Case Study: Journey of Agri-Fin in Zimbabwe

[Offering Value through Collaboration]

Case Study

Journey of Agri-Fin in Zimbabwe

[Offering Value through Collaboration]

SUBMITTED TO Mr. Sheikh Morshed Jahan Associate Professor Course Instructor: Business Strategy (W501)

SUBMITTED BY Maleeha Tarannum, RH 106 BBA 18th Batch

Institute of Business Administration University of Dhaka

February 3, 2014

ABSTRACT
Mobile banking has been introduced as an extension of conventional banking. The purpose of mobile banking was to increase the convenience of consumers of banks. But today various new usage of mobile banking is being discovered. Many development organizations are using mobile banking as a powerful instrument to empower the grass root people of developing as well as least developed countries. In such cases, particular market segment is considered the target market and services are offered to this niche market. However, to offer unique value to niche market, Mercy Corps, a development organization is following the strategy of collaboration. By partnering with several service providers, Mercy Corps offers service in bundle to its consumers. It is now a crucial factor to consider for Agri-Fin how to keep all partners in line with the ultimate organizational goal of Agri-Fin.

MERCY CORPS

ercy Corps is an US based organization that works globally with a mission to alleviate poverty- suffering-oppression by helping people build secure, productive and just

communities worldwide. Initially, it was founded as Save the Refugees Fund, a task force organized by Dan ONeill in response to the plight of Cambodian refugees fleeing the famine, war and genocide of the killing fields. In 1982 ONeill and his fiend incorporate as Mercy Corps International in Seattle, Washington. Since its inception, Mercy Corps has attempted to find out long-term solutions to hunger and poverty. Mercy Corps believe that Communities are the best agents of their own change, Local markets are the best engines of sustainable recovery and Success is built on the foundation of good governance. Their belief is translated in their vision for change framework. At the center of the framework lies its core mission for which it exists. Surrounding the goal are the principles by which Mercy Corps pursue its mission. These principles form the basis for healthy interactions between all stakeholders in the development process. Beyond the operating principles are the actors who uphold these principles. Without their involvement pursuing mission would be impossible for Mercy Corps. At the outermost layer are the key external conditions. Sustainable development is not possible unless these key external conditions are not in right place. Programs of Mercy Corps include- Agri-Fin Mobile, Agricultural Development, Climate Change, Conflict Management, Disaster Risk Reduction, Emergency Response, Food Security, Good Governance, Local Partnerships and Community Mobilization, Market Development, Organizational Learning, Public Health Resilience, Urban Programming, Womens Empowerment and Gender and Youth Development.

Figure 1: Vision for Change Framework, Mercy Corps

AGRI-FIN

gri-Fin is a program of Mercy Corps that aims at increasing the efficiency of

peasant class across world. It is an innovation of Mercy Corps that address the special financial needs of farmers in different developing and under developed countries. Most of the under developed and least developed counties in the world such are agro-based are and less or not on industrialized. The poverty stricken people in countries dependent mostly

agriculture for their earning. This peasant class is illiterate or half-literate. Their technical know-

Figure 2: Agri-Fin Cycle

how is limited too. Less access to market information, formal banking and financing alternatives add to these problems. All these problems result in inefficient crop production and widening poverty. Agri-Fin mobile program partners with government, MNOs, banks and other financial organizations in order to build a sustainable model of crop production by offering farm as well as crop management tool and financial services in bundle. Mobile platform is used as a mean provide farmers with access to informal banking which is more convenient and affordable for them. The diagram gives a view of how Agri-Fin works. During the planting phase Agri-Fin provides farmers with loans via mobile for meeting the specific needs of planting season. Also, insurance is offered to cover risk associated with planting. During growing phase, farmers have to frequently buy elements like pest, fertilizers. Agri-Fin gives farmers the opportunity of P2B transaction which is paying the sellers via mobile. Farmers get this opportunity during harvesting phase too. On the contrary, during the selling phase, bulk buyers pay the farmers via mobile. Farmers have the scope of saving proceed from sale in their digital bank account. Primary outcomes of the mobile financing of this program are: Demand-driven financial services via mobile phones are made available and smallholders have sustainable access and accurate use of financial services.

ZIMBABWE: COUNTRY PROFILE

According to Country List of UN, Zimbabwe is a developing country in Southern Africa bordered by South Africa, Zambia. The national GDP growth rate is 4.4%. The most crucial factor in the economy of the country is extreme unemployment problem. According to 2013 data, unemployment rate in Zimbabwe is almost 94%. Once the breadbasket of southern Africa, it is now food-insecure and lacks the critical infrastructure and support mechanisms needed to help its most vulnerable citizens. Zimbabwe's economy is growing despite continuing political uncertainty. National economy has gone through a contraction during 1998-2008, a whole decade. In 2009, Following this reformation, Zimbabwe's economy recorded real growth of more than 9% per year in 2010-11, before slowing to 5% in 2012. This slow down is mostly caused from a poor harvest and low diamond revenues. To add this, once which reformation helped to improve the economy is now creating problem. At the center of the liquidity crisis is Zimbabwe's huge import bill, a result of the country's failing industries, worsened by the fall of the rand in South Africa, Zimbabwe's largest trading partner. It is now cheaper to import goods to Zimbabwe than to make them locally. More money is leaving the country than is being brought in. Local companies prefer to import finished products. With no money to retool and stuck with inefficient and costly plants, local companies stand little chance of competing with imports. Apart from this currency crisis, the government of Zimbabwe faces a number of difficult economic problems, including infrastructure and regulatory deficiencies, ongoing indigenization pressure, policy uncertainty, a large external debt burden, and insufficient formal employment. Zimbabwes 1998-2002 involvement in the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo drained hundreds of millions of dollars from the economy. The governments subsequent land r eform program, characterized by chaos and violence, badly damaged the commercial farming sector, the traditional source of exports and foreign exchange and the provider of 400,000 jobs, turning Zimbabwe into a net importer of food products. Until early 2009, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe routinely printed money to fund the budget deficit, causing hyperinflation. Dollarization in early 2009 allowed currencies such as the Botswana pula, the South Africa rand, and the US dollar to be used locally. It ended hyperinflation and reduced inflation to about 10% but exposed structural weaknesses that continue to inhibit broad-based growth.

Journey of Agri-Fin Mobile in Zimbabwe: Baseline Survey

etween August and November the Agri-Fin Mobile program conducted three baseline and product development surveys in Zimbabwe. Primary objective of this survey was to identify

services that have demand but are not being provided by current providers to smallholder farmers in an effective manner. These surveys also aimed at finding problems that may be encountered in providing such services through mobile phones. The program worked with a team of different backgrounds and experiences during these surveys. Team members were with backgrounds in agriculture, marketing, finance and communications. From the surveys, the program realized value in conducting largescale; multisite research studies by working with team. The program came to the conclusion that teaming as a practice during big baseline surveys saves on time, money, and energy and provides enormous gains in terms of professional reward and quality research. The baseline surveys analyzed the potential of bundling information services and financial products that can be delivered via mobile phones to assist smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe. A sample of respondents was derived from specific districts focusing on a number of specifically selected value chain crops. In Zimbabwe, the survey focused on maize, tomatoes and onion. Complimentary information was derived from focus group discussions and interviews with input suppliers and merchants. Results from the surveys show that the cost of information, from planting decision to selling at the market can make up a significant contribution to total production costs. Information asymmetry is an important contributor to overall transaction costs for the majority of smallholder farmers with a great potential of increasing farmers income if made available at affordable prices. In Zimbabwe, more than 80 percent of smallholder farmers have a mobile phone and more than 94 percent of the households have access to a mobile phone. The majority of farmers interviewed said they are comfortable using their phones to receive money.

Challenge noted by farmers is lack of access to basic financial services such as bank accounts or insurance. Farmers travel an average 45 kilometers to visit a bank, get funds or make a transfer. Having a low and unpredictable income makes it difficult to build up savings, buy insurance or secure loans. Among the farmers sampled more than 70 percent are un-banked. However, village Savings and Loans Initiatives/Associations are attracting a significant number of farmers particularly women. The survey gave important insight regarding partnership. One of them is each partner must recognize the business case and be willing to co-invest. The survey found that transaction volumes are critical. It is necessary to look out for areas to start with which drive transactions and therefore usage, hence working with produce buyers at the tail end of production and input suppliers at the beginning of production, as well as working in value chains that have on-going or multiple harvest periods per year, such as horticulture or dairy.

Mobile Technology: Tool to Empower Women in Zimbabwe

M
safety.

obile telecommunication is one of the major tools that plays role in women empowerment. Mobile telecommunication is now an easier, less capital based, widely

accessible communication channel for women in Zimbabwe who initially were excluded from financial activities due to cultural confinement. Women in Zimbabwe prefer mobile based projects because they see such projects as provider of economic gains, increased access to information, greater autonomy, social empowerment, and a greater sense of security and

A 2011 study by Groupe Speciale Mobile Association (GSMA) on Africa which included a case study on Zimbabwe highlighted a 41 % increase in income generating opportunities and 81%increase in independence of women who own a mobile. A study of micro-enterprises by the second largest mobile provider in Zimbabwe Telecel recently found that cell phones have impacted micro-enterprises, especially those owned by women. Mobile phones also provide an avenue for women to gain education and access to information.

According to Kubatana.net, a social platform in Zimbabwe, mobile phones in the hands of rural women can help them to know where to go and how to get in touch with a staff member, government or social worker and get the right information. In Zimbabwe as reported by IRIN, womens interest i n learning how to send SMS messages drives increased demand for literacy and numeracy. In Bulawayo the second largest city in Zimbabwe women are beginning to use the anonymity of mobile phones to build virtual support groups for those living positively. Thus, from income to education to health access to mobile phones can result in greater social empowerment for women as they gain new assets and responsibilities. Mobile phones also decrease the time and cost of travel, as well as risks posed to women on long-distance trips. The additional value of mobile phones is that they allow female farmers to by-pass the middleman entirely and charge higher prices for their goods.

Gender Mainstreaming through Agri-Fin

vidence from the baseline and product development surveys carried out by the Agri-Fin Mobile Program in Zimbabwe indicate that women farmers experience a lack of access to Agriculture continues to be the main source of rural

resources with less than 2 percent getting access to finance despite making-up more than 70 percent of the rural labor force. employment for both women and men. The surveys also noted that rural women are more likely to be engaged in self-employment (and thus less likely to be wage earners) than rural men. Lack of female-targeted extension services in Zimbabwe is a major barrier for women farmers. From the focus group discussions women farmers noted that they are uncomfortable interacting with male extension agents. A lack of female extension workers means that understanding women's perspectives, concerns, and abilities is often missing from agricultural knowledge exchange. In Zimbabwe, women are three times less likely to obtain insurance because they do not understand much about it. Womens landholdings are smaller than mens and women do not have land or property rights.

Partnership between Agri -Fin Mobile & Zimbabwes Farmers Union

ercy Corps Agri-Fin Mobile started its operation by signing MoU with Zimbabwe Farmers Union. The MoU allows the two organizations to join arms to improve information-sharing

with more than 180,000 smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe Farmers Union basically is supposed to work as a link between smallholder farmers and Agri-Fins other partners. The union represents the voice of the farmers in the development of products. It can inform Agri-Fin specific information or financial needs of farmers. So Agri-Fin became capable of addressing the needs of specific farmers more directly. The partnership results in increased engagement of Agri-Fin with farmers. Besides, Agri-Fin Mobile can also have access to information about farmers that have registered with the Farmers Union. Agri -Fin Mobile will use the information to justify the background of activities that need to be addressed. Ultimately, the Farmers Union can also bring a level of sustainability to the program as they extend the program beyond Mercy Corps.

Mobile Money: Solution to Liquidity Problem of Specialized Buyer

AITE is a specialized produce buyer in Zimbabwe. KAITE is involved in bulk buying from small hold farmers. It has increased the prosperity of thousands of smallholder farmers. However,

a challenge that KAITE has faced is running out of cash. KAITE itself does have enough cash to pay its producers. However, KAITEs agents, who travel to small, rural villages on motorbike, can only carry up to $2,000 USD in cash for safety reasons. Those agents often failed to pay farmers for all theyve produced. To solve this, agents have to make multiple trips. This results in high transportation costs for KAITE and slower payments for farmers. Intense liquidity problem in Zimbabwe since hyperinflation in 2008 and 2009 add to this problem as physical cash has been extremely difficult to obtain.

KAITE found a solution to this problem which is mobile money. KAITE trains farmers to gather or grow herbs, spices and essential oil crops, and has helped 2,500 farmers become certified as organic and fair-trade. For this leading international cosmetic and natural fertilizer companies pay a premium which is passed to the farmers by KAITE. Use of mobile money can ensure farmers receive their payments and premiums faster and more securely. At the same time KAITEs own staff also can become more protected. However, there are some challenges for KAITE while moving their payments to a digital platform. The most important one is network coverage of MNO partner of concerned mobile money provider. Another one is location of agents of mobile money. If the agents are not available nearby, farmers have to make trip to the nearest agent which increases overall cost for them. In fine, KAITEs 2,500 organic, fair-trade farmers were supposed to be the first of thousands more to enjoy the benefits of buying, selling and saving directly from their farm in presence of mobile money At the same time, KAITE would be well on its way to raising the social and economic living standards of small-scale producers in Zimbabwe even faster by increasing their transaction efficiency.

Partnership among KAITE, EcoCash & Agri-Fin Mobile

n June 2013, in the Domboshawa region, north of Zimbabwes capital Harare, KAITE, Agri -Fin linked KAITE and EcoNet to utilize the opportunity of mobile money for the improved efficiency

of farmers. EcoNet is a mobile network operator which offers EcoCash, a mobile money service. Unique criterion of EcoCash is a user only needs to sign up for their own EcoNet SIM card since they can borrow a phone to make the transaction. Though farmers expressed some hesitation at the transaction fees associated with mobile money, they admitted the fees are many times less than at traditional banks. In the area of Domboshawa, farmers were ready to harvest chilies in August, and Mercy Corps worked with KAITE to train and register farmers to set up EcoCash accounts with EcoNet SIM cards. This allowed farmer to directly receive the exact payments for their produce via a secure private mobile account on collection day.

Prior to mobile payments, coordinating cash payments was a challenge for KAITE. With only rough estimates of the quality and amount of produce farmers would bring to collection points, KAITE used to rely on approximations of the cash required. This often resulted in cash shortages that posed difficulties, particularly when purchasing in remote locations. With EcoCash, a direct mobile transfer of cash at the moment of collection ensures that all produce can be purchased and farmers can receive their full payments immediately. Additionally, making cashless business transactions bring with it added security, as both KAITE and the farmers are no longer vulnerable to robberies. The Domboshawa pilot in which 448 farmers were trained and registered on EcoCash, proved that farmers were interested in and able to receive payments through their mobile phones, and actually preferred it over cash. For the farmers, Agri-Fin Mobile has not only brought convenience in receiving mobile payments from their agriculture produce buyer, it has also improved their personal financial transactions. Farmers can now receive and send money to family members and friends and facilitate payments for groceries and school fees through the mobile phone. New obstacle that was found during the pilot project was limited cash in the hands of EcoCash agents. In that case, the agents are unable to provide the adequate amount farmers wish to withdraw.

Agri-Fins Collaboration Strategy

Agri-Fin offers services in bundle to peasant society in Zimbabwe. Its main approach is to collaborate with other services providers and act as a link among all other partners. The key partners of Agri-Fin are listed below:

FARMER ORGANIZATIONS

Farmer Organization work as the representative of smallholder farmers. These organizations work in two ways. They make government and public aware of issued faced by smallholder farmers. At the same time, they inform their members about available financial services.

FINANCIAL INSTITUTION

The financial institution offers traditional savings and loans products as well as some mobile banking features such as utility payments. Its operations have focused primarily on urban clients; however, it wants to launch an agricultural credit product in the next nine months. The bank has recently prioritized these segments, both because of government incentives and the lack of growth in their urban portfolio. However, the bank has a limited track record of engagement and lacks understanding about the rural market segments behaviors and preferences.

MOBILE NETWORK OPERATOR (MNO)

The dominant MNO is a leader in bringing new value added services to market. They have considerable market share and believe that growth will come from new services as opposed to new customers. They are willing to experiment with products that can increase or sustain their growth and income. They havent historically invested in product development and market or consumer research, and prefer to build in-house and immediately distribute products nationally without market testing. The motivations of the dominant MNO are quite different from those of late-entrant MNOs, who believe that new growth will come from improving existing commoditized products or servicescompeting on quality rather than volume and price. These late entrant MNOs see a significant opportunity in rural areas due to underinvestment by other MNOs. Agri-Fin Mobile works with both dominant and late-entrant MNOs.

THE BULK

BUYER

The Bulk Buyer sources produce from large numbers of smallholder farmers and invests in training and inputs for some farmers. They would like to improve efficiency in their supply chain, though they have not made any technology investments to do so. The buyers supply chain improvements lead to direct income increases for them and their farmers as a result of increased efficiencies, reduced crop losses, and improved yields and quality. They spend significant time on cash settlement, which is confusing and costly.

Agri-Fins: The Ultimate Link

gri-Fin does not offer any service on its own. However, it is the main player in the whole system as it brings all the service providers and the farmers under one umbrella. Challenge,

risk all are higher for Agri-Fin. It faces challenges while linking partners. Problem arisen from partnering and even problem of single partner have to be taken into consideration by Agri-Fin. For example, while Agri-Fin was attempting to link KAITE and EcoCash, registration of farmers to make mobile payments was an important first step in laying the groundwork to bring numerous services to rural farmers and agro-buyers. Mercy Corps Agri-Fin Mobile program plays a behind the scenes role, working to build more relationships like these to bundle financial and agricultural advisory services and make them available to poor, rural farmers on mobile phones. The tricky part is designing the Agri-Fin Mobile partnerships so a viable value proposition exists for each player. How Agri-Fin is going to do this is the ultimate question now.

Case Teaching Note:

Journey of Agri-Fin in Zimbabwe
[Offering Value through Collaboration]

Case Teaching Notes

Journey of Agri-Fin in Zimbabwe

[Offering Value through Collaboration]

SUBMITTED TO Mr. Sheikh Morshed Jahan Associate Professor Course Instructor: Business Strategy (W501)

SUBMITTED BY Maleeha Tarannum, RH 106 BBA 18th Batch

Institute of Business Administration University of Dhaka

February 3, 2014

Synopsis
Technically, mobile banking is an extended version of conventional banking. Banks in general use this approach to increase convenience for their consumers. Services are general banking services. The only difference is that services are provided via a mobile telecommunication platform. Marketing approach thereby is not customer driven. However, the concept radically changes when the approach is made by development organization. The topic of this case is Agri-Fin project of Mercy Corps. Mercy Corps is a US based organization that operates globally with a mission to with a mission to alleviate poverty- suffering-oppression by helping people build secure, productive and just communities worldwide. Programs of Mercy Corps includeAgri-Fin Mobile, Agricultural Development, Climate Change, Conflict Management, Disaster Risk Reduction, Emergency Response, Food Security, Good Governance, Local Partnerships and Community Mobilization, Market Development, Organizational Learning, Public Health Resilience, Urban Programming, Womens Empowerment and Gender and Youth Development. Agri-Fin is a pilot project run by Mercy Corps that offers bundled services to smallholder farmers through partnering with service providers. Agri-Fin does not offer any service on its own. However, it is the main player in the whole system as it brings all the service providers and the farmers under one umbrella. Challenge, risk all are higher for Agri-Fin. It faces challenges while linking partners. Problem arisen from partnering and even problem of single partner have to be taken into consideration by Agri-Fin. For example, while Agri-Fin was attempting to link KAITE and EcoCash, registration of farmers to make mobile payments was an important first step in laying the groundwork to bring numerous services to rural farmers and agro-buyers. Mercy Corps Agri-Fin Mobile program plays a behind the scenes role, working to build more relationships like these to bundle financial and agricultural advisory services and make them available to poor, rural farmers on mobile phones. The tricky part is designing the Agri-Fin Mobile partnerships so a viable value proposition exists for each player. How Agri-Fin is going to do this is the ultimate question now.

Target Audience
The case is linked with: 1. Business Strategy 2. Development Studies 3. Business Studies 4. Marketing 5. Technology 6. Partnership 7. Survey Hence, students from any of the mentioned backgrounds are welcomed to go through the case. The case tells the story of Mercy Corps and its project, Agri-Fin in the context of Zimbabwe. How the project is playing role to change the living condition of farmers there has been portrayed in the case. So students from Development Studies background will have idea relevant to their study. Agri-Fin operates by partnering with all other key players. Successful partnership as a mean Business Strategy is a key issue of this case. Thus, students from Business Strategy, Business Studies will be benefited by analyzing this case. The case covers survey and technology but in a very brief manner. But how survey itself is critical for any successful business operation has been portrayed in the case. In addition of this, how technology can be utilized as development tool can be checked in this case. The story of Agri-Fin in Zimbabwe from the beginning has been presented in this case. So reader can gain a good idea of marketing approach while offering development related services to grass root people. The case can be studied by people of development organization, mobile financing organizations, financial institutions and MNOs.

Learning Objective
Broad Objective:
To find out a long-term strategy for Agri-Fin Mobile to ensure a sustainable partnership with all value partners.

Specific Objectives:
o o o o o To illustrate the value partners of Agri-Fin To identify how Agri-Fin is linked with partners To illustrate how partners of Agri-Fin are linked with each other To identify how Agri-Fin acts as a mediator among all partners To identify how mobile financing in the case of Agri-Fin Mobile differs from general mobile financing o o o To illustrate what values Agri-Fin can offer to its partners To find out how Agri-Fin Mobile uses its innovation to fix problems faced by its partners To find out how Agri-Fin can ensure the sustainability of its partnership with all partners

Case Analysis
Analysis Framework:
The primary step of analyzing the case is to do a through PESTLE analysis. It will give important insight regarding future prospect and opportunity as well as threats for different partners of AgriFin mobile. SWOT analysis of Agri-Fin and other partners will be helpful in identifying different value that can be offered to partners by Agri-Fin Mobile.

The most important part will be the Global Value Chain Analysis. This will help in analyzing how the whole system works in Agri-Fin Mobile. How Agri-Fin is offering values in bundle to its consumers via value partners is the most important study of this case. Global value chain analysis will give detail idea about each of the partners of Agri-Fin Mobile.

Roadmap Evauation of Strategis Decision Alternatives Value for Partners GVC Analysis SWOT Analysis PESTLE Analysis
Figure 3 : Analysis Framework

Decision Alternatives & Their Evaluation:

From PESTLE, SWOT and GVC analysis, readers can identify values that Agri-Fin Mobile can offer to its partners for ensuring a sustainable partnership. The decision alternatives can be evaluated based on the following factors: o o Alignment of goal through value Motivation through offering Value

Evaluation of Alternatives for Particular Partners:

1. Farmers Organizations are keen to work with Agri-Fin as it provides platform to be connected with various service providers. As such organizations are not profit-making institution; they are not concerned with sustainability and revenue. Value offered to them by Agri-Fin should be integrated with their culture 2. A crucial factor while partnering with MNOs is the hesitance of MNOs to accept external funding for implementation or design. If value offered by Agri-Fin Mobile is strong enough to convince MNOs in accepting such external funding should be considered. 3. For bulk buyers partnering with Agri-Fin implies moving from cash to virtual currency and outsourcing much of the settlement logistics which saves the buyer money and time. The major challenge in this context is limited technological know how of the buyers. Most buyers have little knowledge of technology solutions on how they work, particularly for payments. So while providing digital payment platform it is essential to ensure that the introduction of technology into their processes is as seamless as possible. Another critical factor is the identification of buyer organization if pre-existing relationships are not in place as most buyers are not household names. 4. Banks are more interested in long-term lending which is not the case for farmers. In addition with this, banks may find it risky to lend without knowing much about consumer segment. Agri-Fin Mobile has to actively look for strategies to buy down lending risk, such as introducing new credit rating services, to open up credit in the market.

Assignment Question
1. Who are the key partners of Agri-Fin Mobile? 2. How does Agri-Fin offer services in bundle via collaboration with partners? 3. What values does Agri-Fin can add to their individual partners? 4. What are the key factors for Agri-Fin to ensure sustainable partnership with key partners? 5. What should be the strategy through which Agri-Fin can ensure sustainable partnership with value partners?

Teaching Plan
The teaching will be conducted in three phases. In the first phase, students will be taught about development organization and their activities. In this phase Mercy Corps and Agri-Fin mobile will be the focus. In second phase, students will learn about mobile financing. How does mobile financing while are being offered to farmers differ from mobile financing in general will be the focal point of second phase. In third phase, the focus will be the different partners of Agri-Fin Mobile. How they are providing value to the consumers, farmers will be analyzed in this phase. In the final phase, students will build up strategy for Agri-Fin to ensure sustainable partnership.

Analytical Tools to be used

1. Comparative PESTLE analysis of Zimbabwe 2. Value-Chain Analysis 3. Global Value Chain Analysis 4. TTF Framework 5. SWOT Analysis of Agri-Fin 6. SWOT Analysis of Service Providers/Partners

Recommended Reading
o o o o Agri-Fin in Indonesia Agri-Fin in Uganda Mobile Financing in Zimbabwe Development Organizations in Zimbabwe

Works Cited
Mercy Corps. (n.d.). A reflection of the Agri-Fin Mobile in 2012. Retrieved from Agri-Fin Mobile: http://www.mercycorps.org/research-resources/reflection-agri-fin-mobile-2012 Mercy Corps. (n.d.). Agri-Fin Mobile . Retrieved from Mercy Corps: www.mercycorps.org/researchresources/agri-fin-mobile Mercy Corps. (n.d.). Agri-Fin Mobile and Zimbabwe Farmers Union Join Arms to Improve InformationSharing with Farmers. Retrieved from Agri-Fin Mobile: http://www.mercycorps.org/researchresources/agri-fin-mobile-and-zimbabwe-farmers-union-join-arms-improve-information-sharing Mercy Corps. (n.d.). Agri-Fin Mobile Releases First Annual eBook. Retrieved from Agri-Fin Mobile: http://www.mercycorps.org/research-resources/agri-fin-mobile-releases-first-annual-ebook Mercy Corps. (n.d.). Organic, fair-trade farmers in Zimbabwe link to a key buyer through mobile. Retrieved from Agri-Fin Mobile: http://www.mercycorps.org/research-resources/organic-fairtrade-farmers-zimbabwe-link-key-buyer-through-mobile Mercy Corps. (n.d.). The potential of mobile phones in transforming agriculture for smallholder farmers: Results from the Agri-Fin Mobile baseline surveys in Indonesia, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Retrieved from Agri-Fin Mobile: http://www.mercycorps.org/research-resources/potentialmobile-phones-transforming-agriculture-smallholder-farmers-results-agri Mercy Corps. (n.d.). Zimbabwe Beneficiary Story: A smallholder farmer finds more than one use for her EcoCash wallet. Retrieved from Agri-Fin Mobile: http://www.mercycorps.org/researchresources/zimbabwe-beneficiary-story-smallholder-farmer-finds-more-one-use-her-ecocash Mercy Corps. (n.d.). Zimbabwe: Experts gather to develop new mobile agricultural service product. Retrieved from Agri-Fin Mobile: http://www.mercycorps.org/research-resources/zimbabweexperts-gather-develop-new-mobile-agricultural-service-product-0 Mery Corps. (n.d.). Zimbabwe Case Study: Lessons From a Buyer's Experience of Mobile Money. Retrieved from Agri-Fin Mobile: http://www.mercycorps.org/research-resources/zimbabwecase-study-lessons-buyers-experience-mobile-money