Project description / objective
Anfanni‑Dèyié means: 'now is the time to be bold'.
The programme promotes sustainable systemic change by shifting from direct support to market structuring. It strengthens interactions among enterprises, service providers, financiers, training systems and local authorities, addressing structural constraints and enabling a self‑sustaining agroecological entrepreneurship ecosystem beyond the programme.
Market systems focus
Entrepreneurial business support services (BSS)
Agroecological business services remain fragmented, standardised and donor‑dependent. The programme facilitates BSS professionalisation through enterprise segmentation and scoring, enabling demand‑driven services, tailored incentives and co‑financing mechanisms aligned with enterprise maturity and sustainable commercial relationships.
TVET and employment system
The programme addresses weak links between training and employment by strengthening collaboration between TVET institutions, BSS and enterprises. It embeds agroecology and entrepreneurship into existing systems, institutionalises workplace learning, and reduces skills mismatches through durable SME–TVET partnerships.
Inclusive financial services
Access to finance is constrained by seasonality and risk perceptions. Anfanni‑Dèyié facilitates a tripartite enterprise-BSS-MFI mechanism combining financial preparation, co‑investment and risk management, enabling adapted financial products and continued post‑project lending beyond programme support.
Sustained advocacy for agroecological approaches
Agroecological products face barriers linked to compliance costs, weak label recognition and limited access to structured markets. The programme addresses support functions (certification, consumer information, public–private dialogue) to reduce transaction costs, build trust and stimulate local and institutional demand.
Programme approach
Anfanni‑Dèyié adopts a market‑oriented, facilitative approach, strengthening existing actors through score‑based enterprise segmentation. The interventions promotes firm aggregation, sustainable access to finance and the institutionalisation of services, ensuring continuity of core market functions beyond the programme’s lifetime.
Programme interventions
Differentiated business support services and professionalisation of BSS
Identification and selection of local providers
Local BSS are selected based on technical expertise, market proximity and capacity to deliver demand-driven services under sustainable, market-based business models.
Identification and selection of the partner SMEs
Enterprises are selected using a scoring-based segmentation tool assessing technical, managerial and financial maturity, enabling transparent targeting and graduation pathways from micro-entrepreneurs to lead firms.
Professional training and coaching
BSS deliver modular, practical training and on-site coaching in business management, financial literacy and market positioning, reinforcing enterprises' capacity to absorb investments and sustain performance.
Advocacy and synergy actions
The programme fosters dialogue among BSS, financial institutions, public authorities and development partners to harmonise practices and institutionalise sustainable market support mechanisms.
Co‑financing mechanism and access to credit
Financial education and enterprise readiness
Mandatory financial education embedded in the co-financing mechanism strengthens entrepreneurs' capacities in cash-flow management, repayment discipline and risk mitigation, improving long-term creditworthiness with MFIs.
Structured and phased allocation of finance
Funding is distributed through conditional, milestone-based disbursements combining catalytic grants, own contributions and loans, reducing misuse of funds and mobilising private capital alongside public resources.
Institutional dialogue with MFIs
Structured dialogue between MFIs, BSS and local institutions aligns financial products with agricultural cycles and enterprise realities, supporting the institutionalisation of inclusive, market-responsive financing mechanisms
Market access and demand structuring
Business dialogues and market linkages
Structured dialogue between MFIs, BSS and local institutions aligns financial products with agricultural cycles and enterprise realities, supporting the institutionalisation of inclusive, market-responsive financing mechanisms
Product competitiveness and market readiness
Targeted support in branding, packaging and commercial communication removes barriers to formal markets and enhances enterprises' ability to compete beyond informal sales channels.
Local governance and market platforms
Market access mechanisms are progressively transferred to local actors through a light governance framework, embedding dialogue platforms within territorial dynamics and ensuring long-term sustainability.
Institutional coordination and multi‑stakeholder dialogue
Ecosystem coordination and partner alignment
The programme engages in national and local coordination platforms to strengthen alignment among public, private and development actors improving coherence and reducing fragmentation in the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Co‑creation within MSD platforms
Through the MSD Benin platform, Anfanni-Dèyié shares practical evidence from systemic interventions and co-develops tools, fostering consistency of MSD practices and collective institutional learning.
Regulatory dialogue and advocacy
The programme leads multi-stakeholder advocacy to improve access to market authorisation, addressing regulatory bottlenecks and promoting enabling reforms for agroecological enterprises.
Notable results
Enduring systemic change
Professionalisation of business support markets
Business Support Structures (BSS) have shifted from project‑dependent providers to market actors, offering differentiated, demand‑driven services and generating revenue through contractual relationships with enterprises.
Improved functioning of inclusive financial markets
MFIs increasingly finance agroecological enterprises using adapted products aligned with agricultural cycles, supported by stronger enterprise bankability and sustained BSS-MFI collaboration beyond project subsidies.
Institutionalisation of market dialogue and coordination
Local business dialogues and national platforms are evolving into permanent coordination mechanisms, improving information flows, trust and alignment among private actors, institutions and service providers.
Stronger market readiness and demand responsiveness
Enterprises have enhanced product quality, branding and compliance, enabling access to formal and higher‑value markets and reducing transaction costs, with demand increasingly shaping service provision and investment decisions.
Impacts for target beneficiaries
Measured enterprise‑level changes
Midline data demonstrate widespread behavioural change:
- Use of management tools: 17.6% → 91.8%
- Bank account ownership: 24.7% → 77.6%
- Average turnover: +60%
- Average net income: +86%
- Formalised enterprises: 5.9% → 33.5%
These results reflect structural changes, not short‑term subsidy effects.
Adoption of agroecological practices
Adoption and diversification of agroecological practices increased across all value chains, with growth ranging from +94% to +169%, contributing to resilience, product quality and environmental value creation.
Employment and skills development
- Total employment: +43% (369 → 527 jobs)
- Enterprises hosting interns: +154%
- Champion enterprises increasingly act as local employment and training hubs.
[Uploaded May 2026]