Overview of SSNUP activities in 2022

In its second fully operational year, the Smallholder Safety Net Upscaling Programme (SSNUP) saw its first completed projects as well as a steadily increasing project pipeline: four projects were completed while 26 new projects in support of 36 agricultural value chain actors were approved for SSNUP co-funding. This is almost double the number of projects that were approved the previous year (14) and illustrates the programme’s continued relevancy and pertinence. 

This brings the overall amount of SSNUP projects since the launch of the programme to 40. These projects have very diverse objectives, ranging from improving the product and service offering of a microfinance institution in Benin to strengthening the resilience of farmers in Ghana, Ivory Coast and Togo though certification and traceability as well as improving the environmental and social performance of 11 enterprises across Africa.

As these examples illustrate, the programme is currently strongly focused on Africa - 83% of beneficiary organisations are African. However, it should be noted that this only represents 59% of the programme budget, which can be explained by the large number of farmer organisations and associations supported in Africa which tend to be smaller with lower absorption capacities compared to financial intermediaries and SMEs.

All SSNUP projects support a total of 63 agricultural value chain actors, nearly half (46%) of which are SMEs active in the agricultural sector, 35% are financial intermediaries, while 19% are farmer associations or cooperatives. Until June 2022, these projects directly reached over 70,000 smallholder households through the programme’s main activities: 

• 66,000 farmers benefited from tailored financial services such as index-based insurance and loans for cooperatives.
• 63,000 benefited from non-financial services. This can include financial education, training in good production practices and support in obtaining certifications such as quality seals. 
• Around 1,500 smallholder farmers benefited from market building solutions which connected them to other value chain actors through a digital platform.

Knowledge management is a key component of the programme and is gaining in importance now that more and more projects are being completed. For example, the main achievements and lessons learnt from the completed projects are captured in dedicated project result documents. In 2022, ADA also organised workshops on digital solutions for smallholder farmers as well as on index insurance to give the SSNUP partner investors an opportunity to exchange best practices and benefit from each other’s experiences.