Dr. Nyamoga, Greyson Z.Eng. Dr. Silungwe, Festo R.Prof. Abdallah, Jummane M.Prof. Kashaigili, Japhet J.Prof. Kadigi, Reuben M.J.2023-08-282023-08-282021http://www.suaire.sua.ac.tz/handle/123456789/5687Consultancy ReportThe WWF-CARE Alliance commissioned a consultancy assignment to FORCONSULT of Sokoine University of Agriculture to conduct an Assessment of Operationalization of Ihemi and Mbarali Cluster Development Frameworks: Lesson Learned. The scope of work covered assessment of planning, process and products through operationalization of the Ihemi and Mbarali Cluster Development Frameworks (CDF) to inform development of the Kilombero Cluster Development Framework through in-depth analysis of the two CDFs process and their implementation. “A CDF is a strategic guiding document that defines the roadmap to operationalize and implement support activities to catalyse the development of the cluster and the growth of agribusiness and strategic value chain partnerships in the respective clusters. The document identifies strategic areas, opportunities and constraints where interventions are required to facilitate agricultural transformation. The CDF is also a partnership document that assists SAGCOT Centre Limited (SCL) to bring together investors and agribusinesses to invest in the cluster and create new partnerships to stimulate growth for commodity value chains and agribusiness”. CDF was “developed to provide focus and guide SCL’s work in facilitating growth within the Cluster particularly with a focus on smallholder development and market linkage”. This initiative aims to improve communication through a network of contacts, information sharing and formal and informal coordination. The intention is to help others perform more efficiently and effectively. Therefore, the main audience for the CDF is the SAGCOT Centre who use the CDF document to design and implement field based operations. The document proposes an approach and priorities, defines an initial strategy, identifies the key actors and indicates a set of concrete activities that the SCL should focus upon. Eventually, SCL uses this for detailed activity planning and budgeting. Thus, CDF is a basis to attract participation of new partners. The CDF is neither a detailed implementation plan nor an investment proposal as those need to be developed by SCL after further field-based consultation. Thus, SCL designed CDF for Ihemi and Mbarali as approaches towards promoting and strengthening inclusive green growth and agricultural transformation in the clusters. The CDF analysed the situation, prioritised strategic value chains of focus, and laid out an approach forward, defining initial key actions for SAGCOT and partners within the clusters while engaging key stakeholders. The CDFs were completed in October 2015 and April 2019 for Ihemi and Mbarali respectively. So far, the CDF have helped SCL to facilitate successful public-private partnerships with specific focus on priority value chains to unlock key bottlenecks and improve the agribusiness policy environment. The success obtained have attracted new investments and projects in Ihemi and Mbarali prompting partner’s wishes to replicate (and adapt where relevant) this approach in the initiation of activities in the Kilombero Cluster (3 rd priority cluster and covers the whole Morogoro region). The overall objective of this assignment is to provide lessons learned from the planning and implementation of the CDFs of Ihemi and Mbarali clusters, and based on the lessons learned to provide recommendations for the development and implementation of future CDFs, in particular the Kilombero CDF. Various approaches were used to collect relevant information for the assignment including desk work reviews of relevant documents and literature, stakeholders’ consultations and key informants’ interviews, field visits and participants’ observations. The key stakeholders visited for interviews and discussions included facilitators (i.e. WWF, SAGCOT), Local Government Authorities (LGAs), Big Investors or value chain pullers (i.e. ASAS, Rafael Group, Mtenda, etc.), NGO (i.e. Kilimo Trust, etc.). The key findings are provided below:enWWF-CARE Alliance commissionedOperationalization assessmentIhemi - Mbarali Cluster Development FrameworksConsultancy ReportTechnical Report