Agricultural Public-Private Partnership Successive Uncertainties: Implications for the Third Sector in Tanzania’s Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor Partnership Initiative

• In Event: In a collaborative pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals? Reflections on development CSO-practices in Africa

Abstract

The paper discusses the role of third sector in Public-Private partnerships (PPP) in the agricultural value
chains. Using the case study of the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) PPP
IniDaDve, it explores the implementaDon modality of agricultural strategic partnerships that engage
private sector actors, state actors, and non-governmental organizaDons (NGOs) in the strategic crops
value chains. SAGCOT PPP iniDaDve is a twenty-year mega-level PPP iniDaDve launched in 2010 in
Tanzania to boost agricultural producDon and integrate smallholder farmers into crop value chains in
the Southern corridor (SAGCOT, 2011). The paper asks how the role played by NGOs that implement
donor-funded projects within the context of PPPs shapes the implementaDon and sustainability of
agricultural strategic partnerships in the value chains of potatoes and soybeans. Literature has argued
how NGOs progressively engage in PPPs, working with the government and private sector as partners
to deliver services and goods and implement their projects effecDvely (Heul, 2012; Mendel, 2012;
Solana, 2014; Haque, 2020). However, the invesDgaDon of the role of NGOs has been concentrated on
the PPPs that involve NGOs as primary partners, when NGOs partner with either the state or private
companies to deliver services and goods (LaFrance and Lehmann, 2005; Besley and Ghatak, 2017;
Haque, 2020). This paper focuses on a scenario whereby NGOs are secondary partners convened by
SAGCOT Center Limited to join an already-established PPP. Using a theoreDcal approach inspired by
insDtuDonal logics (Thornton et al. 2012) concept, the paper examines the operaDon of strategic
partnerships as hybrid arrangements, analyses changing dynamics of agricultural PPPs, and
emphasizes the role of NGOs as crucial intermediates in hybrid arrangements. Based on the analysis
of interviews with actors parDcipaDng in the PPP, focus-group discussions with the small-holder
producers, and key informant interviews with leaders in farmers’ groups and SAGCOT Center Limited
staff, the paper establishes two key roles the NGOs play in strategic partnerships. Firstly, the mediaDon
role between companies and smallholder farmers, in which the NGOs negoDate with the private sector
to solve farmers’ challenges. Secondly, improving farmers’ capabiliDes along the soybean value chain
to enhance inclusiveness. Furthermore, it shows the vulnerability of these strategic partnerships
caused by NGOs' mediaDon role, which limits direct interacDon between smallholder farmers and
private companies and the nature of the NGOs' projects funded by external donors. Phasing out of the
projects has affected the conDnuaDon of strategic partnerships in the soybean value chain. The paper
suggests that SAGCOT’s soybean strategic partnership is dynamic and trust-based; at some point, it
becomes an assimilated hybrid arrangement characterized by short-lived PPP joint logic depending on
the availability of NGOs' donor-funded projects. Thus, we argue that the role of NGOs should extend
to strengthening exisDng farmers’ associaDons and their linkages to private sector actors for PPP
sustainability.
Keywords: SAGCOT IniDaDve, Third Sector, NGO, Public-Private Partnership, strategic partnerships,
Sustainability, smallholder farmers, Tanzania
References
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Authors

• Judith Kahamba, University of Jyvaskyla

• Xiuli Xu, China Agricultural University, College of HumaniDes and Development Studies