Commodity platforms established through public-private partnerships in Ethiopia help strengthen value chains and connect smallholder producers to other actors. The platforms bring together farmers, input suppliers, processors, marketers and government agencies to share knowledge, discuss challenges, and create business opportunities. This helps address underdeveloped value chains in Ethiopia. The Livestock and Irrigation Value Chains for Ethiopian Smallholders project uses these platforms to obtain feedback and improve its support of value chains, helping spur economic growth through partnerships across the agricultural sector.

1. Building public-private partnerships: LIVES project approach and experience
Dereje Legesse, Mamusha Lemma and Beamlak Tesfaye; d.legesse@cgiar.org Po box 5689 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia www.ilri.org
• Public-private partnerships (PPPs) offer opportunities to achieve inclusive development objectives by
building partnerships among value chain actors: from farmers and input/service providers to
marketing/ processing businesses.
• In Ethiopia, value chains are not very well developed. A platform model creates equitable and
dynamic spaces for value chain actors to exchange knowledge, create business linkages and take
action to resolve common problems.
• The Livestock and Irrigation Value chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) project initiated
commodity platforms at all levels to discuss challenges, share knowledge and experiences, and create
opportunities for establishing business linkages among value chain actors.
• At an institutional level, the commodity platforms serve as mechanisms to obtain feedback from
value chain actors to improve LIVES planning.
Approach and experience
• Commodity Platforms as PPPs arrangement have the power to spur economic growth, by building partnerships with value chain
actors that benefits smallholder producers.
• Commodity platforms help enhance the confidence of smallholder producers to establish and maintain business relationships with
input/service suppliers and processing and marketing businesses.
• Sustainability depends more on the benefits individual participants believe they obtain from participating in the platforms.
Introduction
Concluding remarks
• Realizing the need for horizontal and vertical integration among value chain actors, LIVES works with partners to establish commodity
platforms at various levels.
• Through ongoing engagement and meetings, commodity platforms play key role in improving interaction and communication among
value chain actors (producers, input/service providers, processing and marketing business, and value chain supporters), identifying key
value chain bottlenecks, and creating linkages that facilitate new businesses opportunities, such as opening of feed shops and
establishment of marketing groups.
Commodity Platform
Public
•Bureau of Agriculture
•Bureau of Livestock &
Fisheries
•Agricultural Research
Institute
•Irrigation Development
Smallholder
Producers
Private Input
Supply/Service
Providers
Marketing /
Processing
Businesses
This poster is licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence. April 2016