New book on value chain development seeks to translate ideas into practice – for impact at scale

Interview with the editors of the new book “Value Chain Development and The Poor: Promise, delivery, and opportunities for impact at scale”

Jason Donovan (CIMMYT), Dietmar Stoian (World Agroforestry), and Jon Hellin (IRRI) are co-editors of the new book “Value Chain Development and The Poor: Promise, delivery, and opportunities for impact at scale,” published with support from the CGIAR Research Programs on Maize Agri-Food Systems (MAIZE), led by CIMMYT, and Policies, Institutions and Markets (PIM), led by IFPRI.

In this interview, the editors explain why this book, why it is important and relevant now, and what lessons learned in the past we should take forward to ensure inclusive and efficient value chain development in the future.

Why this book and how did you come up with the idea of working on it?

Jason Donovan: This book looks to fill the gap in the discussions on value chains which have been ongoing for nearly two decades: the need to shed light on how value chain concepts and ideas are  translated into development programming and interventions for achieving greater impact at scale. As CGIAR researchers, we felt a commitment for examining value chains from the perspectives of governments, donors, NGOs, and businesses interested in smallholder engagement in value chains.

Dietmar, Jon, and I have been engaged with Practical Action Publishing over the years and highly appreciate their dedication to better development practices, as well as the capacity to get development-oriented books into the hands of practitioners and researchers quickly. We hope that this book encourages reflection on current value chain development (VCD) approaches and on possible innovations in design, implementation, and assessment of VCD outcomes and impacts.

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