VECO supports smallholder farmers to organise themselves and build the necessary capacities to create economies of scale, guarantee quality, food safety and sustainability. Developing strong business skills as a farmer organisation is key in becoming a strong business partner. Thanks to the collaboration with SCOPEinsight, VECO has engaged as a founding partner of the AMEA platform.
VECO is founding partner of the AMEA platform to professionalise farmer business
VECO is founding partner of the AMEA platform to professionalise farmer business
AMEA (Agribusiness Market Ecosystem Alliance) is an initiative of SCOPEinsight, a leader in measuring farmer professionalism with prospective partners IFC, development organisation ICCO, VECO, NCBA CLUSA, ACDI VOCA and Argidius. All parties have submitted AMEA as a Commitment to Action at the Clinton Global Initiative, taking the leadership to create and implement innovative solutions to the world's most pressing challenges.
Farmers face critical challenges, such as food security, poverty and climate change. We share the belief that farming is a business and professionalism is the key to help break the poverty cycle many farmers are caught in. AMEA will make a standardised approach available for improving farming as a business for the smallholder farmer.
The need for a global training system for farmers
The origins of AMEA lie within the fragmented landscape of capacity building programs with scattered training material. As VECO, we support the need for a more standardised, global training model.
AMEA’s approach thus addresses this fragmentation in current capacity building programs by offering a SCOPEinsight-based global and standardized metric for assessing farmer performance and a training system to assure farmer development according to their needs. Farmer data, combined with standardized capacity building approaches and a strong link to the market for both off-taking and financing are offered by this unique and inclusive approach.
Professional farmers have more income, can produce more sustainably, create more employment and are a much more attractive business case for financial institutions, services providers and markets. The value which AMEA brings is aimed exactly at such improved successes for more professional farmers.
Interested organisations can contact Elsa van Vuuren at elsabe.vanvuuren [at] scopeinsight.com for more information. This month, SCOPEinsight, IFC and ICCO will host webinars on the standardized measurement tools. You can join! Click here to register.
About SCOPEinsight
SCOPEinsight is an independent assessment agency with the mission to enable access to finance, markets, inputs and services for agricultural producer organizations in emerging economies, through assessing their organizational performance. We believe in farming as a business and as such, professionalism is the key to increase productivity in a sustainable way. Our innovative, standardized assessment tools and solutions make professionalism measurable and actionable, and provide valuable insights to financial institutions, value chain players, traders, input suppliers and NGOs. www.scopeinsight.com
About IFC
About ACDI/VOCA
ACDI/VOCA is an international development organization that envisions a world in which all people are empowered to succeed in the global economy. Based in Washington, D.C., ACDI/VOCA has worked in 146 countries since 1963. As a nonprofit that means business, it specializes in agribusiness, market systems, and building smallholder capacity. www.acdivoca.org
About NCBA CLUSA
NCBA CLUSA is the US National Cooperative Business Association. NCBA CLUSA applies cooperative principles in development, advocacy, and education while leading innovative, market-based cooperative business solutions to smallholder farmers, youth, women, and local organizations and communities. www.ncba.coop
About ICCO
About Argidius
Argidius is a donor organization and aims to help entrepreneurs to build profitable businesses and contribute to the sustainable development of their communities. Argidius focuses on improving the effectiveness and reach of small and medium enterprise capacity development services in multiple sectors, including the agricultural sector. www.argidius.com
About the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI)
Established in 2005 by President Bill Clinton, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI)—an initiative of the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation—convenes global leaders to create and implement innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges. CGIAnnual Meetings have brought together more than 180 heads of state, 20 Nobel Prize laureates, and hundreds of leading CEOs, heads of foundations and NGOs, major philanthropists, and members of the media. To date, members of the CGI community have made nearly 3,200 commitments, improving the lives of more than 430 million people in over 180 countries.
