Making markets work for small-scale farmers? A series of ‘provocation’ seminars

Seminar

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.

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Uganda meeting

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 partners

Collaborating institutions working on the provocations included: