project title driving youth-led new agribusiness and

DYNAMIC Quarterly Report, Y4Q4, May – July 2019

Project title Driving Youth-led New Agribusiness and Microenterprise (DYNAMIC)

Organizational contact Ricarda Stienhans Report prepared by Netsaalem Bahiru Gebrie [email protected] [email protected]

Desk Officer, GOAL HQ Program Director

Period covered May 2019– July 2019 (Year 4, fourth program quarter, Y4 Q4)

Executive summary What were the project’s key achievements during the reporting period?

Key achievements DYNAMIC has concluded the fourth year with steady progress and achievements. During the quarter

under review, DYNAMIC has continued to adaptively manage, applying learnings from previous quarters,

as well as engaging and implementing market-oriented interventions that has been able to create on-

farm and off-farm opportunities for targeted youth at scale. In Y4 Q4 DYNAMIC has reached 25,559

young women and men bringing the total reached to 66,704 (44% women).

Pillar 1. Strengthening youth involvement in off-farm microenterprises: During the quarter DYNAMIC

has continued to facilitate the business linkage between input and output market actors (private sector

actors) and youth agents (micro businesses), in order to increase access to agricultural goods (inputs)

and services (skills) and dignified and fulfilling work for youth through youth-led agri-businesses.

Notable progress has been made in marketing improved sunflower and maize seeds to youth, PSA

training of youth as input / output dealers (buyers), youth led improved chick breeding and sales and

cassava and ginger multiplication plots. PSA are also preparing youth agents to aggregate and buy

commodities from farmers. Co-design of new initiatives to support increased access to inputs is well

advanced with six PSAs which will increase access to agricultural inputs for about 34,000 youth.

Pillar 2. Linking youth farmers to market: DYNAMICs continues to play a facilitative role in identifying

existing market players who have the incentive and capacity to increase access to goods and services

and to engage youth as producers and agents in their existing business models. The program remains on

track with a diversified portfolio of private sector partnerships to achieve scale and meet program

targets by the end of the program period. Farmer field days are proving to be a successful way of

creating demand for inputs and will be used more often to support PSAs. DYNAMIC currently has 11

active partnerships, four closed, and 32 potential partnerships are at different stages of do-design.

Sixteen of these are at agreement stage and are expected to become active during the next quarter.

DYNAMIC is pursuing seven more partnerships which aim to link about 13,000 more youth to market

opportunities.

Pillar 3. Improving youth access to market-based learning and information: Peer groups continue to be

the main entry points for youth to opportunities. The 273 PEs deployed in the previous quarters

continued to train the 904 youth groups with more than 20 youth members in each group. More than

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22,000 of the PE groups finished the first integrated manual (VSLA and financial literacy skills) and had started training youth on the second integrated manual (business and life skills manual).

DYNAMIC also entered into agreement with four of the most progressive VTIs to train about 1,000 more

youth in various vocational skills, with a focus on satellite training centres designed to increase access,

especially for young women. DYNAMIC has been co-designing an initiative with an agro-fintech company

to digitalize vocational trainings in order to enhance access and uptake of market facing skills and

information for youth. Initial business capacity deficits were assessed with four VTI and 8 PSA with a

view to linking them to EYs Business Development Services.

Pillar 4. Youth access and usage of formal and non-formal financial services: with the addition of

another partnership during the quarter, DYNAMIC now has two partnerships with financial institutions

namely Equity Bank and Centenary Bank. The main objective of the engagement with FIs is to increase

financial inclusion and create sustainable access to financial services for the youth and their enterprises.

During the quarter, these financial institution partners identified and trained; 42 potential bank agents,

of which 21 were approved by the Central Bank of Uganda to offer agency banking services. The banks

have also carried out mass sensitization and marketing drives to communities as well as trained over 40

community trainers to reach out to other youth and community members. So far 1,175 youth have

opened a bank account and the account opening is expected to increase over the following quarters.

Informal financial services i.e. VSLAs continue to function well. About half of the new PE groups continue

to run VSLA savings schemes and their cumulative savings increased to over USD 38,000 during Q4.

Key challenges: The key challenge faced during the quarter was high turnover of PMU members. The Youth Engagement

Advisor, one Program Manager and Senior Financial Accountant resigned. Such turnover is not

uncommon when moving towards the end of a program. However, DYNAMIC consortium partners took

proactive measures to replace the Program Manager and Youth Engagement Advisor internally

meanwhile recruitment of the Senior Financial Accountant is being finalized.

Progress Towards Key Results

Figure 1. DYNAMIC results are based around four key pillars:

Pillar 1 Pillar 2 Pillar 3 Pillar 4

Strengthen youth Linking youth farmers to Access to market-based Youth access to and use

involvement in non-farm Markets learning & information of formal & non formal

enterprises financial services

PILLAR 1. STRENGTHENING YOUTH INVOLVEMENT IN OFF FARM MICRO-ENTERPRISE

Youth access agricultural inputs: During Y4 Q4 DYNAMIC continue to monitor the 3,239 young farmers benefited from discounted inputs during Q3. At the beginning of Q4, the partnerships with PSAs


continue to enable them to improve input marketing channels by promoting youth-led input /

technology / output agent businesses and youth led seed multiplication businesses. Four input private

sector partnerships continued to incorporate youth as part of their business model. Though sale of

inputs is always low in Q4 of the program, because most of the first season’s planting would have

already been done, some sale of inputs still went on.

Youth access seeds through discounted inputs: DYNAMIC continued to support two PSAs to market over

1,330 kgs of improved sunflower and maize seeds to more than 200 youth through youth agents. This

was done through market drives and other market facing initiatives to rural communities to popularize

varieties new to the area. For Y5 Q1 (short agricultural season), DYNAMIC is working to facilitate youth

access to quality input across five districts for young farmers to buy Kuroilers chicks, sunflower seeds,

horticulture seeds, ginger rhizome and cassava cuttings.

Youth-led input / output agents: Both input and output markets are seasonal and as the planning

season comes to an end the demand for seeds in Y4 Q4 is low. However, PSA partners have continued

with activities such as setting of demonstration plots with the agents, trainings (such as post-harvest

handling) to agents to continue providing embedded services to other youth as well as supporting

agents to prepare for the buyback of agricultural produces in the following quarter. The sale of

discounted inputs through youth commission agents, by two partner PSAs with a centralized seed selling

scheme (Mukwano and Achila) wound down during Y4 Q4. One of DYNAMIC’s partners, Mukwano

selected and trained 30 (five female) youth from among their lead farmers and trained them to become

site coordinators. In the future, they will support the youth input agents in enabling youth to access

seeds and when it is time for harvest, they will support them in buying and bulking of grains on behalf of

the Mukwano.

Youth-led poultry businesses: Through a partnership with a PSA called Chick Masters Limited, DYNAMIC

is facilitating livelihoods opportunities for youth in the poultry value chain in six districts. The Chick

Masters agents also known as Mother Unit Operators (MUOs), continue to do business in commercial

chick brooding. In Lira, where the first MUOs were established under the first partnership with Chick

Masters (August 1st 2017 to January 30th 2019), eight MUOs bred and sold a total of 1,050 Kroiler chicks.

Chick Masters Limited held two coordination meetings with the respective district vet departments to

update the DVOs on progress made and discuss challenges and opportunities for Kroiler farming in the

respective districts. Chick Masters also identified and trained nine new MUOs on day-old chick brooding

and poultry management and are supporting them to establish their businesses and target more youth.

Under the second partnership (September 12th 2018 to September 12th 2019), Chick Masters held two

linkage meetings with the veterinary department and the MUOs and trained 20 (one female) existing

paravets on how to manage and treat Kroiler chickens in order to support MUO in Kroiler production.

This has yielded great support from the vet departments in facilitating access to vaccines and advisory

services for the MUOs. Chick Masters also trained 20 (five female) MUOs on business skills, brooding

and general poultry management. At a discounted price, Chick Masters has supplied each of the 20

MUO with two batches of chicks (a minimum of 250 day-old chicks), and associated inputs including

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feeds, brooding paper, vaccines and vaccine droppers. A total of 3,307 one-month old Kroilers chicks

worth USD 8,337 have been sold by MUOs to youth and other farmers across the five Mercy Corps

districts of operations. The MUOs are getting better at brooding as seen from the lowered chick

mortality in batch two compared to batch one. The MUOs are seeing an increase in interest from

farmers for the brooded chicks since those who bought the first batch attest to the fast growth of the

Kroiler, when compared to local breed. However, the majority of those buying chicks from the MUOs are

adults, with youth reported high interest but constrained financially from investing. Each DoC costs

US$0.55 but there are additional costs for feeding, treatment and other operations that are a must and

require spending on a daily basis before the brooded chicks are sold at USD1.64. So far, 1,502 (697

female) youth have been trained on basic poultry management by the MUOs. Two female youth who

were trained by MUOs have also become MUOs and are now making money from selling brooded

chicks.

Under the third partnership (February 27th 2019 – October 31st 2019) with DYNAMIC, Chick Masters has

identified an additional four youth as MUOs, which brings the total MUOs to nine (2 female). To prepare

the nine MUOs (established under the third partnership) for the brooding business, Chick Masters held a

five-day training on brooding and poultry management. So far, the MUOs have established the brooding

houses and are awaiting 750 chicks in the next quarter but have already registered and trained 205

youth on poultry production and management as a way of building their market for brooded chicks.

Youth-led pig breeders: The two youth-led pig breeding centers established earlier in the program have

continued to grow and sell improved pig breeds in the community. During the quarter, another 40

piglets were produced, bringing the total piglets produced from the two centers to 134 piglets. An

additional 12 piglets were sold from the centers bringing the total so far sold to 116 which has earned

them over USD 3,600. One of the breeding centers also offered artificial insemination to 6 pigs bringing

the cumulative total to 51 pigs. One of the breeding centers also conducted 2 boot camps on silage feed

making which reached over 200 (over 60 female) youth.

Youth-led seed multipliers: In partnership with DYNAMIC, Talian, a company specializing in cassava

processing and its VTI partners established 110 acres of demonstration and planting multiplication

material gardens. The gardens are being used for learning on practical aspects of growing cassava, such

as land clearing, choosing the right cuttings, appropriate spacing and planting; and weed management.

In partnership with Adyaka, a company specializing in cassava processing, 21 youth-led cassava gardens

have also been established for learning sites and multiplication purposes. Ginger is a new crop in

Northern Uganda and consequently there are no planting materials available. In partnership with

DYNAMIC, Butambala Ginger Growers and Suppliers Ltd (BGGSL) facilitated the establishment and

management of 80 youth-led ginger demonstration and planting material multiplication farms across

five districts. Youth will harvest and sell the planting materials (rhizomes) to other youth farmers

through a discounted arrangement. Because of delayed rains in the previous quarter, between a third

and a half of the planting materials dried up, but the remaining ones are doing very well in the gardens.

The harvest will be at the end of 2019 and sale to the youth and other farmers will happen in 2020. The

interest of the youth is very high on this crop as the income is decent.

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PILLAR 2. LINKING YOUTH FARMERS TO MARKET

Partnerships with PSAs: The means by which DYNAMIC links youthful producers to agricultural markets

is primarily through private sector partnerships. DYNAMICs continues to play a facilitative role in

identifying existing market players who have the incentive and capacity to increase access to goods and

services and to engage youth as producers and agents in their existing business models. The program

remains on track with a diversified portfolio of private sector partnerships to achieve scale and meet

program targets by the end of the program period.

During the quarter, DYNAMIC has 11 active partnerships, four closed, and 32 potential partnerships are

at different stages of do-design. Sixteen of these are at agreement stage and are expected to become

active during the next quarter. A key strategy for DYNAMIC is the re-engagement of partners that have

performed well and are in a good position to scale their successful models. It is anticipated that all

partnership on-boarding processes will be complete (or very nearly) by the next quarter, allowing the

program teams to focus on implementation and quality assurance.

Due to low demand for discounted priced improved seeds in both Abim and Kaabong, DYNAMIC

provided additional support to two PSAs through investment in market drives and farmer days at the

demonstration plots. The low demand had been attributed to the crop being new in the area and a high

dependency syndrome due to a long history of free input distribution. Through the drives, the interest

among the communities was generated for sunflower and over 100kg of seeds were sold. The farmer

field days are proving to be a successful way of creating demand for inputs and will be used more often

to support PSAs.

Through their agents, PSAs have established at least 229 demonstration plots for sunflower, cotton,

chia, maize and cassava crops for practical learning with youth in production and in establishing output

(buyer) relationships. During Q4, our PSAs offered direct training to thousands of youthful farmers to

provide them with technical skills on production and post-harvest handling of sunflower, maize and

soybeans, which were planted from discounted priced seeds in Q3, as well as the management of Kroiler

chickens.

Overall summary of current and potential partnerships in the pipeline under Pillar 1, 2, 3 and 4: Figure

3a, b, c & d below summarizes DYNAMIC’s PSA partnership portfolio categorized under the four program

pillars and the stage of development. DYNAMIC continues to pursue a diversified PSA portfolio to enable

the program to achieve its target by the end of the requested nine months no cost extension. Apart

from partnerships in market information (very thin market), the program is making excellent progress to

achieve targets in terms of, linking youth with the inputs/output markets and formal financial services.

The program continues to seek out lead firms and institutions for partnership that can achieve impact at

scale. Great progress was made with the potential partnerships in the pipeline with many partnerships

being moved from co-design to either agreement stage or final review stages.

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In Y4 Q4, seven partnerships were approved; two under pillar two (linking youth farmers to market),

four under pillar three to provide youth with market driven vocational skills and one under pillar four to

improve youth access to formal financial services. Another eight partnerships progressed to the final

review stage and are expected to be approved in Y5 Q1 while one partnership progressed to agreement

stage. Three partnerships which promoted youth access to sunflower, sorghum and maize seeds came

to an end. Four potential partnerships which were aiming to improve youth access to agricultural inputs,

youth involvement in pumpkin markets and graduating youth into various opportunities of the

agricultural value chains were dropped due to either misaligned incentives or noncompliance for due

diligence requirements. Overall, the number of youth reached and linked with opportunities has

increased significantly during Y4 Q4, increasing by 25,000 youth.

Figure 3a. Summary of active PSA partnership

Name of PSA

Targeted Partnership status

Sector/market systems youth focused

Pillar 2. Agricultural production and output marketing

1 Butambala Ginger Growers

5,000 Active partnership with MCU Ginger production &

and Suppliers Ltd marketing

2 Ngetta Tropical Holdings Ltd 3,000 Active partnership for MCU Sunflower production & marketing

3 Tallian Company Ltd 2,600 Active partnership for MCU Cassava

4 Chick Masters Limited 4,000 Active partnership with MCU Production & marketing of

2,000 Active partnership with GOAL

Kroiler

5 Adyaka wholesale millers 2,000 Active partnership with GOAL Cassava

6 Chia Organic 6,000 Active partnership with GOAL Chia production and export

7 Kitgum District Farmers

6,000 Active partnership with MCU

Association

8 West Acholi Cooperative

1,000 Active partnership with MCU

Cotton production and export Union

Market information, e- 9 Akorion 2,032 Active partnership with MCU extension, Input supply,

market linkages

Pillar 4: Access to and utilization of financial services

10 Equity Bank 12,000 Active partnership for GOAL Access to finance: Agency banking, financial literacy

11 Centenary Bank 10,000 Active partnership for GOAL Access to finance: Agency banking, VSLA linkage banking

5 active partnerships with GOAL and 7 with MCU (Chick Masters has signed Total: 11 partnership both with GOAL and MCU)

Figure 3b. Summary of PSA partnerships that closed during the quarter

Name of PSA Targeted

Partnership status Sector/market systems

youth focused


1 Acila enterprise Ltd 4,000 Closed partnership with GOAL Sorghum & maize production & marketing

2 A K Oils and Fats (Uganda)

6,600 Closed partnership with GOAL Soybean & sunflower production &

Ltd marketing

3 Lango Joint Farmers Coop.

3,012 Closed partnership with GOAL Ginger and Chia production and

Society Ltd Marketing

4 Guru Nanak Oil Mills

2,100 Discontinued for failure to Soybean & sunflower production &

(Uganda) Ltd make progress marketing

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Total: 4 4 partnerships with GOAL closed during the quarter

Figure 3c. Summary of new / planned PSA partnerships

Name of PSA Targeted

Partnership status Sector/market systems

youth focused

Pillar 1. Agricultural inputs Co-design completed –

Promotion of hermetic post- 1 Bukoola Chemicals Ltd 11,000 restarted diligence stage due to harvest bags renewed PSA interest (MCU)

2

Fica seeds 20,000 Early Stage for both GOAL and

Input markets MCU

Agricultural technology

Kick Start International/

Approved. At contracting stage Promotion of small-scale

3 3,025 irrigation systems/ supply chain Adritex Co. Ltd for MCU. development (Pilot)

At final review and approval

Promotion of Irrigation 4 Solar Now 560 systems/supply chain stage for GOAL development

5 SAIMCO 1500 Early stage for GOAL Farm implements and equipment

Business Development Services (BDS)

6 Stanbic Bank Business

200 Approved at contracting stage

BDS Incubator for MCU.

7

Ernest and Young 4 VTIs; 8

At co-design stage for GOAL BDS for VTIs and PSAs PSAs


8 Katine Joint Farmers’

1,000 At final review and approval Ground nut production and

Cooperative Society Ltd stage for GOAL marketing

9

Chia Organic 6,000 At final review and approval

Chia production and export stage for MCU

10

Landmark Millers 2,500 At final review and approval Cassava production and

stage for GOAL marketing

20 Agents

Approved. At contracting stage

11

Trutrade for MCU. Output aggregation and

TBD Early Stage (re-engagement) for marketing

GOAL

12

Taf Assured 1,520 At final review and approval

Honey production and marketing stage for GOAL

13

Golden bees 1,535 At final review and approval Honey production and marketing;

stage for GOAL Bee hive production

14 Jet Stream Co. Ltd 2,000 Co-design stage for both GOAL Green grams and white sorghum and MCU production and marketing

4,000

At final review and approval

15

Ngetta Tropical Holdings stage for GOAL Sunflower production and

TBD Early Stage (re-engagement) for processing

MCU

16

Lindjeri Farm TBD Early Stage (re-engagement) for

Poultry production and marketing GOAL

17

Nile Forestry TBD Early Stage (New) for GOAL Tree nursery business

establishment

18

Chick Masters Limited TBD Early Stage (re-engagement) for Kroiler chicken production and

MCU marketing

19

Tallian Millers TBD Early Stage (re-engagement) for Cassava multiplication,

MCU production and processing

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Sunflower seed distribution,

Early Stage (re-engagement) for

20 AK Oils TBD production, aggregation and both MCU and GOAL processign

21 Butambala Ginger Growers

TBD Early Stage (re-engagement) for

Ginger production & marketing

& Suppliers Ltd MCU

Pillar 3: Youth access to market based learning and information

At due diligence completing Markets & information, e-

22

M-Omulimisa

40 Agents extension, credit and Ag

stage for GOAL insurance, Input supply

E-Learning Environment/

23 Mobipay TBD At Co-design stage for VSO Platform or Learning

Management System (LMS)

24

Mighty Fire FM 2,400 At final review and approval

Access to information and BDS

stage for MCU

Pillar 4: Access to and utilization of financial services

25

Centenary Banks 12,500 Approved at contracting stage Financial Services - Commercial

for MCU. Banking

26

Equity Bank 12,000 At final review and approval Access to Finance: Agency

stage for MCU banking, VSAL digitization

27

DFCU Bank 3,000 Early stage for MCU. Draft MOU Financial literacy, access to

shared credit/ savings

28 The Microfinance Support

1,875 At approval stage for GOAL Business and Financial literacy,

Centre Asset financing

29

Local Links 300 PE At final review and approval VSLA digitalization and access to

groups stage for MCU solar equipment

30

FACTS Uganda TBD At due diligence stage for GOAL.

Value Chain Financing Draft MOU shared.

32 potential partnerships in the pipeline, of which 12 are at an early stage; 4 at TOTAL co-design & due diligence stage and 16 at approval or agreement signing stage.

***GOAL and MCU are co-designing with Nigetta tropical and true trade

Figure 3d. Potential partnerships discontinued during the quarter before formalizing

Name of PSA

Targeted Partnership status

Sector/market systems youth focused

Pillar 1. Agricultural inputs

1 BRAC social enterprise

- Discontinued for both GOAL and Inputs market systems and

MCU extension services

2 East African Seeds 20,000 Discontinued Inputs market systems

BDS

3 Numida

-

Discontinued Business records, analytics,

small business loans

Graduation approach to

4 Village Enterprises - Discontinued (GOAL) markets for the excluded

youth (incl PWDs)


5 Byeffe Foods

2,080

Discontinued (GOAL) Pumpkin production and

marketing

Total 4 potential partnerships discontinued

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The main reasons for discontinuing with potential partners was due to partners lack of flexibility in

considering innovative actions and lower impact and scale (EAS, Numida and Byeffe), proposing large

overhead costs (BRAC and Village Enterprise).

PILLAR 3: YOUTH ACCESS TO MARKET-BASED LEARNING AND INFORMATION

Peer education training: One of the key models used in DYNAMIC’s Making Market Work Youth (M4Y),

is the Peer Education Model (PEM) which establishes youth groups and delivers the program’s four core-

skill; business and life skills, financial literacy / VSLA and technical skills.

The 273 (83 female) youth from PE lot 3 continued training the more than 904 groups comprising of

over 25,800 youth, which they formed in the previous quarters. Another 43 PSEPs re-engaged from lot 1

and 2 also continued to deliver the four core skills to the groups they formed in the previous quarters.

By the end of Y4 Q4, most of the PEs had finished the first VSLA and financial literacy skills manuals and

had started training youth on the integrated business and life skills manual. Most of the groups have

now been verified by program staff.

During the Y5-Y6 realignment, DYNAMIC decided to run two PE lots concurrently until the end of the

program. With this, the program forecasts to reach the revised target of 110,000 youth. As lot 3 moves

towards the end, recruitment of the fourth lot of PEs has already been initiated and will be completed in

Y5 Q1. Lot 4 will be comprised of 150 newly recruited PEs and 150 rehired PSEPSs from the current lot 3

PEs.

Formal skill training: During Y4 Q4 and based on the new skills and learning strategy, DYNAMIC

completed co-design of a fourth round of partnerships with four VTIs which are more progressive and

market facing. The new partnerships incorporate the most successful components of the first two

rounds. The new phase of partnerships aims to support VTIs to embed and sustain the satellite training

centers as well as reduce the duration of the trainings. Following the signing of the new agreements

with DYNAMIC, VTIs conducted mobilization drives in the different districts through local government

and radio to ensure adequate outreach. Recruitment of the targeted 1,000 youth across five districts

will be completed in Y5 Q1 and trainings will start immediately thereafter.

Digitalizing technical trainings: DYNAMIC has been co-designing an initiative with an agro-fintech

company (Mobipay) to digitalize vocational trainings in order to enhance access and uptake of market

facing skills and information for youth. This will support the four VTIs in not only maintaining but also

improving the quality of trainings at the outreach training centers. A one-day workshop was organized

between the VTIs and Mobipay to introduce the different institutions, develop suitable products and

align to the specific needs of VTIs. The partnership with Mobipay is expected to be formalized in the

next quarter and subsequently implementation of digitalized technical training will commence.

Business Development Service (BDS): DYNAMIC plans to provide business development support to selected VTIs and PSA to grow their business to provide better market relevant skills and access to

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goods and services. During Y4 Q4, DYANAMIC carried out capacity assessment of the 4 selected VTIs to

identify areas for capacity support from Earnest and Young (EY) consultants, through their EY Ripples

program which aims to contribute to the SDGs through increased access to world class business

development services. Some of the capacity areas identified for support were partners’ ability to

developed models and carrying out market assessments to tailor trainings. A national consultant, which

will work with the PSAs and VTIs to build upon the engagement with EY, was also identified.

Private sector actors skills training: DYNAMIC continued to provide technical support to private sector

actors to improve the skills of youth out-growers and their customers or suppliers through the

embedded services model. During Y4 Q4, seven PSAs continued to provide embedded extension

services, mostly through agents and lead farmers. DYNAMIC is supporting through review and

enrichment of their training materials, meeting the cost of training youth agents as trainers, so that

they can train youth to improve their production and productivity. The trainings are organized in two

to three lots; preparation and planting, crop management (pest, disease and weed management) and

post-harvest handling practices.

PILLAR 4: YOUTH ACCESS AND USAGE OF FORMAL AND NON-FORMAL FINANCIAL SERVICES

Formal financial services: In Y4 Q4 DYNAMIC made good progress towards increasing access to formal

financial service for youth through a second partnership with a financial institution. The partnership

with Centenary Bank along with an existing partnership with Equity Bank, will target over 22,000 youth

and 250 VSLA groups across four districts. For the other five districts, partnerships are being designed

with the same two banks as well as three other institutions. Among the three potential partnerships

with financial service providers, Local Links aims to provide VSLA digitalization services and small loans,

Cycle Connect (social enterprise working in access to rural finance) targets to provide youth with asset

financing and FACTS Uganda aims to provide capital to agri-buyers that partner with youth to ensure

timely cash purchases.

Equity Bank identified and trained 42 (at least 4 female) youths as bank agents. Of these, 21 youth have

been approved by Central Bank of Uganda to work as bank agents. They were equipped by Equity Bank

and are now providing banking services as well as financial literacy training in rural communities, most

of which were not served by banks before. The remaining 21 youth are awaiting approval. Equity Bank

also carried out eight market drives in rural areas in four districts to create demand for youth bank agent

services, provide some financial literacy training and sensitization of their products and services. From

these drives and the services of the agents, 1,175 bank accounts have been opened and 227 (152

female) youth have been trained on financial management at group level.

Centenary Bank has trained 42 (17 female) youth as financial literacy trainers. They will reach out to

youth and their groups to train them on financial literacy and market bank products and services. So far,

57 (22 female) youth have been sensitized by trainers. Centenary Bank has also trained 15 (5 female)

youth as agents and 14 of these agents opened their accounts and have gone ahead to train 10 VSLA

youth groups on financial literacy and sensitized them product and services.

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Informal financial services: Village Savings & Loan Associations (VSLA) During the quarter, the PEs

continued to provide financial literacy training to the VSLA groups they formed in the previous

quarters and added a few more groups making a total of 423 youth groups and reaching over 10,500

youth who are involved in group savings and micro loans. The cumulative total savings have reached

at least USD 38,700.

Lessons What were the lessons learned from activities during this period? How will these Learned lessons be leveraged into other activities? Were there any challenges which were not

anticipated? How will these be addressed?

Data management and learning: DYNAMIC continued to migrate the MEAL data into the Commcare

digital platform. The program has utilized the visualization capability of PowerBi to track status and

progress of many parameters. The PowerBi platform suffered a glitch which was partly fixed in Y4 Q4.

This has enabled DYNAMIC to continue improving its data driven management, enabling better and

timely decisions. Next quarter, DYNAMIC will present to MCF with orientation and access to the MEAL

system. The new system decentralizes data management, tracking PSAs and PESPs, tracking results and

learning through one central system.

Evidence-based learning DYNAMIC continues to research and produce more evidence-based learning of

what is working and what is not, through learning briefs. Three additional studies were completed

during Y4 Q4 (highlighted in bold in figure 4) from which learning briefs were produced. Figure 4 below

shows all the assessments and studies conducted by DYNAMIC so far and those that are planned for the

next quarter.

Figure 4. Evidence based learning conducted Pillar 1. Strengthened youth involvement in non-farm enterprises

1. Capacity assessment study of Youth Input / Output Agents (August 2018) 2. Rapid Impact Assessment of the Village Enterprise Graduation Model (published February 2019) 3. Second Agents Capacity Assessment (July 2019)

Pillar 2. Linking youth farmers to markets

4. Rapid Impact Assessment (RIA) on 8 different value chains (June – September 2018)

5. E-voucher assessment to identify “youth satisfaction” about the process of sale discounted

seeds, willingness to pay and ways to improve. (Nov 2018) 6. Non-use of discounted seeds study in Karamoja (2018) 7. Second Rapid impact assessment (July 2019) 8. Diagnostics market research (Ongoing)

Pillar 3. Youth access to market-based learning & information

9. Qualitative study of the Peer Education Model (August 2018) 10. Tracer study on VTI graduates (October 2018)

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11. Study on the impact of the peer education model at the level of group members, concentrating on the income and employment changes after 2 years. (August 2018)

12. PE group verification (published March 2019)

13. Tracer Study on PE Group Members - Report on impact of the Peer Education Group Model in DYNAMIC (Published February 2019)

14. Skills market assessment (Y4 Q4) Pillar 4. Youth access to, and use of formal & non-formal financial services

15. Access to finance services study (Planned for year 5)

Communication and learning plan: The comprehensive communication and learning plan for 2019/20

developed by the DYNAMIC Communications & Learning Coordinator is being implemented.

Communication platforms such as social media including DYNAMIC’s Twitter, Facebook and YouTube

platforms are functioning and will continue to be loaded with communication materials until the end

of the program.

The DYNAMIC website- www.dynamicuganda.com- was developed and launched. Information,

learnings, successes and successes about the program can be accessed on the website. The website is

also linked to the social media pages such as Youtube, Facebook and twitter for better access.

The communications function continues to give support to the program through documenting

learnings, successes and failures and sharing with all stakeholders. 3 photo journals have been

produced (The C.E.Os visit to DYNAMIC in Lira, the Annual Youth Learning Meeting, and the farmer

gardens in Kaabong) and these have been shared widely.

A newsletter has been developed for September and shared within. It will be uploaded on the website

for wider sharing.

Attached are some of the success stories that have been documented within the reporting period

http://www.dynamicuganda.com-/

http://www.dynamicuganda.com-/


Consortium What is the status of the consortium? What occurred for governance/coordination in this quarter?

What is working well? Are there any issues to be addressed, and if so, how? What, if any, examples, are there of members of the consortium learning Update from each other?

The following table details the consortiums coordination and learning structures and provides a brief update for the reporting quarter.

Figure 5. The consortium coordination and learning structures

Meeting When Purpose Update

All DYNAMIC team Every Program and operation team from all Ongoing weekly. Communication tools such as zoom and slack, and

meeting Monday consortium partners exchange updates weekly coordination meetings are substantially improving coordination across

1000–11 partners and locations. Program staff can easily share ideas and experiences

00am and seek guidance thereby enriching co-creation, learning, confidence

building and efficiency.

DYNAMIC Every The market, youth engagement, skills & Ongoing weekly. This stimulates enthusiasm, confidence and synergies

technical Monday learning, financial services and MEAL across the consortium’s technical team.

meeting 1430–17 teams discuss program innovation and

00pm market-based solutions and inputs for co-

design with PSAs

Consortium Last week GOALs senior management engage with New initiative in the last quarter where GOAL, the consortium lead,

partners of consortium partners senior proactively seeks information from consortium partners on

one to one every management on management, organizational management and safeguarding and issues which could

month safeguarding & coordination cause reputational damage to the consortium. Monthly meetings

happened in May and July.


Program review Quarterly The formal program event for adaptive DYNAMIC conducted a two days program review in May 19, three

meetings management DYNAMIC program main areas were reflected upon; 1) Program scope, budget and

Finance / grants financial management and targets; 2) MEAL systems, specifically the learning plan and result

management consortium partners grant management chains, PowerBi and Commcare were reviewed and updated; and 3)

partnership management. GOAL’s Market Advisor participated in the

review meeting and facilitated a review of the PSA engagement toolkit

across functions and partners. The main changes agreed by the team

are to initiative the Due Diligence assessment prior to co-design

process and to provide more detailed guidance in the tools. Work will

be undertaken in the next quarter.

During the quarter, discussions were held with consortium partners

about possible no cost extension scenarios. Forecasting for the

different scenarios commenced in April 2019 and continued into the

next quarter. Partners expenses relating to the period May 2019 to

July 2019 have been consolidated into this quarter’s financial

report.

DYNAMIC steering Quarterly Strategic consortium direction and The Steering Committee meeting was held during the quarter on 1st of Committee management March 2019. During the SC meeting, staff performance management,

Meetings program progress, safeguarding and no cost extension were among the

topics discussed.

DYNAMIC / GOAL Monthly GOAL’s global team oversight and Monthly meetings were held in all months and minutes taken,

Headquarters support to the DYNAMIC documented and shared.

Meeting Participant include representatives of HQ senior management, finance,

Mastercard

6 weekly Program update meeting with Operations, technical and senior management.

/DYNAMIC Mastercard Foundation team Regular meetings are held, minutes taken and shared. Participation for

Meeting GOAL HQ includes senior management, operation and technical team

members.

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Any staff issues? Any staff changes? If so, what was the impact?

As anticipated, the two finance and administration officers recruited in the previous quarter reported

during Y4 Q4. The recruitment of two Market Development Officers (MDO), one Youth Engagement

Officer (YEO) and one Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning Officer (MEAL), that was

initiated in the previous quarter, were all completed in Y4 Q4. With the resignation of one Program

Manager (PM), Mercy Corps reorganized the management structure of its two implementation teams by

elevating the remaining PM to a regional PM and promoting two Market Development Officers to the

position of team leaders. Recruitment is ongoing to replace SFA, one MDO and YEO who resigned during

the quarter.

EOY Program What opportunities exist for collaborating/coordinating with others? governance and

participation

Youth Forward bi-annual learning events: DYNAMIC is preparing to host the final YF biannual learning meeting in August.

Ministers, Department and Agencies (MDA) Meeting: in collaboration with YETA DYNAMIC has

presented and shared learning during the MDA meeting hosted by DRT on 30th July 2019.

Risks & The operating environment remains stable and unchanged.

Assumptions

Agreement & The program remains in compliance with the agreement with the Mastercard compliance Foundation and the consortium partners also are still comply with the agreement

with GOAL.

Programmatic changes

Together with the Y5 workplan and budget realignment, DYNAMIC has requested a no cost extension

for GOAL, MC and RD and target revision for overall reach targets and some selected indicators. As

DYNAMIC continues to gain momentum, the key areas of focus for Y4 have been the following and will

remain priorities for Y5: 1. Peer education: To be able to meet targets, DYNAMIC will run two concurrent lots of PEs; Lot 4 and

5 will be composed of half of PEs from the previous lots and half will be newly recruited to provide

training to targeted youth.

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2. Financial inclusion: Increase access to formal financial services through agency banking and VSLA

linkages. In exploring possibilities of decreasing the target for informal financial services and

increase the target for linkages to formal financial services, new partnerships are in the pipeline to

pilot this. 3. Increase access to market / weather information / market players goods & services. Even though

this is a difficult ‘nut to crack’, DYNAMIC is co-designing with two PSAs to provide embedded market

information alongside other goods and services. 4. Increase access to private sector skill providers and more sustainable / market facing skill

development through PSAs. 5. Pilot BDS with VTIs and PSAs – Y5 6. Adaptive program management and learning which is being strengthened by the improved data

flowing in from the MEAL systems and the reflective review meetings. 7. PE training duration: The initial training was planned for 2 weeks but after careful consideration, it

was changed to 6 days. This is expected to work because the capacity of the PEs selected is higher

(all older cohort, younger cohort needed more training time).

Communications Please describe any media announcements, communications material

development, media engagement, events, or other communications activities

well as future plans in the coming quarter.

Learning briefs: During Y4Q4, DYNAMIC produced two learning briefs; five photo journals and two

success stories have been documented during this quarter. Three videos were also produced, one

documenting a peer educator who is a mother unit operator and two on power girls/ breadwinners.

These show the key successes and learning that the program is generating as it firms up its approach

and the PSA improve the market outreach and skills for the youth. A newsletter was also produced and

will be shared on the website. See annex for stories and briefs.

Social media: DYNAMIC has continued to update the social media sites with successes and milestones as they occur. Website: DYNAMIC website was developed and launched. It is now live and has a plethora of information about DYNAMIC

Annex: Learning briefs, study report, case stories, photo journals can be accessed at this link: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1QnxtCMpHHRJXBNmBnDyVS94MBi8DYupF

Page 16 of 16

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1QnxtCMpHHRJXBNmBnDyVS94MBi8DYupF

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1QnxtCMpHHRJXBNmBnDyVS94MBi8DYupF

project title driving youth-led new agribusiness and

Documents