Measures of Success within the

ENABLE Youth Program

Dr. Paul L. Woomer

IITA Agripreneur Technical Advisor

AfDB Consultant to ENABLE-Youth

Email plwoomer@gmail.com

What is success in terms of

agricultural productivity, viable

business enterprise and job

creation?

How do we measure and

monitor these indicators?

Higher education across Africa has grown more

rapidly than the regional economies that its graduates

were meant to accommodate (skill set mismatch).

Despite economic growth, large numbers of frustrated

and resigned job seekers (jobless growth).

What was intended to be the solution, better

educated youth driving growth, has become a

problem, dissatisfied youth and dangerous lifestyles.

This is a situation that must and can be corrected to

society's advantage (realm of Social Engineering).

Social dilemma or developmental

low hanging fruit?

A major objective of the AfDB ENABLEProgram and IITA AgripreneurMovement is …

“to create business opportunities anddecent employment for young womenand men along priority agriculturalvalue chains”.

Measures of Success require that departing

Agripreneur Interns and their start-up

agribusiness be tracked through voluntary

monitoring. Indicators include loan repayment,

profit/loss, employment offered, others.

Coordination Office provide administrative andtechnical support to hosts, trainers and mentors.

Agribusiness incubation conducted for cropproduction, marketing and value addition.

Pilot enterprises established, expanded & replicated. Other rural youth groups are engaged. Youth develop detailed business plans and loan

applications. Departure strategies are designed with financial

institutions to improve creditworthiness of youth. Agribusinesses created, employment generated and

additional youth out-growers linked to markets. Enterprises include a wide range of agricultural

services (not covered in this presentation).

Agripreneur Conceptual Model and

Theory of Change

Provides flexible guidelines to

the establishment and

operations of agribusiness

incubation

Intended to assist new and

existing Youth Agripreneur

Groups to expand in both

number and size.

Allows for adjustment to site-

specific situations and national

requirements

Principles include youth

leadership, gender balance,

democratic norms, and

experiential learning

Interns learn from both a series

of core group agribusiness

ventures and group

organizational tasks

IITA’s approach formalized

into published guidelines

and training material

Youth

Coordination

Office

Hosts,

Trainers &

Mentors

Rural Youth

Group 1

Rural Youth

Group 2 to x

Core

Youth

Operations

Modern

Farming

Facility

Marketing

Facility

Business Plans

& Loan

Applications

Value

Addition

Facility

Product

Markets

Agribusiness

1

Agribusiness

2 to x

outgrowers

spin offs

agribusiness opportunity

Intern

operations

training harvest

Intern operations

Intern

operations

Intern operations

outgrowers

administrative,

logistical &

technical support

facility &

technical

support

Larger

Farming

Community

Office funded,

M&E,

reports issued

ID hosts,

mentors &

trainers

Type &

economic

return

Terms of credit,

loans offered

& repayment

Number trained,

cost per youth &

departure outcomes

Type &

economic

return

Type &

economic

return

Number of groups and

members, joint activities

Number.

&

volume

Type, profits.

&

employees

Type, profits.

&

employees

Wider

agribusiness

engagement

Agripreneur M&E Tool

Developed under IFAD-YADI

Project

Includes routine monitoring and

Knowledge Management

components

Three-page, 18 query repeated

questionnaire

Expanded into digital format for

electronic reporting (right)

Questionnaire components: Submission details, Group

status, Officers and leadership, Hosts, Enterprises,

Mentorship, Training received and provided, Remuneration,

Group dynamics, Finances, Innovation, Difficulties and

solutions, Major achievements, Coordination and

supervision, Photographic support, Any other comments

I. When was your group founded ? 22nd August 2012

II. Status

Is you group registered with national or local authorities ? YES

If yes, as what sort of organization NGO/CBO

III. Officers

Do you have elected officers ? YES

If yes: When last elected 1-Jan-14

Akinyele Bankole

Ohanwusi Evelyn

Odusanya Dare

Olaniyi Jibola

Olaide Jinandu

How many of this officers are young women 3

if no: how is your group led? Please provide a comment

Are group officers election planned ? Yes

IV. Members

How many youth belong to your group ? 35

How many young women 20

What are the ages of youngest members of your group ? 24

What are the ages of oldest members of your group ? 33

Do new members continue to join your group? Yes

If yes ,how are they recruited ?

Interview: For youths who

completed their NYSC in IITA

If no,why not ? Please provide a comment

V. Hosts

What organizations hosts your group ? IITA

How often does your organization meet ? Daily

Do you pay rent? NO

C – CHECKLIST – QUESTIONNAIRE

Specify officers(no more than five)

Modern Farming: High value crops

produced near markets

Start-up: tent-style greenhouse, drip irrigation, mist

blower, hybrid seeds, stacking cartons

Transaction: Complex rotation, fluctuating prices

Marketing: Youth engage as agrodealers

in commodity trading

Start-up: Market space, Quality Standard

compliance, scales and misc. equipment

Transaction: Overlapping purchase and sales

Agro-processing: Youth establish a

bakery using biofortified flours

Start-up: Relatively large including ovens, mixers,

baking supplies, delivery racks, transport

Transaction: Co-investment, several products

Makueni, Kenya

Borno, Nigeria

Bukavu, DRC

Knowledge Management through Case Studies

So many opportunities: agricultural eco-tourism; animalfeed production; cereal, legume and root crop production;establishing out-grower networks; greenhouse and fieldvegetable production; farm input supply; fish farming; fishhatchery and fingerlings; floriculture; irrigation and ponddesign and services; flour milling and blending; herb andspice production; land conservation services; leather works;market aggregation centers; organic fertilizer production;pest control services; plant propagation; potting mixtures;poultry raising; private extension services; productrepresentation; seed production and marketing; soymilkmanufacture; tree seedling nurseries; value addition toagricultural products; vermiculture and more!

Intern outcome Frequency Agribusiness outcome Employees

Non-commercial 0.12 strategic employment 1

Value chain "fixes" 0.15 Modern farming start-ups 3 to 5

Proprietorships 0.24 Medium agribusiness 5 to 7

Partnerships 0.23 Larger agribusiness 8 to 12

Larger businesses 0.23 Agro-processing 12 or more

Total 0.97 Diverse agribusinesses 8 per intern

Likely Agribusiness Incubation

Outcomes by Departing Interns

Impacts depend upon the outcomes following

agribusiness incubation but different outcomes can be

fostered. Returns to investment in agribusiness

incubation can range between 4 to 6:1

Cote d’Ivoire

Ghana

Nigeria

Cameroon

DR Congo

Zambia

Tanzania

Kenya

Uganda

Sudan

Malawi

16

20

1

5

372

2

1

1

6

11

5

11

1

1 Established groups

Planned groups

12

Cote d’Ivoire

Ghana

Nigeria

Cameroon

DR Congo

Zambia

Tanzania

Kenya

Uganda

Sudan

Malawi

16

20

1

5

372

2

1

1

6

11

5

11

1

1 Established groups

Planned groups

12

National

Coordination

Office

Local

Coordination

Units

Agribusiness

Incubations

Agripreneurs, Pilot

Enterprises and

Agribusiness

Attachment

Agribusiness

Start-ups

and Employees

Loans and

Risk Sharing

Technical

Backstopping,

Business Planning

& Tracking

Enabling

Environment

Creditworthiness

Resource

Access

Economic

Advance

Technical and

Business

Training

Enabling Environment

Experiential

Learning

Business Finance

Training & Backstopping

National

Coordination

Office

Local

Coordination

Units

Agribusiness

Incubations

Agripreneurs, Pilot

Enterprises and

Agribusiness

Attachment

Agribusiness

Start-ups

and Employees

Loans and

Risk Sharing

Technical

Backstopping,

Business Planning

& Tracking

Enabling

Environment

Creditworthiness

Resource

Access

Economic

Advance

Technical and

Business

Training

Enabling Environment

Experiential

Learning

Business Finance

Training & Backstopping

ENABLE-Nigeria

ENABLE Program Expansion

Projects are adjusted to Regional

Member Country needs and plans

Rapid expansion of ENABLE

across Africa is underway

Aggregated benefits (economic

gains: cost per program)

Measured through country and

regional economic statistics

Observations and Conclusions Youth empowerment through agribusiness start-up is

necessary and timely

Flexible projects that involve mindset change,

experiential learning, agribusiness attachment,

business plan development and loan mechanisms are

underway

Success is being made in reducing collateral

requirements and interest rates through de-risking

strategies by AfDB

Measures of success operate at different scales, from

individual case studies to complex program and

geographic aggregation

Mindset change as a psychological condition is

complicated to measure but easy to observe

But we do not need a sociologist to understand that

something very special is happening as youth are

successfully reoriented toward agribusiness