Brief Insights on SCOPEinsight

VECO Indonesia has put in 25 years working with smallholder farmers in the effort to improve the welfare of Indonesian farmers in Indonesia through sustainable agriculture. VECO Indonesia’s farmers organisation partners have received various types of support to ease/facilitate the running of their agri-businesses based on the principles of inclusive business. Although the partners have managed to capture the entrepreneurial ways and spirit, their strengths and weaknesses in managing the organisations need to be regularly reviewed to foster a continuous learning process while planning, developing and refining their businesses.

For the first time ever, in 2016 VECO Indonesia assessed 14 farmers organisation partners using tools provided by SCOPEinsight—a leading provider of assessment and analysis tools—that measures the level of professionalism of farmer organisations. The tools provide a straightforward mechanism to discover strengths and weaknesses so the organisations can easily act upon them. The SCOPE Basic assessment tool focuses on eight major “themes”, which are: Internal Management, Operations, Financial Management, Supply, Marketing, External Risks, Enablers, and Sustainability. Especially for farmer organisations assessed using the SCOPE Pro tool, there is an extra emphasis on Financial Performance.

Reports generated by SCOPEinsight tools are not only used by VECO Indonesia to obtain an overview on the progress of our partners but are also expected to bring benefits to the farmer organisations. They can use these reports as a basis to build their capacity and implement various improvements. Watch the short video below containing opinions and testimonies from some farmer organisations assessed using these tools.

The reports are also valuable for the farmers organisations’ business partners, both private sector buyers and financial institutions. Buyers and financial service providers can obtain objective information on the capacity of farmers organisations with which they are partnering or have the potentials to partner with.

SCOPEinsight assessment activities are planned to be conducted regularly on a yearly basis. The whole process is expected to capitulate modern and professional farmers organisations with a strong and highly competitive bargaining position and profitable and sustainable business potentials, which in turn will trigger and improve the confidence of buyers and financial institutions in farmers organisations.

On the upcoming September 22-23, VECO Indonesia will facilitate the assessed farmers organisation partners in a workshop at Golden Tulip Hotel in Kuta, Bali, to share experiences and discuss assessment results in more details. We are also inviting several buyers and financial institutions to learn their views on the key aspects of a business. The SCOPEinsight Workshop will also feature a business dialogue between farmers organisations and buyers/potential buyers to discuss business opportunities of the prospective commodities they offer.