Strategic Aim 1:     Improved Rural Economy

This Strategic Aim underpins BFD’s commitment to reduce poverty especially in rural areas by fundamentally changing the farmers’ knowledge and ability to organize and manage themselves. BFD will focus its poverty reduction interventions in the development of rural economy to increase income of BFD target groups to the level above the poverty line.

Goals

The goals for this strategic aim include:

  • Improved farming technologies for higher productivity
  • Greater knowledge and control within agricultural market chain
  • Improved farmer organizations with more options to access finance and capital
  • Significant increase in annual incomes from agricultural production

Strategic Direction 1: Introduce agricultural innovation

  1. Introduce alternative methods and approaches of agricultural production (eg organic farming), marketing;
  2. Advise BFD’s target beneficiaries to become more independent from existing producer-trader relations and with more control in the context of the agricultural markets and value chains.

Strategic Direction 2: Support Cooperatives and SMEs

  1. Cooperatives and SMEs are established, functioning and networked across the Districts and Provinces as well as on the National level.
  2. Members of Cooperatives are introduced to the possibilities of using their Cooperative in order to improve the profit of their agricultural campaigns.

Strategic Direction 3:   Provision of Micro-finance

  1. BFD is an active lender of funds to target beneficiaries within Cooperatives and SMEs

Strategic Direction 4:   Financial Management Capacity Building

  1. BFD will initiate and develop a broad range of training initiatives to assist with the capacity building of BFD Staff and BFD’s target groups.
  2. BFD will provide basic economic and business training and advice for beneficiaries.

Success will be measured against:

  • Improved family incomes from agricultural production
  • Increase in business and marketing activities of farmer cooperatives
  • Increase in funds borrowing by farmers and householders
  • Increase in successful ventures by farmers supported through microfinance
  • Increase in the number of farmer networks both locally and nationally
  • Increase of vocational and financial management skills in women.
  • Increase in activities of self-help groups and SMEs.
  • Improved family situation as result of responsible spending and budgeting