Purchase for Progress
25 Oct 2016
As Sierra Leone works to recover from challenges caused by the Ebola outbreak in mid-2014, WFP continues to support sustainable improvements in smallholder farmers' lives and livelihoods under Purchase for Progress (P4P). A key part of these efforts are carried out in collaboration with UN Women and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to support the empowerment of women farmers, as well as strengthen household nutrition.
Purchase for Progress
28 Jul 2016
Smallholder farmers face numerous obstacles. In particular, they struggle to reach formal markets that can provide them better prices for their crops. Since 2008, the World Food Programme (WFP) has been innovating procurement practices under Purchase for Progress (P4P) to connect these farmers to markets. Forward delivery contracts, or FDCs, are one of the innovations strengthening pro-smallholder procurement, and strengthening farmers’ financial inclusion.
Purchase for Progress
21 Jul 2016
Smallholder farmers across the globe face a barrage of forces — from globalization, technological advances, and market liberalization, to privatization and climate change — that are disrupting and realigning their livelihoods. Previously well-established systems of political, social, economic and environmental resilience are shifting. Conflict, natural disaster, pandemics and economic shocks are apparently increasing in frequency and severity.
Purchase for Progress
21 Jul 2016
Portable computers, tablets and smartphones have created new ways of accessing information. At the touch of a screen, we can check the bus schedule and decide whether to carry an umbrella. More and more, information and communication technology – often referred to as ICT – is also changing the way smallholder farmers do business.
Purchase for Progress
18 May 2016
In Ghana, farmers sell their crops using an informal system called “bushweight”, under which they receive payment for only a portion of their marketed produce. Under Purchase for Progress (P4P), the World Food Programme supports these farmers to receive standard prices by using weighing scales, and to earn improved margins through the sale of quality crops. These efforts have raised broad awareness, and led to local solutions to ensure the fair reimbursement of smallholder farmers.
Purchase for Progress
26 Apr 2016
What does one bag of beans mean in the global effort to end hunger? It turns out, a lot. 2016 is the International Year of Pulses. It is also the first full year in which we are officially working toward the Sustainable Development Goals, which set an ambitious but attainable target to end hunger by 2030. An important part of this is improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers – especially women. We have found a way of doing this that also strengthens resilience and improves nutrition: buying more beans and peas.