AIL has supported governments to develop and review National Agricultural Investment Plans for ECOWAS countries to ensure conformity to the four set strategic policy pillars of land and natural resource management, rural infrastructure and market access, food and nutrition security and research for agricultural productivity. It has supported the development of West Africa Regional Agricultural Investment Plan (RAIP) for ECOWAS. Recently, AIL was consulted to build the capacity of 8 Botswana local authorities as part of the Botswana National Local Economic Development (LED) framework and implementation Plan for Botswana.
As part of the capacity building, 60 Local Government Authorities from Lobatse, Goodhope, Boteti, South East and Ghandzi districts were trained on Using Value Chain Concepts to develop bankable business plans. AIL did not only assist the districts to develop value chain maps and bankable business plans, but also supported the organization of investment forums to mobilize resources for the business plans implementation. The Districts were coached to finalize their bankable business plans, culminating in investment briefs and resource mobilisation mechanism and finally the hosting of the Investment Facilitation Forum. These activities were done by working together with the Botswana Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD) and Botswana Local Authorities Association (BALA). The business plans focused on employing food processing technologies to produce fodder for sale, meat products like leather, cheese, wool production for the local and international markets. Below are the developed business plans;
| No. | District | Business plans |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Sowa |
Sowa Pan Flamboyant Scenic View: Sustainable eco-tourism |
| 2 |
Boteti |
Makgadikgadi Heritage Trail: Cultural heritage operationalizing nature |
| 3 |
Chobe |
Nswii Cooperative: Unlocking community development through aquaculture |
| 4 | Kgalagadi |
Molopo Small Stock Cooperative: A hub for good quality small stock production |
| 5 | Goodhope |
Bontsala Horticultural Production: Utilising modern technology to sustainably maximise horticultural production |
| 6 | Lobatse |
Baitshitsi Fodder Producers: Fodder production to advance economic diversification |
| 7 | Francistown |
Clean & Green Botswana: Leading in sustainable, environmentally sound and cost-effective recycling practices |
| 8 |
Selebi Phikwe |
Selebi Phikwe Town Council Catalytic Projects |
Similarly, the team assisted 4 districts in Zambia to focus on the designing of a financing and integrated approach to the supply and processing of priority value chain interventions including Soybean, aquaculture, tourism and waste management (collection and recycling of metropolitan waste).