Smallholder SustaiNability Up-scaling Pro-gramme (SSNUP)

Direct beneficiaries: around 250 agribusiness enterprises, farmers’ organisations, and rural financial intermediaries which have business transactions with many smallholder house-holds.

End beneficiaries: at least 1,000,000 small-holder farmers using at least one offered solu-tion with 5,000,000 smallholders indirectly benefitting from the support provided through SSNUP partnerships.

Livelihoods – Smallholder households use new/improved financial services, capacity building services and market-access solu-tions in a way that improves their practices, productivity, capacity to absorb shocks and income levels.

Investments – Agricultural value chain actors sustainably grow through sales or portfolio growth, job creation, attraction of additional investments and adoption of sustainable management practices which are agroecologically conform, nutrition-sensitive and geographically focussed on Africa.

Market development - Impact fund managers increase investments in untapped und underserved agricultural markets in a way that continues to serve smallholders in evolving market and production environments.

Knowledge – Agrifood system actors appreciate the value of sustainable food production, processing, distribution and nutritious consumption practices, and increasingly incorporate them into their business practices.

Risultati principali attesi:  

New/improved financial services are available and used by smallholder households.

Market access solutions are available to smallholder households to access sustainable inputs, equipment and relevant information, and investments made which are increasingly focussed in Africa, are nutrition-sensitive and conform to agroecological principles (priority topics).

Agricultural value-chain actors with low or no access to commercial capital benefit from de-risking mechanism(s) and build a track record to attract more investments in the future, i.e. through participation of new investments facilities in SSNUP.

Impact fund managers engage in a community of practice to share experiences and build knowledge

Risultati fasi precedenti:   The programme was implemented with 9 partnering impact fund managers, 4 of which are either headquartered or with offices in Switzerland. As of December 2024, 102 Technical Assistance proposals benefiting 215 Agricultural Value Chain Actors (AVCAs) in 33 countries have been approved. These projects cover various areas such as internal management, financial services, non-financial services and market-building solutions, and benefit a wide range of organisations. There is a clear focus on Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where 174 out of the 215 (80%) beneficiary organisations are located. From a budgetary perspective too, the figure shows that 70% of the TA funding is destined for SSA. As of the end of the phase, at a conservative estimate, 1,4 million smallholder households are projected to have been reached directly or indirectly with new or adapted services, and the programme has attracted more than CHF 100 million in additional investment, surpassing the initially expected CHF 40 million. However, it was found that the programme could be more analytical in how it targeted positive food system outcomes and that disincentives to invest in local currencies were lowering the ambition to invest in local supply chains for food crops. In order to address this, the new phase will include measures to build mechanisms and partnerships to derisk investments and additionally incentivise investments into priority geographical and thematic areas, including SSA, agroecology and nutrition.

Synergies with SDC’s agriculture value chain projects in the partner countries concerned

Potential synergies with SECO in collaborat-ing with Swiss and other global impact fund managers

Synergies with other emerging facilities in the area of blended finance