Independent Evaluation for Promoting Pro-poor Opportunities in Commodities and Service Markets (Propcom) Mai-karfi Programme

17 December 2013

Rural households are the poorest in Nigeria and it is believed poverty will not be reduced without a focus on agriculture and rural enterprise. Historically there has been low investment, innovation and use of technology in rural areas which has held back economic development. Propcom Mai-karfi is funded by DFID with the intention of making markets work more inclusively for poor men and women. The programme is a direct response to the non-inclusive nature of growth in Nigeria.

 

Propcom Mai-karfi (which means ‘stronger’) is currently in the second phase of implementation. The programme aims to increase the incomes of 650,000 men and women in northern Nigeria, by 2017, in five selected markets; Soy, ‘Soap with Hand Washing’, Village Chicken, Fertiliser and Tractors.

 

The programme follows a Making Markets Work for the Poor (M4P) approach, which is based on the premise that changing the lives of the poor means changing the market systems around them. The key outputs of the programme are:

• Selected rural market systems work more effectively for poor farmers and small-scale rural entrepreneurs;
• Poor men and women engaged in selected markets are less vulnerable to shocks, trends and seasonality;
• Private investors, government, non-government organisations and development agencies make changes in their approach to northern Nigeria as a result of programme influence.

Upper Quartile has been selected to undertake the Independent Evaluation of Propcom Mai-karfi. The independent evaluation aims to;

• Evaluate the achievement of Propcom Mia-karfi in relation to key OECD DAC criteria;
• Contribute to the limited evaluative evidence on what works, for whom and in what circumstances in relation to M4P programmes.

Evaluation of M4P programmes, which are intended to be facilitative and adaptive, bringing about systemic, large scale and sustainable change in market systems represent a challenging evaluation prospect. The independent evaluation team have recently returned from an initial scoping visit to Abuja and are beginning to plan inception visits for Q1 2014.