Jason Donovan

Smallholder Value Chains as Complex Adaptive Systems: A Conceptual Framework

Conventional analyses of value chains involving smallholders and the design of interventions that seek to strengthen their role in them often fail to account for important features of value chain performance. Markets, institutional frameworks and business relationships are dynamic, and value chain performance varies accordingly. Shocks and sudden changes occur frequently and require successful adaptation. This paper develops an expanded conceptual framework to understand value chain performance based on the theory of complex adaptive systems. The framework combines seven common properties of complex systems: time, uncertainty, sensitivity to initial conditions, endogenous shocks, sudden change, interacting agents and adaptation. We outline how the framework can be used to ask new research questions, analyse case studies, and develop new tools to increase the ability for enhanced risk management and adaptation.

Introduction to special issue: smallholder value chains as complex adaptive systems

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new conceptual framework for smallholder value chains based on complex adaptive systems. Design/methodology/approach The authors review the application of the framework to three case studies and explore their implications. The authors reflect on the value of a framework based on complex adaptive systems compared to alternative frameworks. Findings The authors argue that the dynamics of smallholder value chains have received insufficient attention. Research limitations/implications By focusing on these dynamics and on the capacity for adaptation among value chain actors the framework provides a new perspective on smallholder value chains. Originality/value Complex adaptive systems provide a useful framework for analyzing value chain dynamics.

Approaches and tools for inclusive value chain development: lessons from Uganda for improved impact.

Value chain development (VCD) with smallholders forms a central element of the poverty reduction strategies of governments and NGOs in developing countries. Nevertheless, too little is known about how VCD interventions are designed and implemented, the approaches and tools used, and the challenges faced in the process. This paper helps to fill this gap with evidence from six cases in Uganda. For each case, data was collected from interviews with NGOs, government organizations, buyers, and smallholder business organizations. Results indicate that use of available VCD guides and tools facilitated productive partnerships among chain actors, engagement with support organizations, and feedback mechanisms on intervention processes. Results also challenge NGOs, government agencies, and researchers to better understand the circumstances of resource-poor chain actors, the implications of VCD on gender relations, and the cultural and business context when designing and implementing VCD. This calls for stakeholders to employ a broader approach to VCD, using a combination of available and new tools, and to seek out deeper collaboration with key actors within and outside the value chain.

Editorial: Revisiting the role of business, technical, and financial services in fostering rural entrepreneurship

Over the past 15 or so years authors in Enterprise Development and Microfinance (EDM) have written extensively about the design and implementation of microfinance and its use by the poor, whether to respond to shocks and changing contexts, invest in education, or advance livelihood goals (Figure 1 overleaf). Coverage has ranged from the specifics of designing microfinance schemes, access to them by the poorest, and their impact on wellbeing and poverty. While the debate on microfinance is far from over, it is true that discussions have been more concerned with managing, saving, borrowing, and moving money, than about building viable businesses. Business development involving the poor, which in many cases focuses on rural small and medium enterprises (SMEs), requires us to address the demand for a range of services which, taken together, enhance the capacities of rural SMEs. Such services need to be affordable and reliable, and address the productive and business needs of SMEs, from small-scale processors to multi-tiered agricultural cooperatives. The issues are complex with lingering questions about how different types of service providers, from government agencies and NGOs to various private sector agents, can better design their services; and how, through adequate delivery mechanisms, the capacity and willingness of SMEs to employ such services can be strengthened. In this Editorial, we discuss some of the key issues for advancing rural entrepreneurship via improved services and provide an outlook for future discussions.