Cooperative-to-Cooperative Platform: Expanding networks for community-led business development | Policy, Malawi 2019

SEED Practitioner Labs Policy Prototyping Malawi brought together policy makers, eco-inclusive enterprises, and intermediaries over a multi-step collaborative process to design policy instruments that increase access to and improve the quality of support mechanisms for socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable enterprises looking to scale their impact.

The Cooperative-to-Cooperative Platform for Climate-Smart Agriculture is a digital platform developed during the Practitioner Labs process under the leadership of the Malawi Federation of Cooperatives (MAFECO). The platform offers combined performance indexing, knowledge sharing, and matchmaking between cooperative unions and cooperatives across Malawi. The platform supports the further coordination of cooperatives and public sector initiatives in Malawi. The platform will support the drafting and implementation of targeted policy for the development of climate-smart agriculture value chains by informing the policy agenda with evidence on climate-related risks and climate-smart agriculture practices, and influencing the drafting of the Cooperative Development Policy by ensuring that climate-resilient business models are prioritised within policy and a commitment to youth entrepreneurship for climate-smart agriculture is strengthened.