Making markets work for small-scale farmers? A series of ‘provocation’ seminars
IIED, Hivos and collaborating institutions organised a travelling series of ‘provocation’ seminars to challenge conventional wisdom on how to include smallholders in markets and bring fresh perspectives to the discussion on what works and why. This work forms a major part of the Small Producer Agency project led by IIED and Hivos.
The provocations took a close look at the assumptions, impacts, evidence, benefits and risks of market-based approaches to reducing poverty among small-scale farmers. They provided new and challenging insights — grounded in work with small-scale farmers in the developing world — to ‘provoke’ those working in the area of smallholders and markets to rethink how we can make markets work for the poor.
Between September 2010 and September 2011, we hosted five provocations across Europe. Each one gathered invited speakers, local delegates, and international participants (via web streaming) for three hours of debate.
The series was supported by the Hivos Knowledge Programme Small Producer Agency in the Globalised Market.
- Provocation 1: Producer agency and the agenda to “make markets work for the poor” The Hague, Netherlands, 28 September 2010
- Provocation 2: Rights-based versus market-based development: a false dichotomy? Stockholm, Sweden, 3 March 2011
- Provocation 3: 'Making markets work for the poor - contents and discontents' Paris, France, 30 March 2011
- Provocation 4: Making markets work for smallholders or wage labour? Manchester, UK, 25 May 2011
- Provocation 5: ‘Inclusive business’ and producer empowerment Brussels,Belgium, 22June 2011
Provocation 6: Rural youth today, farmers tomorrow?, The Hague, Netherlands, 22 May 2012
Provocation partners
Collaborating institutions working on the provocations included:
- Centre for Learning on sustainable agriculture (ILEIA)
- Empowering Smallholder Farmers in Markets (ESFIM)
- Humanist Institute for Cooperation with Development Countries (Hivos)
- Institut de Recherches et d’Applications des Méthodes de développement (IRAM)
- Institute for Development Policy and Management (IDPM), University of Manchester
- International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)
- Mainumby Ñakurutú
- Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV)
- Swedish International Agricultural Network Initiative (SIANI)
- UN Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD)
- Vredeseilanden
- OneWorld UK
