Hello the Babban Gona story is one of few success storie in Africa. I would like to contact the team and find out more. I am a nonprofit working with youth in Senegal, agriculture is part of the school curriculum and I am in a rural area
I’ve been working in international agribusiness since 1974, and in smallholder development projects since 2001. The Babban Gona approach departs from traditional development projects in several important ways:
1. From inception through execution, its bottom-up approach ensures smallholder adoption and investment, as opposed to the donor dependency which most top-down projects engender
2. Its long-term commitment and presence in the communities where it operates contrast with the 5-7 year in-and-out cycles typical to donor projects.
3. It’s multi-factor provision of services—leadership selection and training, group formation, input supplies, extension support, market linkages, working capital financing, crop insurance—provides strengths at all of the major junctures where such projects usually weaken and fail.
Too many donors find themselves overwhelmed by the complexities of agricultural value chain development, preferring to foster industrial development projects in order to create employment and prosperity. While this appears to have worked in China, there are many cases in Africa and Latin America where problems of rural unemployment and poverty have been replaced only by urban unemployment and violence.
Congratulations to Kola and Lola Masha on building out this model, and to Uncharted Ground for calling it to our attention.
Quite an inspiring story. Great job tackling really big issues.
The three things I learned from listening to Kola and Lola Masha are:
1- Think big - a million farmers was an incredible goal to tackle and they are on track to get there.
2- Think long term - talking about 2030 now is a great perspective.
3- Get your hands dirty (literally) - to know what the farmers are going through you need to do it yourself.
Jonathan Levine is a terrific host and storyteller. Again, great job and best of luck!
Tom,
Thanks for your comments and kind words. I especially agree with your last point about "dirty hands." It’s a common theme among most of these success stories. There’s no substitute for walking in the shoes of your clients or beneficiaries to truly understand their needs—and then to be able to design solutions that meet them. There’s another excellent example in our upcoming episode on Selco Foundation from India. Stay tuned, and thanks for listening!
Jonathan
COMMENTS
BY Aminata Toure
ON October 13, 2021 08:58 PM
Hello the Babban Gona story is one of few success storie in Africa. I would like to contact the team and find out more. I am a nonprofit working with youth in Senegal, agriculture is part of the school curriculum and I am in a rural area
BY L. Patrick Hanemann
ON October 14, 2021 12:41 PM
I’ve been working in international agribusiness since 1974, and in smallholder development projects since 2001. The Babban Gona approach departs from traditional development projects in several important ways:
1. From inception through execution, its bottom-up approach ensures smallholder adoption and investment, as opposed to the donor dependency which most top-down projects engender
2. Its long-term commitment and presence in the communities where it operates contrast with the 5-7 year in-and-out cycles typical to donor projects.
3. It’s multi-factor provision of services—leadership selection and training, group formation, input supplies, extension support, market linkages, working capital financing, crop insurance—provides strengths at all of the major junctures where such projects usually weaken and fail.
Too many donors find themselves overwhelmed by the complexities of agricultural value chain development, preferring to foster industrial development projects in order to create employment and prosperity. While this appears to have worked in China, there are many cases in Africa and Latin America where problems of rural unemployment and poverty have been replaced only by urban unemployment and violence.
Congratulations to Kola and Lola Masha on building out this model, and to Uncharted Ground for calling it to our attention.
BY TOM LEONARD
ON November 1, 2021 01:33 PM
Quite an inspiring story. Great job tackling really big issues.
The three things I learned from listening to Kola and Lola Masha are:
1- Think big - a million farmers was an incredible goal to tackle and they are on track to get there.
2- Think long term - talking about 2030 now is a great perspective.
3- Get your hands dirty (literally) - to know what the farmers are going through you need to do it yourself.
Jonathan Levine is a terrific host and storyteller. Again, great job and best of luck!
BY Jonathan Levine
ON December 22, 2021 07:32 AM
Tom,
Thanks for your comments and kind words. I especially agree with your last point about "dirty hands." It’s a common theme among most of these success stories. There’s no substitute for walking in the shoes of your clients or beneficiaries to truly understand their needs—and then to be able to design solutions that meet them. There’s another excellent example in our upcoming episode on Selco Foundation from India. Stay tuned, and thanks for listening!
Jonathan