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AAF TAF IMPACT BRIEF

2011 – 2018

AAF TAF IMPACT BRIEF

2011 – 2018

INTRODUCTION TO AAF & TAF

The Technical Assistance Facility (TAF) had a mandate to increase economic and physical access to food for low-income Africans by providing technical assistance to the portfolio companies of the African Agriculture Fund (AAF). The objective of TAF’s projects was either to strengthen companies’ core operations by delivering consulting expertise to enable them to grow, and hence contribute to food security, or to facilitate the implementation of new business models that extend their reach to poor consumers, producers or employees through ‘inclusive business’ initiatives. Although many investment fund managers support their companies with technical support, TAF represents an unusual model. While it provides the usual business development services, it goes much further in helping companies to develop more innovative and inclusive models allowing TAF to achieve a unique and unprecedented impact. TAF’s projects to date have enabled AAF portfolio companies to extend their reach to over 26,000 low-income beneficiaries, of whom 50% are women. The following impact brief highlights TAF’s accomplishments and lessons learned from 2011 to 2018.

AAF & TAF TIMELINE

Timeline

2008
September 11

Food Crisis

Food Crisis
The global food crisis generated a focus by development partners on promoting investment in agriculture in Africa. A group of financial institutions worked together to form the African Agriculture Fund (AAF). Phatisa was formally appointed as Fund Manager in July 2009.
2010
September 24

AAF First Close

AAF First Close

The AAF reached first close at US$135 million in November 2010 before making a first investment in Sierra Leone 8 months later.
2011
September 24

AAF TAF launched

AAF TAF launched

The AAF Technical Assistance Facility was launched in October 2011 through the contribution agreement between European Commission and IFAD.
2013
September 24

AAF final close

AAF final close

The Phatisa fundraising team concluded final close of the AAF in mid 2013 at US$ 246 million backed by multinational limited partners. The AAF SME Fund achieves final close of US$36 million in May 2014.
2014
January 15

INITIAL IMPACT ASSESMENTS

INITIAL IMPACT ASSESMENTS
AAF TAF mid-term evaluation extends the AAF TAF project life by two years to 2018. The AAF Fund Managers produce Impact Reports.
2016
March 17

AAF TAF PORTFOLIO EXPANSION

AAF TAF PORTFOLIO EXPANSION
Building on the findings of the mid-term evaluation, AAF TAF hires additional AVC and SME portfolio managers and expands number of projects with 10 AAF portfolio companies.
2018
September 15

SECOND DEVELOPMENT IMPACT REVIEW FOR THE PERIOD 2011- 2018

SECOND DEVELOPMENT IMPACT REVIEW FOR THE PERIOD 2011- 2018
TechnoServe and Phatisa complete a 5 year review and final 7 year evaluations to derive lessons learned and disseminate results.

WHERE WE
WORKED

AAF portfolio companies span a range of food production-related agribusinesses including the production and sale of farming inputs, production and/or aggregation of livestock or crops for feed or processing, and selling food products. Projects were co-created by the TAF team, the Fund Managers, and the companies themselves, and needed to meet the specifications set out by TAF’s funders. For example, inclusive business projects needed to demonstrate potential for sustainability, propoor impact, and contribution to food security; core projects needed to show value addition beyond what a client firm could do for itself. Inclusive business projects were significantly larger in budget than core ones, as by their nature they involved long-term engagements with large numbers of participants.

Although TAF did not work with all AAF companies, most of the companies with which TAF engaged received the benefit of more than one project. Click on highlighted sections of the map to explore TAF’s impact and projects at each company.

OUR IMPACT

Number of Projects

SHF/MSMEs Reached

Additional Food Produced (MT)

TAF Attributable Value Created at SME Level

TAF Attributable Value Created at SHF/MSME Level

{ A unique partnership has been forged between development institutions, private fund managers and a technical implementing agency. It has been a challenging, eye-opening experience for all those involved, but we are all driven by, and hope to have made a positive difference towards, enhancing Africa’s food security. {

Mylene Kherallah

Lead Technical Specialist, IFAD

TAF
STRUCTURE

The AAF was structured as a ‘blended finance’ fund, mobilising private capital through an anchor group of development finance partners. This aimed to create a stronger, more competitive agricultural sector better able to meet the food needs of Africa’s growing population. The AAF TAF was an early example of an independently managed TA facility linked to a private equity fund. TechnoServe (the contracted TAF Implementing Agency) staff were embedded in the Fund and physically co-located at the Fund’s offices.

“What makes TAF a valuable and unusual mechanism is its ability to straddle commercial and social objectives. It is a hybrid construct: a facility that speaks business and breathes development impact; that works with the private sector and is funded by donors to transform agricultural markets and increase food security. It is brought to life by a team that speaks the different technical languages of its public and private sector partners, with a mandate that requires it to strike the fine balance between facilitation and direct involvement.”

— Ashley Insight, 2017

INVESTMENT FUND

The AAF is a private equity fund created in response to the food security challenge across the African continent, financed by African, European and US development nance institutions, and private investors. It comprises two funds: the AAF and a subsidiary Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Fund.

TA FACILITY

Technical Assistance adds value by enhancing AAF portfolio returns, both by improving SME performance and reducing costs in the short term, and by providing opportunities for portfolio companies to innovate and develop new business models that strengthen their long term value.

INVESTORS

The blended finance investment fund model included three categories of shareholders: (A) Junior for government agencies (B) Mezzanine for Development Finance Institutions and (C) Senior for commercial investors.

FUND MANAGER

Phatisa is the Fund manager of the AAF and Databank was selected as the AAF SME Fund manager. The fund managers develop a pipeline of businesses for investment and manage exits in the 10 year fund life.

EQUITY/DEBT

Investment was deployed through equity and debt to high-growth enterprises. The maximum investment size for the large fund was $20M and $4M for the SME fund.

TA FACILITY

Technical Assistance adds value by enhancing AAF portfolio returns, both by improving SME performance and reducing costs in the short term, and by providing opportunities for portfolio companies to innovate and develop new business models that strengthen their long term value.

DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS

The European Commission, AGRA, UNIDO and the Italian Development Corporation provided an allocation of grant funding linked to the AAF investment fund to create additional development impact with investees.

FACILITY MANAGEMENT

IFAD was contracted by the European Commission to manage the facility and TechnoServe was competitively selected as the implementing agency responsible for implementing TA directly and through service providers.

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GRANTS

Two categories of technical assistance were provided: the Agriculture Value Chain (AVC) component delivered inclusive business support and the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) component delivered core business development support.

PLATFORM
PROJECTS

AAF TAF prioritised specific lessons learned which could be shared more widely with key stakeholders in the sector. In addition, efforts were made to document and problem solve around common issues or constraints across the portfolio to be addressed in the form of analyses and pilot solutions. The platforms identified are covered by seven learning papers: extension, inputs, access to finance, mechanisation, technology, bottom of the pyramid distribution and business development services.

AAF TAF found that agribusinesses involving smallholder producers in their business model, both upstream and downstream, tend to require a TA package around common themes including extension, inputs, finance and mechanisation. Along with markets and pricing, these factors are key to increasing agricultural productivity, creating more profitable farmers and driving supply chain efficiencies. Food chain businesses that focused on the production and distribution of fast-moving consumer goods formed a separate category of learning regarding TA to develop ‘route to market’ solutions for reaching BoP consumers. A cross-cutting theme across both of these categories was the role of technology in supporting supply chain decision-making and enhancing the speed and impact of business operations.

EXTENSION PLATFORM

Knowledge transfer is a critical lever to increase a farmer’s return on investment from his/her land. Agronomic advice is important to understand and trial new inputs and farming practices as well as ensure optimal marketing of surplus crop. The AAF TAF experience with private extension models highlights key success factors for increasing the effectiveness and sustainability of extension services, including the need to attach commercial value to the service, bring together suitable market partners (rather than burden one player), apply modern management approaches for efficiencies (e.g. using mobile communication and monitoring technologies), the importance of recruiting and developing ‘soft skills’ in extension officers and the usefulness of performance based incentive schemes at the farmer and company level to drive individual performance and loyalty.

INPUTS PLATFORM

The right combination of quality seed, organic or inorganic fertiliser, crop protection products and adequate water can transform yields. However, yields alone do not drive commercial farming success. The ‘optimal’ inputs package will depend on the farmer’s economic, environmental, and social context. The AAF TAF experience with downstream distribution of inputs to smallholder producers confirmed that farming systems, no matter how small, are highly complex and vulnerable to risk. Input interventions targeted to increasing agricultural productivity need to carefully consider the impact on farmer livelihoods and ensure a more multi-faceted approach to optimising farmer incomes through input choices, rather than searching for ‘silver bullet’ solutions.

FINANCE PLATFORM

The ability of farmers to access working capital to pay for critical inputs and mechanisation services is a binding constraint to commercialising small-scale agriculture. In AAF TAF’s experience, AAF portfolio companies were not always willing or able to provide credit. Similar to financiers, although there was an acknowledged shared value opportunity, high risk and high costs in linking to smallholder farmers disincentivised lending. The AAF TAF recognised the need to work through both AAF portfolio companies and other market partners to de-risk lending to smallholder farmers; and that incentives were needed for less willing partners. It is on this basis that TAF explored the concept of a smart subsidy to unlock value chain financing. The AAF TAF implemented 6 smart subsidy schemes in four countries (Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone and Zambia) in the palm oil, soya, and maize value chains. The report shares the 3 different types of smart subsidies tested and associated experiences and learnings, assessing the results and opportunity for these to be replicated in future.

MECHANISATION PLATFORM

A major constraint to productivity for smallholder farmers across Sub Saharan Africa is access to draft power resulting in reduced yields, lower production scale, lower cultivated area and high drudgery. Typical demand side barriers to smallholder mechanisation include high capital costs and interest rates, unreliable aftersales services and limited market access. On the supply side, farm equipment providers tend to focus on larger equipment intended for commercial farmers that are unsuitable for smaller farms. However, AAF TAF research showed that certain market conditions are conducive for inclusive farm mechanisation with 1) increasing rural labour rates bringing manual labour costs to parity with mechanisation; 2) increasing adoption of basic agri-inputs; and 3) saturation of the large commercial farmer market compelling equipment providers to consider the high volume smallholder market. This paper presents key findings from TAF’s market analysis and early stage experience piloting a hiring model in 2018 in Malawi.

TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM

The opportunity for technology to enhance decision-making, increase efficiency and achieve inclusive business growth was identified in companies across the AAF TAF portfolio. In particular, digital data solutions to monitoring and information management were increasingly explored through TAF, either indirectly or directly, to achieve both once off data collection needs as well as meet regular monitoring and business growth objectives. This paper examines a selection of AAF TAF technology interventions to demonstrate the diversity of technology requirements and proposes key guidelines and principles for finding appropriate solutions.

BOTTOM OF THE PYRAMID (BOP) PLATFORM

Constituting roughly 4 billion people on an income of $1.5k per year, the ‘Bottom of the Pyramid’ (BoP) segment has significant purchasing power and represents commercial potential for small, growing businesses to diversify their channel mix and distribute quality products to the last mile. The AAF TAF implemented 6 projects across 4 portfolio companies in 3 countries (Zambia, Burkina Faso and Nigeria) related to BoP route to market. From this experience a framework of best practice guidelines is proposed for development practitioners and business leaders.

EXTENSION PLATFORM

Knowledge transfer is a critical lever to increase a farmer’s return on investment from his/her land. Agronomic advice is important to understand and trial new inputs and farming practices as well as ensure optimal marketing of surplus crop. The AAF TAF experience with private extension models highlights key success factors for increasing the effectiveness and sustainability of extension services, including the need to attach commercial value to the service, bring together suitable market partners (rather than burden one player), apply modern management approaches for efficiencies (e.g. using mobile communication and monitoring technologies), the importance of recruiting and developing ‘soft skills’ in extension officers and the usefulness of performance based incentive schemes at the farmer and company level to drive individual performance and loyalty.

INPUTS PLATFORM

The right combination of quality seed, organic or inorganic fertiliser, crop protection products and adequate water can transform yields. However, yields alone do not drive commercial farming success. The ‘optimal’ inputs package will depend on the farmer’s economic, environmental, and social context. The AAF TAF experience with downstream distribution of inputs to smallholder producers confirmed that farming systems, no matter how small, are highly complex and vulnerable to risk. Input interventions targeted to increasing agricultural productivity need to carefully consider the impact on farmer livelihoods and ensure a more multi-faceted approach to optimising farmer incomes through input choices, rather than searching for ‘silver bullet’ solutions.

FINANCE PLATFORM

The ability of farmers to access working capital to pay for critical inputs and mechanisation services is a binding constraint to commercialising small-scale agriculture. In AAF TAF’s experience, AAF portfolio companies were not always willing or able to provide credit. Similar to financiers, although there was an acknowledged shared value opportunity, high risk and high costs in linking to smallholder farmers disincentivised lending. The AAF TAF recognised the need to work through both AAF portfolio companies and other market partners to de-risk lending to smallholder farmers; and that incentives were needed for less willing partners. It is on this basis that TAF explored the concept of a smart subsidy to unlock value chain financing. The AAF TAF implemented 6 smart subsidy schemes in four countries (Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone and Zambia) in the palm oil, soya, and maize value chains. The report shares the 3 different types of smart subsidies tested and associated experiences and learnings, assessing the results and opportunity for these to be replicated in future.

MECHANISATION PLATFORM

A major constraint to productivity for smallholder farmers across Sub Saharan Africa is access to draft power resulting in reduced yields, lower production scale, lower cultivated area and high drudgery. Typical demand side barriers to smallholder mechanisation include high capital costs and interest rates, unreliable aftersales services and limited market access. On the supply side, farm equipment providers tend to focus on larger equipment intended for commercial farmers that are unsuitable for smaller farms. However, AAF TAF research showed that certain market conditions are conducive for inclusive farm mechanisation with 1) increasing rural labour rates bringing manual labour costs to parity with mechanisation; 2) increasing adoption of basic agri-inputs; and 3) saturation of the large commercial farmer market compelling equipment providers to consider the high volume smallholder market. This paper presents key findings from TAF’s market analysis and early stage experience piloting a hiring model in 2018 in Malawi.

TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM

The opportunity for technology to enhance decision-making, increase efficiency and achieve inclusive business growth was identified in companies across the AAF TAF portfolio. In particular, digital data solutions to monitoring and information management were increasingly explored through TAF, either indirectly or directly, to achieve both once off data collection needs as well as meet regular monitoring and business growth objectives. This paper examines a selection of AAF TAF technology interventions to demonstrate the diversity of technology requirements and proposes key guidelines and principles for finding appropriate solutions.

BOTTOM OF THE PYRAMID (BOP) PLATFORM

Constituting roughly 4 billion people on an income of $1.5k per year, the ‘Bottom of the Pyramid’ (BoP) segment has significant purchasing power and represents commercial potential for small, growing businesses to diversify their channel mix and distribute quality products to the last mile. The AAF TAF implemented 6 projects across 4 portfolio companies in 3 countries (Zambia, Burkina Faso and Nigeria) related to BoP route to market. From this experience a framework of best practice guidelines is proposed for development practitioners and business leaders.