Case study: The Rwanda Private Sector Driven Agricultural Growth Project (PSDAG)

ABOUT THE PROJECT

The Government of Rwanda is developing its private sector by increasing domestic investment. There is a high priority to promote the participation of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The impact of this investment should reduce unemployment rates through the growth of SMEs and alleviate inequalities between social groups in rural areas.

The Rwanda Private Sector Driven Agricultural Growth Project (PSDAG) is a five-year project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), led by RTI International. As part of this innovative programme, Crown Agents USA, in collaboration with Crown Agents UK, has supported the capacity building elements of the project.

PILOT TRAINING PROGRAMME, DELIVERED BY CROWN AGENTS UK

In 2018 a pilot training programme was launched and entailed the following four themes:

• Communicating Effectively with Private Investors: Focusing on practical communication skills within the context of the investor cycle, including meetings, presentations and negotiations, needed to win and sustain investment
• Marketing Agriculture Investment Opportunities to Potential Investors: A step by step course to build understanding and develop stakeholder awareness, competitive skills and marketing strategies, at points across the investor cycle
• Contracting and Business Case Assessment and Preparation: Developing best practice skills in business case development and appraisal, with a focus on financial appraisal. Building key knowledge of the procurement process and of SOE (State Owned Enterprise) privatisation and PPP (Public-Private Partnership) options and models
• Public Private Dialogue/Policy Advocacy to leverage best practice and boost investment: This course focuses on how to best promote PPD (Public-Private Dialogue) interactions and feedback at the national and local levels. It promotes the practical exploration of how to improve PPD through better data collection and legislative and company issues tracking

OUR BLENDED LEARNING APPROACH

Responding to the capacity building needs of the key GoR stakeholder institutions, Crown Agents designed a blended learning approach to the pilot programme.

Alongside a series of classroom-based workshops, we delivered live webinars and remote mentoring. This allowed the new workshop skills to be built upon and embedded over time, with participants benefitting from learning reinforcement, guest speaker sessions and trainer follow-up on participants’ assignments.

All materials were hosted on a ‘Learning Support Platform’, allowing for additional discussions and experience sharing through a chat-room discussion forum. This encouraged participant networking throughout the programme and built a sense of belonging to a broader Community of Practice.

PROJECT LINKS

• www.agrilinks.org/activities/usaidrwanda-private-sector-driven- agricultural-growth-psdag-project
• www.rti.org