Young Scholars Panel at the 3rd ASEW Convention

Agriculture remains a vital sector in many African countries, providing employment and income for rural communities. Co-operatives have emerged as a key tool to help small-scale producers overcome challenges in the era of globalization. These co-operatives can benefit from innovative products and services, such as microfinance institutions and community-based financial organizations. However, agricultural productivity in Africa remains lower than other regions, leading to slow development in rural areas and low farmer incomes. The fragmentation of agricultural sector players and production, transport, storage, and market issues hinder the functioning of agricultural value chains. To address these challenges, there is a need to promote economic growth and reduce poverty through value chain promotion. This approach can be achieved by investing in competitiveness-enhancing initiatives that provide livelihoods for large numbers of people. Successful cases need to be upscaled and flexible methodologies developed to address specific regional and product contexts. The current global crisis has also highlighted the importance of considering the effects on rural populations, who are indirectly affected by the health crisis and international financial system. To promote value chain analysis and subsequent interventions, it is essential to identify best practices and answer questions such as when and where to intervene, which products to focus on, and how to build viable business cases for service providers. This requires mutually beneficial relations between chain actors and service providers, as well as effective upscaling strategies to address the needs of different regional and product contexts It based on this background that we propose to organize a 3-hour panel session on the occasion of the 3rd ASEW Convention on 24th September 2024 under the theme “Innovation Beyond Crisis-Bridging the Gap in Value Chains”.