October 31, 2017 Prepared for review by the United States Agency for International Development under USAID Agreement No. 669-A-16-00005 Feed the Future Liberia Agribusiness Development Activity (LADA) implemented by CNFA Re-Submitted March 5, 2018 to: USAID/Liberia Dr. Maurice Ogutu, AOR; Author: Communications/M&E Department; Photo Concept: Communications/M&E Department TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................................ 2 ANNEXES ...................................................................................................................................... 3 ACRONYM .................................................................................................................................... 4 1. Executive Summary ................................................................................................................. 6 a) Background .......................................................................................................................... 6 b) Progress after Year 2:........................................................................................................... 6 LADA Performance Highlights from FY17 ............................................................................... 7 2. LADA Fiscal Year 2017 Activities ....................................................................................... 12 Component 1 (IR 1): Increase private sector investment in agricultural inputs systems .......... 12 Sub IR 1.1 – Increased demand for agro-inputs .................................................................... 13 Sub IR 1.2 – Increased capacity of input dealers .................................................................. 14 Component 2 (IR 2): Increase private sector investment in post-harvest handling – storage, packaging, transportation, marketing and auxiliary services .................................................... 17 Sub IR 2.1 – MSME’s access to finance and business development services improved ...... 29 Sub IR 2.2 – Increased knowledge of post-harvest handling practices ................................. 31 Quarter 4 Updates: ........................................................................................................................ 32 Component 3 (IR 3): Strengthen facilitation of investment, market information, advocacy and support systems ......................................................................................................................... 32 Sub IR 3.2 – Capacity of AIN to increase investment in selected value chains strengthened ............................................................................................................................................... 35 Sub IR 3.1 – Increased access to market information and digital financial services ............ 37 3. LADA CROSSCUTTING ACTIVITIES .............................................................................. 37 Quarter 1 through Quarter 3 Summary: .................................................................................... 37 Access to Finance: ..................................................................................................................... 37 Gender and Youth Activities ..................................................................................................... 39 Monitoring and Evaluation........................................................................................................ 42 4. LADA FY17 PERFORMANCE INDICATORS RESULTS ................................................ 45 5. Challenges and Lessons Learned ........................................................................................... 46 6. Priorities for FY18 ................................................................................................................. 47 7. SUCCESS STORIES ............................................................................................................. 48 LADA Initiates Food Safety Regime in Liberia ....................................................................... 48 Access to Loan increases Rural Woman Farmer’s Productivity ............................................... 49 ANNEXES Annex 1: Indicator Performance Monitoring Table (IPMT) Annex 2: PY2 Implementation Plan Annex 3: LADA Monitoring & Evaluation Plan Annex 4: LADA First Data Quality Assessment Report Annex 5: Gender and Youth Integration Work Plan 3 ACRONYM AIDAL Agro-Input Dealers’ Association of Liberia AIIC Agriculture Infrastructure Investment Company AIN Agribusiness Investment Network AOR Agreement Officer’s Representative BDS Business Development Services BSC Business Start-Up Center BSP Business Service Provider CARI Central Agricultural Research Institute CBDSPL Consortium of BDS Providers of Liberia CIF Co-Investment Fund CNFA Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture COP Chief of Party DCA Development Credit Authority DEN-L Development Education Network- Liberia DFS Digital Financial Services EMMP Environmental Mitigation and Monitoring Plan EOI Expression of Interest FED USAID Food and Enterprise Development Program FtF Feed the Future FY Fiscal Year HHs Households IEE Initial Environmental Examination IES Initial Environmental Screening IFAD International Foundation for Agricultural Development LADA Liberia Agribusiness Development Activity LATA Liberia Agricultural Transformation Agenda LEAD Liberia Entrepreneurial & Asset Development GCCA Global Cold Chain Alliance GIS Geographic Information System GoL Government of Liberia GPS Global Positioning System HQCF High Quality Cassava Flour M&E Monitoring & Evaluation MFI Microfinance Institution MOA Ministry of Agriculture MOCI Ministry of Commerce & Industry MSME Micro Small Medium Enterprises MT Metric Ton NGO Non-Governmental Organization PERSUAP Pesticide Evaluation Report and Safer Use Action Plan SHF Small Holder Farmer 4 SME Small Medium Enterprises SMS Short Message Service USAID United States Agency for International Development USG United States Government WFP World Food Program 5 1. Executive Summary a) Background On December 9, 2015, USAID awarded the Associate Cooperative Agreement No. AID-669-A- 16-00005, to Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture (CNFA) to implement the Feed the Future (FtF) Liberia Agribusiness Development Activity (LADA). LADA is a five-year, $19.3 million, program to be implemented in four counties in Liberia. The goal of LADA is to increase the incomes of smallholder farmers (SHFs) through increasing private sector investment in the Liberian agribusiness sector. LADA aims to achieve this goal through the following three (3) objectives: 1. Increasing private sector investment in agricultural (production) input systems; 2. Increasing private sector investment in post-harvest handling support, storage, packaging, transporting, marketing, and auxiliary services as well as the overall policy-focused; and 3. Strengthening facilitation, market information, advocacy, and support systems. Two years on, LADA is achieving this goal by expanding access to and encouraging use of agricultural inputs and post-harvest handling, processing, packaging and marketing services with the aim to increase the on-farm productivity as well as supporting the Government of Liberia (GoL) in agro-policy development. A complementary activity in support of this goal is establishing an Agribusiness Investment Network (AIN) to serve as platform for linking actors in the agribusiness sector and advocating for sector-friendly policies that contribute to increased agricultural investment in Liberia. To summarize the approach, LADA is achieving these objectives through the implementation of three activity components: LADA also focuses on a number of cross-cutting areas that support all activity components. These include gender and youth integration, environmental compliance, access to finance as well as monitoring, evaluation, and learning. b) Progress after Year 2: After two years of implementation, the LADA team can point to early fruits of effective stakeholder relationship building as well as to some tangible results from activity implementation. Collaboration and coordination with key partners is rapidly improving and buy-in is yielding benefits; the MOA donated small-scale mills worth US$60,000 to LADA and IFAD pledged US$360,000 to construct facilities some LADA beneficiaries. Implementation of CIF projects have started. One project, improving access to finance using the DFS platform through LEAD was fully executed in year 2. A number of agro-store upgrading got underway and the rest of the projects planned for year 2 were in advanced procurement stages. On the policy front, LADA facilitated the drafting and presentation of two very significant acts: the National Standards Act and the Food Law. A lot was done in the first two years of LADA but there is a lot more to be done to ensure that the activity achieves its goal. Stakeholders buy-in has been achieved, systems and procedures have been fine-tuned, the requisite teams are in place and LADA is poised to making great leaps toward achieving its goal in FY18. 6 LADA Performance Highlights from FY17 In FY17, LADA made great strides and achieved many milestones, both from the conceptual perspective as well as from the M&E Plan indicator deliverables, necessary to ensure successful implementation of this important USAID Feed the Future activity. Refurbishment of agro-dealer stores: Through its Co-Investment