The target beneficiaries are Kabale farmers suffering from lumpy income flows due to the sporadic nature of harvests and limited access to financial services. This makes them vulnerable to any shocks. The overall objective of the project is to increase and steady the flow of income to farmers. Project activities centre around capacity building of local partners to provide farmers with Inventory Credit (IC) and Savings and Loan Mechanisms (S&LM). IC helps groups of farmers to work together to store and market a commodity and use the stored commodity as collateral to access credit from the formal banking system. Local partners will offer extension in S&LM so that farmers can form and manage their own Savings Clubs (SCs) and Accumulated Savings and Credit Associations (ASCAs). Project activities will include exposure visits; the development and testing of methodologies; training of community advisors and bank staff; and monitoring of all activities.

The specific objective is: Participating banks, local Extension Service Providers (ESPs) and Farmers Groups (FGs) evolve gender sensitive institutional capacity to develop, provide and replicate sustainably managed inventory credit (IC) and savings & loans mechanisms (S&LM).

This will be addressed at the micro and meso levels and will have impact on the macro-economic environment. The specific objective focuses on institutional capacity and the longer term issue of sustainability. This will be achieved by building the capacity of participating banks and local Extension Service Providers (ESPs)[1] to sustainably facilitate inventory credit (IC) and be able to replicate the IC system outside of Kabale. The ESPs will further, have the capacity to provide extension on savings & loans mechanisms (S&LM) and be able to access funding for the cost of delivery through the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS). Gender issues are of primary importance and gender sensitivity of participating banks and ESPs is a part of the specific objective.

The objective at the micro level will be that participating farmers, particularly women, in Kabale will have greater access to financial services and will have improved access to viable storage and the market. It is important that women have real access and control over resources; women‘s expenditure patterns are more household focussed so that any gains reaped by women have a postive impact on the wellbeing of the household. In order that women are fully engaged in IC and S&LM, ESPs will utilise a gender sensitive strategy for mobilisation and extension. Thus, participating households will have an increased income and be less vulnerable to shocks, economic or otherwise.

At the meso level, at least one bank and one service provider will have the capacity to sustainably deliver services that will enable farmers to smooth their income. Farmer groups, will actively take advantage of inventory credit and / or be managing one or more savings and loan mechanisms. These groups will register with NAADS and CARE will train them how to utilise their collective voice in a strategic manner. Civil society will have been strengthened and will have the capacity to take a more active role in ensuring that the interests of their constituent members are considered.

The impact of IC at the macro level will be that fluctuations in the market will flatten in Kabale for targeted commodities. This is demonstrated by a decrease of peak level price for IC commodities and an increase in the price offered to producers at the time of harvest. The strengthened civil society in the form of farmers groups and ESP will also contribute to the macro development of the region.

Duration

01.01.2004 - 31.12.2006

Donors

Government of Austria (GoA)

Downloads

NPL042_CARE_Final_Evaluation_Report.pdf

536 K

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