Ghana: Course Rural entrepreneurship 2016 with fellowship opportunity

Rural entrepreneurship has the potential to reduce poverty, increase food security and reduce unemployment. But entrepreneurship supposes a level of trust – and most actors in agricultural value chains do not really trust each other. And although many causes can be pointed out, the really important thing is to break the deadlock these value chains are in. This course hands you the tools to do that.

Driving innovation in agrifood value chains

Learn to facilitate chain-wide learning

This course on rural entrepreneurship centres around the Chain Wide Learning methodology (CWL), that consists of three components:

• a multi-stakeholder workshop in which producers in the value chain gather and share their issues and opportunities at functional chain levels;
• a strategic planning process in which the outputs of the workshop are used as inputs;
• a set of action plans to reduce transaction costs and/or exploit opportunities in the selected agrifood value chains.

When implemented, action plans will build trust and reduce protectionism and opportunistic behaviour in the selected value chain. As a result, marketing costs andprices will come down while margins increase. The overall performance of the value chain will improve, which will form the foundation for private-sector driven chain innovation. During the course, you will get familiar with business planning tools to ensure that (new) business ventures are based on sound business principles, and practice your skills and new-learned tools on an actual case.

Course objectives

Upon completion of the course you will:

• have become sensitive to imbalances within agrifood value chains and how these issues can be addressed;
• have strengthened your capacity to promote market-driven rural wealth creation;
• have strengthened your competence in the area of market access of small entrepreneurs;
• have the ability to identify pro-poor, smallholder inclusive and/or gender-friendly agribusiness development opportunities;
• be able to apply the tools that support private sector driven innovations in agrifood value chains.

Target audience

The course is intended for midcareer professionals of government departments, NGOs and civil society organisations, businesses, development agencies, universities and colleges for higher education, and individual consultants working in the domain of private sector and/or market driven development.

Practical information

Deadline: 2 May 2016

Deadline NFP/MENA:20 October 2015

NFP and Mena funding available. For more information on fellowships:

http://www.nuffic.nl/en/scholarships/netherlands-fellowship-programmes-nfp

http://www.nuffic.nl/en/scholarships/mena-scholarship-programme

For more information and online registration:

http://www.wageningenur.nl/en/show/CDIcourse_rural_entrepreneurship_2016.htm