Blog

If you haven't read Outliers, or Malcom Gladwell's previous books The Tipping Point and Blink, you are missing out on some of the most insightful, entertaining and mind opening dissection of human behavior. In Outliers, Gladwell explains what makes someone extraordinary successful. The Cliff Notes version of why Bill Gates is Bill Gates is:

• You need a minimum level of smarts, but it does not have to be an "off-the-chart" IQ.
• You have to put at least 10,000 hours of practice into your area of talent or expertise.
• You have to be lucky, meaning born at the right place and the right time.

The last point is what I found most fascinating. It is made of up several dynamics. When you are born is crucial. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were born in the mid-50's, allowing them to be at the right age when information technology was in its nascent stage of development. But the "where were you born" dynamic that was most interesting was Gladwell's findings on the impact of culture.

Culture is something that most of us take for granted, unless you are in a field like sociology or anthropology.

Culture is like breathing: we have no idea how it impacts what we do. When we were developing the Classmate PC at Intel, we had folks that did ethnographic research in developing countries to understand how people living at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) used or could use technology in their lives. Culture was obviously one thing that was key to understanding these behaviors. VitalWave Consulting recently posted a short article called Lost in Translation: Emerging Markets Success Hinges on Understanding Culture talking about the importance of "localized management investment."

When I did an expat assignment for Intel in China, they gave you "cultural" training in order to help us adjust to a new culture. It helped give us a deeper understand of cultural differences. What may seem weird, offensive or different on the surface often has an underlying meaning. If you understand that meaning, you can accept that difference more readily.

They used the analogy of an iceberg, with what you perceive on the surface as the tip of the iceberg. For example, my wife used to find it offensive that the Chinese would spit publicly. Growing up in America, that can come across as very impolite on the surface. But the underlying reason for the spitting is their a long-held belief that it is healthy habit to clear the respiratory passages (to put it politely) frequently.

Why are Asians so good at math?

According to Gladwell, there are two main reasons: their number-naming system, and rice paddies.

Having learned how to count in Chinese, I can tell you how much easier it is to count to a 100 in Chinese then in English. It is as logical as the decimal system. You just need to be able to memorize 1-9, 10, and 100. 11 is ten-one, 12 is ten-two, and so on. 20 is two-ten, 21 is two-ten-one, 30 is three-ten, and so on. 1-9 are also short, single syllable words, compared to their English counterparts (for example, 7 is "si" in Chinese and "seven" in English. "Si" can be pronounced in 1/3rd of a second. This system allows Chinese children to recall numbers much more quickly than American children.)

But the impact of a cultural legacy of working on rice paddies is really the underlying factor. The chapter starts with the Chinese proverb:

No one who can rise before dawn 360 days a year fails to make his family rich.

Simply put, the harder and smarter you work on a rice paddy, the greater the output. In Western agriculture, you increase output by purchasing more land, or replacing labor with technology. Growing/harvesting seasons are short, whereas rice paddies are grown/harvested for most of the year.

A peasant farmer in eighteenth-century Europe worked about twelve hundred hours per year. A peasant in Southern China worked an average of three thousand hours a year.

Gladwell summarizes the benefits of rice farming this way: the work was meaningful, complex, autonomous and exacting. He shared proverbs from peasants in Europe and China.

A Russian proverb:

If God does not bring it, the earth will not give it.

Chinese proverb:

Don't depend on heaven for food, but on your own two hands carrying the load.

You can see the connection between the cultural legacy of working on rice paddies and today's much-talked about work ethic of Asian students and workers.

But what does that have to do with math? Math is hard work, especially for those that don't have a natural talent for it. My son is currently learning 7th grade algebra. A typical problem can take many minutes to solve, sometimes with a lot of trial and error which is normal. He often gets frustrated and would give up after a few minutes if not pressed. As such, I'd argue that American students probably give up quicker than their Asian counterparts.

What about "family" culture?

Gladwell shows that the main culprit in the gap between grades and test scores of students from wealthier families versus poorer families is summer vacation. Students from low-income and high-income families have comparable scores on the California Achievement test at the beginning and end of the school year. But after summer vacation, the score gap increases significantly.

This implies that if you keep kids in schools longer, and out of the family home, you can minimize the achievement gap. They reference a charter system called the KIPP academy. Students are in school from 7:30am to 7:00pm every weekday. Saturdays they are in school 9am to 1pm. In the summer, they come in from 8am to 2pm. Any kid's nightmare, right? But the improved results are significant. For example, in 7th grade, KIPP students are doing high school algebra.

Fixing education

I have participated in many discussions on the role of technology in improving education standards in emerging markets. Gladwell has helped me realize that it may be a few other changes completely unrelated to technology that could make the biggest difference.

Closer to home, there has been much talk about reforming education in America. Thomas Friedman talks about how we are falling behind our Asian counterparts by not investing and putting a bigger focus on education. But based on Gladwell's findings, a solution to improving education and America's long-term competitivenes could be addressed by simply getting rid of summer vacations and implementing a rice paddy-like KIPP system. Unfortunately, we in the West are culturally conditioned to shorter school days and summer vacations.

We are pleased to announce that TechnoServe has agreed to join the NextBillion community as an Associate Partner.  TechnoServe joins World Resources Institute, Acumen Fund and William Davidson Institute as the site's Partners.  As an Associate Partner, TechnoServe will not be responsible for managing or funding the site, but will play a major role in developing content, editing and marketing.

TechnoServe is one of the longest-tenured members of the "base of the pyramid" community.  Founded in 1968, TechnoServe has been helping entrepreneurial men and women in poor areas of the developing world to build businesses that create income, opportunity and economic growth for their families, their communities and their countries.  Frankly, TechnoServe was part of the BoP movement before there was a named BoP movement.

With a focus on developing entrepreneurs, building businesses and industries, and improving the business environment, TechnoServe will add tremendous value to the NextBillion community through its orignal content contributions and editorial oversight.. Over the course of four decades, TechnoServe has learned what does and doesn't work.

For example, TechnoServe recently partnered with the Coca-Cola Company and the Gates Foundation to work with 50,000 fruit farmers in Uganda and Tanzania, helping them double their incomes over the next 4 years.  They are also one of the most accomplished facilitators of business plan competitions, which we have covered on NextBillion in the past.

Representing TechnoServe on NextBillion are new Staff Writers Kevin Keepper and Matt Cohen.

Please join me in welcoming TechnoServe to the NextBillion community!

I often call January the "gearing-up period", the perfect time to get your pieces in place and the toolkit prepared for the projects to come in the next 11 months. It has certainly been a gearing-up (and still is, stay tuned for more announcements that are on the way) period for NextBillion. We're excited about what seems will be a fruitful year for our site and the community around it, particularly because of the remarkable people that continue to join and contribute to this effort.  

Today I'm happy to welcome Moses Lee into NextBillion's Editorial team. Moses will join Rob, Nathan and myself in keeping the site running smoothly and moderating the conversation in it. A NextBillion veteran, Moses has contributed to the site over the last two years and is an expert with a unique perspective on the challenges around social ventures an market-based approaches to poverty. We're grateful for the support of our new Managing Partner, the William Davidson Institute and look forward to working with Moses in the months to come.

This is also an opportunity to publicly thank two members of our team who will transition out of their roles as NextBillion Staff Writers: Tayo Akinyemi and Phil LaRocco. I'm a big fan and will greatly miss their writing style, but hopefully we'll keep hearing from them in the future with a Guest Post or two about their endeavors, which will surely remain closely linked to the topics discussed here in NextBillion.

Thank you, Tayo and Phil. All our best wishes for your future projects. NextBillion is possible thanks to your ideas and contributions.       

The following announcement reached our Inbox by way of our allies at Santa Clara University's Center for Science, Technology and Society:

Tech Awards 2010 Nominations

The Tech Awards, a signature program of The Tech Museum, honors innovators from around the world who are applying technology to address humanity's most urgent challenges.

In partnership with Santa Clara University's Center for Science, Technology, and Society, 15 Laureates are selected annually and $50,000 is awarded to one Laureate in each category: Environment, Economic Development, Education, Equality, and Health.

Individuals as well as nonprofit and commercial organizations are eligible. Anyone may submit a nomination. Self-nominations are accepted and encouraged.

Deadline for nominations is March 31.

Deadline for final applications is May 5.

This year's Laureates will be honored during a week of activities in Silicon Valley leading up to The Tech Awards Tenth Annual Gala on Saturday, November 6, 2010.

Nominate today.

Resolved: Market-based models will save the world. 

The British-style debate resolution ironically enough featured two British ex-pats, Matthew Bishop and Michael Edwards, at the Demos Institute last night.  Bishop, New York Bureau Chief of The Economist and co-author of Philanthrocapitalism: How the Rich Can Save the World, spoke in the affirmative.  Edwards, Distinguished Senior Fellow at Demos and author of the newly published Small Change: Why Business Won't Save the World, took up the negative.

I rode up to Demos' office in a tiny elevator, along with a few colleagues from Acumen Fund.  Two strangers moved aside to let us squeeze in, and I made a small joke that we were "all going to get quite friendly" in the elevator.  When I saw the button for Demos' floor illuminated, I continued the banter; "Guess we're going to be friendly about philanthrocapitalism!"

"Not if you support it, we're not" snapped back one of the two previously-smiling strangers.  Yikes - tough crowd.  It was a harbinger for the night to come.

Edwards spoke first, off of prepared remarks.  Over the past few years, he proposed, it has become an article of faith that civil society organizations should operate more and more like a business - but civil society organizations are not supposed to be striving for rates of return.  Often, Edwards notes, citizen sector organizations set out to achieve non-quantifiable ends.

Of course there are situations where businesses can help.  (At this point, the row of us from Acumen Fund and Endeavor began to nod).  His examples hit close to home: to design, manufacture and distribute efficient cooking stoves to BoP villages, the market may very well be the best route.  Also, he notes, every organization - business or civil society - needs strong financial systems.  But good accounting does not equal good management.

Having acknowledged his opponent's perspective, Edwards then compares philanthrocapitalism to "Elvis Presley and James Dean – it's mad, bad and dangerous to know.”  He offers no definition of philanthrocapitalism (a recurring theme) but he does offer three reasons for his statement:

• No proof that philanthrocapitalism works;
• Cannot calculate rate of return on love, courage, benefit to community;
• Business in civil society threatens the distinctive values of civil society – commitment and cooperation

He continues, noting that “real change will occur when business acts like civil society and not the other way around.”  What we need, he says, is a revival of mass-based civic action – not philanthropy that models our consumer culture.  We need to alter the rules of the game.

At this point, I was a bit bemused - what were we debating, anyway?  That business should have no role in creating social good?  I was curious to hear Bishop's take.

Mind you, Matthew Bishop is no idealogue.  He even has a new book coming out tomorrow, entitled The Road from Ruin: How to Revive Capitalism and Put America Back on Top, in which he and co-author Michael Green argue that the capitalist system requires a major structural overhaul.  Yet in the context of this debate, Bishop had been set up as the defender of all business, large and small, benevolent and malevolent.

His response to Edwards' arguments began by borrowing Edwards' metaphor.  "You mentioned James Dean and Elvis…well, to borrow from your metaphor: You’re a rebel without a cause and Elvis has left the building."  The crowd laughs nervously...

Bishop continued and hit on the core definitional question that I was still struggling with - that philanthrocapitalism is not about philanthropy being run as a business or turning charities into businesses.  What he is saying is that there’s a lot to learn about effectiveness.  Philanthrocapitalism is about what works – the last thing you want to be doing is thoughtlessly importing business into the social sector.

With philanthrocapitalism, he argues, we are now looking at the problems of subsistence farmers – especially around supply chains – and applying business principles to make things work more efficiently, provide insurance, get lower-cost goods and services to them.  To Bishop, it's all very practical stuff.

The question and answer period brought passionate, mostly anti-corporate questions from the crowd.  To the credit of both Michael Edwards and Matthew Bishop, they used the questions to further refine their arguments. 

At the end of the day, it boiled down to this: Edwards wants more accountability from businesses when they get involved in good works; Bishop does too.  But Bishop argues for the use of business tools - particularly accounting systems - to get our citizen sector moving along the right path.  Edwards, on the other hand, wants civil society to get back to its roots and to work less like a business and more like a social movement.  The panelists basically agreed to disagree.

Personally, I was intrigued by a particular line of questioning during the debate.  A woman in the back of the room stood up and railed against the Gates Foundation, which she claims is now spending more on agriculture than the FAO and on global health than the WHO.

His response was that government and non profits have been less effective with resources than have businesses over the past 25 years.  And business, he argued, is far better at recruiting talented people than government…because government tends to stifle innovation and creativity.  The situation is what it is - there is more income inequality, which means more billionaires.  In his view, it's better to engage the billionaires than to complain about them.  Is there a new social contract that ought to exist between the super rich and the rest of us? 

He also wondered aloud..."Why is there so much hatred towards the Gates Foundation?  How dare [Bill Gates] trample on the highly accountable world of the WHO and UN.  He could just be spending all his money on nice food, expensive art, another plane, etc.  But no.  Gates is actually trying to solve problems of health in Africa, malaria, public education in the US and much more.  Great organizations like the UN have become horribly bureaucratic and stuck and Gates has put a rocket up them.  He also quite understands that he doesn’t have as much money as he needs to really solve the problem…he cannot possibly succeed in the goals that he has set without persuading governments, businesses, charities and social movements that his ideas are good ideas.  The idea that he has monopoly power in his Gates Foundation is nonsensical and if you don’t like it, you can always give money to an alternative approach and hopefully we are all better for it.”

A conference focused specifically on Haiti's reconstruction has been just announced by the organizers of the Miami Social Venture Capital/Social Enterprise Conference. The Haiti Conference will immediate follow the larger one and introduce a series of discussions around issues critical to set the country in a viable path of recovery. I was impressed by the range of topics that will be addressed at 25 panels and workshops, as well as the list of invitees and speakers. Hopefully we'll see partnerships and concrete initiatives coming out of such a diverse group.

There's one name I didn't see in the list of invitees, whose perspective I think would be valuable and relevant to this urgent task: Michael Fairbanks, founder of the OTF Group and the SEVEN Fund. Few like Mr. Fairbanks understand the role of markets and enterprise in the reconstruction of a failed state, thanks to the role he has played advising the administration of Paul Kagame in post-genocide Rwanda. The parallel between Haiti and Rwanda has been suggested extensively throughout the blogosphere these days, and rightfully so. The Haiti Conference is an ideal venue to have that discussion. Experiences like that of Mr. Fairbanks would make it a richer one. 

For a refresher on the Rwanda experience and the role of enterprise in it, I suggest you take a look at In the River They Swim, a book edited by Mr. Fairbanks that we commented in these pages as soon as it hit the shelves last year. The ideas presented in its pages would increase the odds that Haiti experiences its own miraculous rebirth. 

Editor's Note: The emergency relief effort in Haiti is still very much underway, but the conversation on the role of business in rebuilding has already begun.  World Bank President Robert Zoellick has urged donor nations to be ready for the long haul, which help rebuild basic infrastructure.  The Wall Street Journal has covered multinationals' efforts to locate employees and consider their future operations.  We re-post here Francisco Mejia's call to action for the private sector from the Majority Markets blog, urging business to go further. The conversation on the role for the private sector has already started at Business Fights Poverty, and fast-moving ventures like SamaSource and Crowdflower are already looking at re-orienting their work towards Haiti to create jobs.   The task will be even more complex than even nimble, smart ventures typically take on but the need is enormous.  We hope NextBillion can help spur this conversation forward - please post your ideas for how the private sector can organize and act be part of rebuilding in Haiti so that the future can be more prosperous and sustainable than before the earthquake.      

---

In a recent opinion article in the Washington Post , Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs proposed creating a multi-billion dollar "Haiti Recovery Fund," using contributions from the international community, to support the reconstruction of Haiti.

Professor Sachs is correct that addressing the post-earthquake devastation in Haiti will be a multi-billion-dollar project, and that it needs a very sophisticated level of coordination.  Nevertheless, the reconstruction effort should be driven by a combination of international funding to subsidize basic needs, and market based solutions that address the daunting Haitian challenges ahead and reflect a high level of participation and commitment from the private sector.  In the long run, private sector investment will indispensable in reaching and sustaining the levels of development that have eluded Haiti and that its people deserve.

Continue reading this article

Toward the end of my job search, I sought advice on my resume from a woman with a lot of recruiting experience.  She offered to help me refine my resume messaging.  At some point during the exchange I confessed that I didn't always understand why one resume was chosen over another in the recruiting process.  Her reply was brilliant in its clarity.  "Essentially, it's a matter of resonance," she said.  The recruiter will see something in the document that "clicks"----reminds her of herself and her experiences, meets the requirements of the position, and addresses the needs of the company. 

I was reminded of the "theory of resonance" while talking to Rahama Wright, social entrepreneur and founder of Shea Yeleen International, a nonprofit working to help African women secure sustainable livelihoods via shea butter production.  As you'll soon read, Shea Yeleen emerged out of a sense of kinship with the women with whom she'd worked in Burkina Faso as a Peace Corps volunteer.  We've talked about this dynamic force before; it's often what gets people to press their "go" buttons, which Rahama has clearly done.  So for those of you who've made New Year's resolutions to "press go", perhaps Rahama's story will offer some inspiration for 2010.  Let's get to know Shea Yeleen.

Tayo Akinyemi, NextBillion.net:
What does Shea Yeleen do?  Who does it serve and where do you work?

Rahama Wright, Shea Yeleen Founder:
Our mission is to support economic development in rural West Africa, and we currently operate in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Mali.  More specifically, we work with shea butter producers to gain access to US consumers.  We organize producer cooperatives, offer women business skills training, and create retail products that we can sell.  Shea Yeleen also works to educate US consumers about the market access issue, especially how to support the communities where we work.  With shea butter and other commodities of African origin, local communities often do not benefit from the trade of local goods.  Not surprisingly, market access for women producing shea is very limited, so we are trying to help bridge that gap.

Tayo Akinyemi, NextBillion.net:
I hear that you're currently raising funds for a new factory, rather successfully I might add.  What's the story there?

Rahama Wright, Shea Yeleen Founder:
We're raising money for 120 women in Dio, Burkina Faso where I served in the Peace Corps.  The purpose of the fundraising is to build a central production and training facility for the cooperative we've established.  The community has donated land and labor and Shea Yeleen is raising four thousand dollars to help pay for the facility's construction. 

Fortunately, we have nearly achieved our fundraising goal, which is very exciting.  We're working with the Peace Corps to offer continued organizational support to the cooperative and channel the funding.  Construction is scheduled to start in March. 

Tayo Akinyemi, NextBillion.net:
Why did you start Shea Yeleen?

Rahama Wright, Shea Yeleen Founder:
I am of Ghanaian descent-----my mother's family is from Ghana.  Although I grew up in Syracuse, I've always been interested in African issues.  Eventually I joined the Peace Corps and was placed in Burkina Faso where I volunteered at a women's health center. 

During my time there, I was really overcome by the challenges that the women faced within their communities.  Because of my background and family history, I saw my reflection in these women.  I could very easily have faced the same difficulties they were facing.  As a result, I felt a sense of responsibility to do something.  It didn't make sense to see those challenges and issues and not try to help. 

It became clear that the women I was working with could not pay for health services.  That's when we started thinking about income-generating activities for them.  Shea butter was a product that they were willing to organize around, so we started there.  With my experiences in the US and Africa, I thought I could figure out a way to get the shea butter to market.  So I began to work with a group of women to create a cooperative and formalize a business structure.  I formally launched Shea Yeleen in 2003 and the cooperative was formed in 2005.

Tayo Akinyemi, NextBillion.net:
Why shea butter?

Rahama Wright, Shea Yeleen Founder:
Shea butter is a unique commodity in Africa because producing it is considered women's work, equivalent to cooking, taking care of household, etc.  As more products are made from shea butter, there's a unique opportunity for women to benefit if they're able to sell products.  When women are empowered economically it changes their lives, the lives of their children, and their communities. 

Tayo Akinyemi, NextBillion.net:
Do you have plans to scale your venture?

Rahama Wright, Shea Yeleen Founder:
Yes.  Right now we work with about 300 women through various partnerships in Mali, Ghana, and Burkina Faso.  We've done a very good job of organizing and training, and we have a small retail product line.  We want to expand our line, increase brand awareness, and explore new distribution channels so that we can get more products to market and give consumers greater access to them.  Ideally we'd like to grow the cooperative from a few hundred members to a network of cooperatives with a few thousand members in the next five years.  It's also very important for us to share stories of women we work with and demonstrate our impact on their income levels.

Tayo Akinyemi, NextBillion.net:
How easy is it to stimulate domestic demand (i.e. within Africa) for your products?

Rahama Wright, Shea Yeleen Founder:
It's possible, but we've noticed that Africans who can afford to buy these types of goods are buying imports from Italy and the US.  People tend to want a more refined, "foreign" product.  Shea butter is also considered less mainstream and has been stereotyped as belonging to poor people.  Unfortunately, due to lack of facilities, we can't produce retail products from our shea butter in Africa.  Shea Yeleen is forced to import shea from Africa, create the retail products in the US, and sell them to American customers.  If we could figure out how to manufacture our products and sell them in Africa, they would sell very well.   

Tayo Akinyemi, NextBillion.net:
What are your toughest challenges as an entrepreneur?

Rahama Wright, Shea Yeleen Founder:
As with any start-up or social enterprise, funding is a huge hurdle.  Our sector specific challenge is trying to work effectively in communities without running water and electricity; gaining access is difficult.  On the business side it's sorting out market access and distribution-looking at distribution channels is a huge part of our mission. 

If you'd like to learn more about Shea Yeleen, check out their website:.  Also, Shea Yeleen has been featured in O Magazine and Rahama is a winner of the Women Rule! O-White House Leadership Contest.  Finally, to support the current fundraising drive, go here.

Note: I am an employee of TechnoServe and have used the release issued today to report on this exciting news.  I will work with NextBillion to report on the progress of this partnership in the coming months and years.

The Coca-Cola Company, nonprofit TechnoServe, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today launched a partnership to enable over 50,000 small fruit farmers in Uganda and Kenya to increase their productivity and double their incomes by 2014.

This four-year, $11.5 million partnership will enable mango and passion fruit farmers to participate in the Company's supply chain for the first time. With a $7.5 million grant provided by the Gates Foundation to TechnoServe, $3 million provided by The Coca-Cola Company, and $1 million by bottling partner Coca-Cola Sabco, the project aims to create new market opportunities for local farmers whose fruit will be used for Coca-Cola's locally-produced and sold fruit juices. As the implementing partner, Technoserve will train participating farmers in improving quality, increasing production, getting organized into farmer groups, and will facilitate access to credit.

"This partnership is a great example of sustainability. By partnering with tens of thousands of local farmers, we can help increase their incomes while meeting our needs for locally sourced fruit, benefiting both the community and our business," says Nathan Kalumbu, Coca Cola's East & Central Africa business unit president.

As global and local demand for fruit juice grows, there is a critical need to increase production. Small farmers can benefit from this increased demand by supplying fruit that meets the needs of local buyers such as Coca-Cola. Through this partnership, farmers who were previously unable to access this market opportunity will be provided with the tools to do so. This partnership will also serve as a model for Coca-Cola as it grows its juice business in other markets and has been designed to be easily replicated.

"This partnership is the type of innovative approach needed to foster economic empowerment across the globe and we are proud to be a part of this effort in East Africa," says Muhtar Kent, Chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company. "We and our partners the Gates Foundation and Technoserve believe that investing in farmers is a proven strategy to reduce poverty and build sustainable communities."

"Empowering small farmers to increase productivity, improve crop quality and access reliable markets is critical to addressing global hunger and poverty," says Sylvia Mathews Burwell, president of the Global Development Program of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The foundation has committed more than $1.4 billion, focused on Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, to strengthen the entire agricultural value chain-from seeds and soil to farm management and market access-so that progress against hunger and poverty is sustainable over the long term. "Partnerships like this provide farmers with the tools and resources that can help revitalize African agriculture and increase opportunities for small farmers so they build better lives for themselves and their families."

TechnoServe's implementation of this partnership will build on a track record of similar partnerships underway across Africa including banana, cashews, cocoa and coffee. They will ensure that sustainable environmental and social standards are embedded into the program at the farm level.

"We are honored to be a part of this innovative collaboration, as it represents a significant step forward for private sector development in Africa," says TechnoServe President and CEO Bruce McNamer. "This investment will drive momentum toward reducing poverty across Africa by helping entrepreneurial farmers connect to markets and get the support they need."

This project will be implemented in close collaboration with the governments of Kenya and Uganda, given its significance in the context of their poverty reduction strategies.  It is intended to produce lasting benefits for participating farm communities, enabling them to benefit from improved livelihoods for many years to come.