to work together (influence and being influenced). We

have reached a good network of very well established organizations, national ministries, and

international partners (Coady Institute). Two more groups that are also important are small scale

farmers and the groups they form, as well as regional affiliations and networks that could contribute to

change.

We must think of different creative ways with others that we could work to influence in bringing

about change. Good Example: Social Enterprise established in South Africa that provides extension

services for farmers that have livestock, using a business model rather than relying on grants which

ensures sustainability. Other examples include our work to influence Ministries of Agriculture and

donors to change their attitudes, policies, and approaches in the sector.

Case Study: Alliance and network building in Georgia

Georgian Alliance on Agriculture and rural development – GAARD

Uniting 19 stakeholders (4 INGOs and 15 NGOs) representing over 2600 SHF, 181 private sector

entities including agro consulting companies and processors and exporters, as well as panel experts.

The alliance was supposed to support the project, while the project supports the alliance in the

project’s 4-year period.

Prior to forming the alliance, the government has undermined the agricultural sector in Georgia.

Before holding parliamentary elections, a Donors Coordination Group proposed a draft agricultural

law with Oxfam leading the grassroots level consultation on the law. This process has been supported

by the agrarian club among others. Parliamentary elections held after this, which helped prioritize the

agriculture sector to the top of the government agenda. As soon as the MoA leadership was assigned,

Oxfam convinced them to lead while we facilitated and supported their efforts. The Ministry’s

influence was used to bring in experts, SHF, and other development agencies. Legislative

amendments were carried out with wide consultations, which were fed by the grassroots consultations

Oxfam held along with expert and development agency consultations, culminating in adopting this

new law.

The process of discussing the law was not smooth itself, and many controversies and debates took

place on certain provisions (to which level should it regulate). This experience demonstrated that

Oxfam and other civil society organization could indeed influence. This experience inspired the

establishing of an alliance that could consolidate efforts and act as an influence in the sector. Four

organizations lead on this alliance (Oxfam, Care, Mercy Corps, Czech Agency) which each brought in

a number of other local organizations. Every decision made by this alliance was made based on

consensus and not on voting. The structure also included a chair for donors, experts.

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Achievements:

Legal framework for development of agriculture in place

Consensus-based, well-recognized and influential civil society mechanisms for policy

dialogue

Accumulated, advanced expertise in agriculture and rural development

Sound mechanism for reflecting the interests of target constituents and enhancing their

participation and representation

What worked well, what did not:

Forming alliance fosters team spirit and sense of common goal

Dialogue between the government and civil society through the alliance

Organizing around specific objectives gives good ground for establishing results-oriented

mechanisms

No bureaucracy – decision-making is based on consensus

Presence of membership organizations gives better legitimacy to the alliance

Accountability mechanisms of the membership-based organization

Challenge of how to ensure sustainability beyond the project timeline (after 4 years)

Case Study: Influencing and Investment in Gaza Strip

A 3-year project aiming to support the local economic development in Gaza which works through 5

local and 2 international partners. The project started with a market mapping to identify opportunities

to support local economic development as well as bottlenecks that hamper such development. The

project identified various challenges in the supply side, demand side, and enabling environment (weak

business development services, weak regulations). Based on the mapping, 3 sectors were selected

(food processing sector, dairy sector, and ICT) that demonstrated potential for growth, revealed

female dominance in these sectors, and showed good demand in domestic and international markets.

The early studies of the project revealed that products in these 3 sectors are of good quality, but that

negative attitudes and perception of local consumers are preventing their marketing. Accordingly, a

buy local campaign was supported by the project to show that the true quality of local products that

included tasting events, radio sports, billboards and social media that aimed to reach 50,000

consumers in Gaza. The campaign has been successful in changing perceptions and attitudes of local

consumers, thereby increasing demand for products, despite its low level budget.

Working Groups led to further questions about the Georgia Alliance:

How do you reach agreement between the different stakeholders?

The organizations were distinct in that each had a certain technical expertise (for ex. Oxfam in

Advocacy and Livelihood) and each was implementing in a different geographic region. Each of the

four INGOs convened its local partner organizations to ensure ownership and representation of

grassroots needs. Special codes and ways of working documents were signed between the

organizations. The board of advisors which include the government, donors, and other stakeholders

are actively involved in the activities of the alliance.

How can the Alliance be representative of the agricultural sector?

The alliance includes representations of various stakeholders, including national-level players such as

the government and donors, in addition to local representations of CBOs and small holder farmers.

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Furthermore, the alliance works with regional networks to ensure that policies at the local level are

leveraging regional opportunities.

What is the interest of the people to come into one alliance?

The platform provides market access opportunities for members. Moreover, it allows for policy

dialogue and advocacy influence, putting forth recommendations to government for adoption. Due to

the diverse and inclusive participation of various stakeholders and influencers within this platform, it

is an effective platform that allows for communication between the representative members.

What sustainability model do you envision?

It is too early to answer on the form and approach of sustainability. This will be explored along with

all stakeholders gradually.

Interesting Point: It is essential that Oxfam plays a role in capacity building of alliance members (in

Georgia and other countries) in functions that enable them to better function. This may include

meeting arrangements, effective communication, bylaws and ways of working, advocacy and

networking, etc...

6.4 Gender

Presentation: Measuring Women’s Empowerment

What affects a women’s ability to control her own circumstances fulfil her own interests and

priorities?

PPAT came up with four areas primarily based on the experience in Asia:

1. Ability to make decisions and influence

a. Involvement in HH

i. Investment decisions

ii. Livelihood management decisions

iii. Income spending decisions

iv. General decisions

b. Degree of influence in community decision-making

c. Ability and access for women to reach leadership positions

2. Self-perception and personal freedom

3. Access to and control over resources

4. Support from social networks

Examples of ability to make decisions and influence

Household dynamics are very important to understand women’s rights. For instance, in

Armenia a law provided opportunities for women to get loans without needing collateral.

Due to household dynamics of these families, men took the loans and disappeared or

failed to repay them, which caused added setbacks to women.

Informal and formal recognition

Context forces women to make decisions

The social status of women affects their role (married, single, divorced, etc...)

While laws and religions guarantee certain rights of women, shockingly many women are

not aware of these rights and accordingly cannot receive it.

26

In many cases, assets are registered under men’s ownership and thus women lack access

to credit whereby they do not have assets to use as collateral.

Security could affect the position and be used as a pretext not to enrol women in

education, workforce.

How women get support from social networks?

Why only including social networks and rather it should be socio-economic networks

Case Study: Women Business Development Centre in Palestine

Facts

o 50% of women constitute the total population in Palestine

o 55% of university graduates are women

o 17.4% of workforce are women despite high levels of literacy and education.

o 27% = unemployment rate among females with 13 years of schooling and more

o 5.4%= registered women owned businesses

Profile of Palestinian Women’s Economic Engagement

o 4 women are represented on chambers of commerce out of 14

o 3 female ministers,

o 1 mayor

o 1 governor

Factors influencing Palestinian women’s economic engagement

o Legal and regulatory environment

o Business licensing and registration procedures are costly, time-consuming (11

steps through 49 days)

o Lack of Business Development Centres for Women

o Limited access to financial opportunities

o Cultural traditions

o Social norms

What were the problems?

Lack of effective support services that provide necessary advanced technical skills

Lack of well-structured business models that facilitate access to market

Lack of knowledge about trading through formal channels

Lack of access to information related to business opportunities and trade facilitation

Lack of access to finance opportunities

Business Women Forum (BWF) work:

Tailored training to women on negotiation, how to read contracts, close a deal, etc...

Worked in the past with individual business women, but with Oxfam delivered this

capacity building to women cooperatives

Enhanced capacity of women-owned SMEs to participate in trade through targeted

training and support, (2010-ongoing)

Improved competitiveness of women-owned SMEs and increased their participation in

export value chains (2013-2016)

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Increased capacity and demand from buyers for procuring goods and services produced

by women-owned SMEs through linkages with national initiatives, and promotion

campaigns for women products, meeting with wholesalers and meeting their

specifications.

MOUs with MFIs and banks for more facilitation to access to credit.

Issuing Policy Paper demanding an increase of women representations on decisions

making positions.

Impact

Helped 18 SMEs formally register, 15 SME started, and over 70 SMEs engaged in

capacity building and business development

%60 of the members have enhanced their leadership skills Improved.

20 entrepreneurs were matched with mentorship Program, that developed their

managerial and leadership capacities

5 women startups, and 6 Women Coops received $60,000 loans.

400 female entrepreneurs have used the BDC facilities

Lessons Learned:

Building capacity according to women SME needs and market demands

Cost-sharing percentage to the consultancy fees gives more loyal and committed

beneficiary

Building business linkages between business women and customers considerably helps

the selling process, starting from the demand side expectations and tailoring production

accordingly

6.5 Enterprise Development

Case Study: Enterprise Development Program in Palestine

The fundamental problem the project is addressing is the lack of access to the market and services in

remote and marginalized places in Palestine.

Occupation policies: Without Israeli restrictions an additional 50 sq km in the Jordan

Valley could be cultivated. Over 500 internal checkpoints and other physical

impediments. This severely affects exporting as well.

Weak farmers capacity and institutions, and lack of collective models of farming

Diversified production and wide specialization

Charitable mentality and weak culture of paying for services. An example is that many

cooperatives would refuse loans with soft conditions, believing they could easily get

grants

What did EDP do?

Develop and reform national standard for couscous produce and replicate this model to other

traditional products. The program worked on building and strengthening members’ capacity,

involving more women in decision making processes, and building a culture of paying for extension

services. The result was income generation for 45 members through distribution of gained net profit.

Learning and recommendations:

Building on the local experience

Listen to farmers needs and suggestions for change

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Coordinate with other actors

We would advise the revolving loans to be channelled through MFI

Case Study: Engaging poor farmers in strawberry value chain in Azerbaijan

What were the problems and what did you try to address?

In rural areas high rate of poverty persists because of neglect of the agricultural sector. Dysfunctional

water management systems and soil husbandry were prevalent. The laws and rules did not reach to

ordinary farmers, and they had lack of market information, reliable extension support, proper and

affordable storage, or timely credit when needed.

Vision in strawberry value chain

System that is based on business models that embed access to improved seedlings,

information, and advice

Establish a sustainable hub the provides the seedlings and advice on production

Local processors incentivized to develop alternative sourcing by buying local

Project interventions:

1. Access to more productive strawberry seedlings

2. Access to bulking and marketing services

Strawberry VC Intervention Logic (please see page 97 of Oxfam’s Learning Papers and presentation)

What worked well and what did not:

Particularly successful: involvement of strawberry growing farmers into strawberry business

Relatively unsuccessful: farmers planted strawberry without analysing soil and irrigation system

Success factors: three big processing companies expressed interest to buy strawberry

Constraints: lack of access to reliable agricultural credits made barriers for poor farmers to start

strawberry business with drip irrigation.

Learning and recommendations:

There is a need to work early on in the project on facilitating women becoming active and

taking on lead roles in making change happen

Use gendered market and household economic mappings as tools to reach out to

beneficiaries

Working Groups: Questions on Case Studies

Question: How did you identify the need at the beginning of the project? (Strawberry)

A study of 13 different sub-sectors were examined, and strawberry was selected depending on a

number of criteria including social ones (gender). Strawberry value chain was too small (about 100

people primarily women). The project started with experienced farmers, and accordingly they knew

the demand and the market. Since there was a strong demand, the project asked producers what the

main barriers were and accordingly designed interventions.

Question: Why project failed in attracting new members to the coops? (Palestine)

The cooperative history in Palestine was a leading one in the region. After the Palestinian Authority

was established, many institutions invested in creating and developing coops which number about

1,500 coops. Most of these are not functioning, and their members are not active. Most of the

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members joined with the hope they would increase incomes, however, many have found that they are

losing instead. Due to this weak membership, more awareness initiatives are taking place to

encourage farmers in joining cooperatives and convince them that they could make profit.

Question: Is coop model appropriate to achieve scale with large farmer memberships? (Palestine)

Some of the cooperatives we work with reached over 1,000 members. From our experience, the most

effective cooperatives were those with 40-50 active members. Currently, Oxfam is exploring whether

cooperatives remain the best business model or whether alternative models could be found.

6.6 Resilience Building

Definition

Improve the capacity of individuals or natural resources to recover and get back to performance. In

Oxfam, it is more in line with adaptation. In climate change, this means adapting to climate and

ensuring interventions recover the situation as it was before climatic hazards.

Case Study: Facilitating productive and resilience smallholder agriculture development in

Armenia

A 7-year project implemented in Vayots Dzor and Tavush regions, reaching out to around 6000

beneficiaries. The project interventions took various dimensions:

Strengthening resilience of smallholder agriculture in Tavush and Vayots Dzor regions

through creating adaptive rural agricultural models (greenhouses with drip irrigation). A

regional farm school was also established, along with community-based businesses and

social enterprises. Access to micro-credit was also made possible through the project.

Women Economic Empowerment and Leadership which included establishing women

cooperatives and supporting food female hero/grow campaigns.

Enterprise Development Project that supported the construction of food and berries

processing plants, as well as helped source products from farmers particularly women

Advocacy through multi-stakeholders alliances/platforms including the agricultural

alliance and DRR national Platform.

The project has also been successful in creating linkages between private sector and SHF through

sponsoring mapping companies in Armenia, promoting marketing capacities of cooperatives, and

sensitization of private sector to source coops produce. The achievements include:

30% increase of income among SHF particularly women

Increased yield of smallholder farmers (cooperatives)

18 agrigroups established in 18 rural communities

Access to high-value adaptive and resilient crops (tomato, cucumber, bean, pepper,

broccoli, cherry tomato, etc...)

Improved access to new agricultural practices knowledge on soil husbandry in resource

scarce communities through farm schools

Joint advocacy initiatives through Agricultural Alliance/DRR platform

Successes: creation of social investment fund, availability of seeds reproduction, established relations

with extension services, successful advocacy for development of Agriculture Risk Reduction project,

and attracting new funding opportunities for EDP/leveraging

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Challenges: cooperative management, marketing knowledge, and need for additional funding

resources for EDP

Learning and recommendations

More intensive work with agricultural cooperatives to promote group work and social

corporative thinking

Build capacities of cooperatives in financial management (allocation of income/profit etc)

Present the efficiency and affordability of piloted models to make it more attractive

Advocacy for replication of new business models

Work on government’s existing policies and commitments

Following the workshop, Oxfam Armenia sent the following summary of their work:

Building resilience is critical for communities living in harsh conditions. The program in Armenia strengthened resilient agriculture by addressing key challenges of resource scarcity and climate

change. The program took holistic approach and worked with multi-stakeholders, developed women’s

economic empowerment and leadership, facilitated agri-business and social enterprise models in form

of community greenhouses, storage and processing facilities. It promotes gendered enterprise and market through implementing the EDP/GEM project (see film about the project:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_Hkqc12iWM ) focuses on women as the most marginalised group by

capitalising on their traditional knowledge and involvement in forest produce collection, and their interest in taking up leadership roles in this gender sensitive value chain. The new processing plant

established within EDP/GEM has a strong potential for poverty reduction by increasing and

stabilising the income of small holder farmers and poor forest produce collectors from 10 rural

communities.

The program used a participatory methodology to assess community vulnerability and developed

impact chains for the most relevant hazards to develop resilience-building strategy. (A film about Oxfam’s initiative on social enterprise development in Armenia is available on

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHbyBKVySzw )

Case Study: Livestock Based Livelihood

Since 2006, Oxfam has provided support to PLDC, a centre for the provision of livestock technical

services, through giving high quality staff training, veterinarian assistance, artificial insemination

(AI) for the flocks; flock productive management. Two years later, support to PLDC shifted focusing

on organizing small scale women groups for dairy production, community based fodder centres and

expanding the technical quality services to Area C. The programme gradually expanded to include

HH or hamlet sized WWT units for irrigated fodder production, range land management and water

conservation. From 2013-2016, the programme is reaching more than 3000 herders and Bedouins

HHs, while strengthening community organization’s leadership skills and policy influencing

(EU/Regional Bedouin Governance Project).

In last 3 years, the programme impact had no decrease in flocks with about 70% of the herders

maintaining livelihood security and income. Moreover, herders in Area C are becoming part of the

national and donors’ agendas.

What was particularly successful?

Providing quality technical services led to decrease of costs and increase in livestock

productivity

PLDC became a credible high quality service provider all over the West Bank

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What was relatively unsuccessful?

Low participation of and high competition with the Ministry of Agriculture (especially

veterinary services)

Limited opportunities to develop sustainable activities (emergency focus of donors)

Lessons Learned

Emphasize more activities that can lead to sustainability of the sector (too much driven by

emergency focus of donors)

Provide more capacity building to a strategic partner as PLDC in organizational

management and governance

Work with local universities and create links with international institutions in order to

increase organizational capacity and analysis capacities of local actors

Be even more vocal on the root causes that hamper economic development (the Israeli

Occupation)

Working Groups: Questions on Case Studies

Question: If fodder is now imported by the project, how sustainable is good raising?

Fodder is the main issue for the livestock holders in Palestine. Oxfam Italy is only importing fodder in

droughts. What Oxfam Italy did is build a fodder centre in Jordan Valley which works on improving

its quality and redistribute it to farmers. A sustainable fodder supply is yet not feasible due to lack of

resources from donors. Fodder centre is now built with great machinery, but donors did not invest in

capital to make it operational.

Question: How does the project address gender and resilience at local and national levels?

Armenia: Increasing women cooperative capacities in running social enterprises. Campaigns on social

issues including male immigration (causes burden), adaptive technologies, etc...

Oxfam Italy: women economic empowerment (17 producer groups producing dairy and wood

products). Rapid assessment to better understand gender programming. Advocacy strategy to address

constraints in Area C and settlements.

DAY 4 Thursday 20 March

7. REPORTS FROM FIELD VISITS

First field visit: Visited NFC social enterprise centre, which acted as a marketing and

retail store for cooperatives. The visit also took place in Jericho, visiting a women business centre in the region.

Second field visit: Visited the Tubas livestock centre and understood the dynamics and

support schemes provided through the centre. The visit also included a tour in a Nablus-

based Olive Oil company.

Third field visit: Visited Al-Reef company which provided an example of a marketing

agent and exporter. The visit also included visiting a women’s cooperative that focuses on

crop processing including maftoul.

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8. INTEGRATION

Each of 3 groups worked on one theme to summarise:

1. Emerging major issues

2. Models

a. What are the models?

b. What are the key factors that lead you to each model?

3. How can we ensure that poor women are at the centre of work on this theme?

4. What have you learned at this workshop that could be a promising approach in your context?

Results of group work by theme:

8.1 New business model

Major issues and models

Danger with 1 market lead firm – make sure to develop local market /diversity (onion-Az)

Develop short/local VC with quality standards/branding (Gaza)

Subsidies at start of coop can be effective to develop services/allow members to see value

before they have to pay (WB)

Business mentoring - socio economic balance - national ‘demand drop ‘

Develop infrastructure for export market to EU.

Small scale model service user approach, not beneficiaries.

Integration/coordination in the VC between actors as key to improve efficiency.

Smaller coops can be more effective –federations as way to upscale.

Social enterprise with contract, farming more effective than coop with fresh produce.

Key factors in choice of model

Market failure = EU export

Market closure = innovation and short VC (Gaza)

Coordination in VC-limited resources, inefficiency

Ensuring that poor women are at the centre

- Select VC where women already involved.

- Involve men/women in the design of programme.

- Select winning VC.

- Understand HH dynamics.

- We use social criteria to select + economic criteria to evaluate which doesn’t work.

- Develop value addition opportunities for women (olive paste).

- Take into accord the cultural context (putting / having man’s name on project) family

dynamics.

- Do no harm.

Lessons

- Agriculture alliance ... Sustainability.

- Coordination/ networking in VC.

- Replicate this workshop in Gaza.

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- Export to EU (fair trade to organic).

- Increase coop’s role as business structure.

- Support other Oxfam programme to learn from Oxfam experience.

- Who does, who pays?

- Focus on one fruit product.

- Buy local campaign.

- Female food hero.

8.2 Influencing – Multi-Stakeholder Forum

- Private sector engagement.

- Influencing levels (Micro, Meso, Mega)

- Relationships with other platforms/actors/stakeholders (National Intervention).

- Representative membership based actors (eg. Chambers of commerce)

- How to hold the government’s donors accountable?

o Empowerment of initiatives

o Entry points

- Capacity of influencers and influencing subjects (5Ws – who, what, when, where, why)

- How to mainstream gender:

o Gender of the alliances.

o Engaging organizations to policy diagnose.

o Engaging gender related state structures.

o Researches, evidences.

o Engage traditional social structures.

8.3 Innovative Services – Alternative Models

Government to farmers

Policy

Formulation Curriculum Dev

Investment Fund

GOVERNMENT

Ministry of

Agriculture/Labour

Oxfam

ARM

Coop farmer

schools

ssc

Extension

services

Cooperative

Law

OPT WB

GEO

Partner

BWF

SMH

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Coops to Farmers

T.A

Private sector to farmers

Input Suppliers

Influence

Specific details of Oxfam activities

Oxfam develop a product loan for strawberry (6m grace period)

Grant provided for extension services and Oxfam worked on curriculum development

Farmer’s technical assistance schools (Government, ext. Services): Oxfam set up technical

assistance lab, activate government

Nursing: Cooperatives provided technical support to farmers: Oxfam set up nurseries

Cooperative provide technical assistance + market access services to members and non-

members; Oxfam set up cooperatives; Partners provide TA to coops

Private company buyer provided technical assistance, processing, quality control, storage,

services: Oxfam supported set up of New Farm Company

Oxfam working with insurance companies

Technical assistance to Ministry of labour on cooperatives law implementation

Coops

Oxfam

Partners Market

Access

TA

Information

AZB

P.S.

MFI

INSURANCE

Buyers

OXFAM

PARTNERS

New product

Development

Embedded

Services

ARM

SMH

OPT WB

AZB SMH

OPT WB

ARM

GEO