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Position:	Consultant
Location:	Accra
Project name:	Feed the Future Ghana Policy LINK
Status:	Short Term Technical Assistance (Independent Consultant)
Period of Performance	February 2025 to July 2025
Supervisors:	Climate Change Lead, Policy LINK

 

Policy LINK is a global Feed the Future program led by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by DAI Global. It that aims to strengthen the capacity of local actors and institutions to lead and manage the agricultural transformation process and contribute effectively and collectively to improved, broad-based food security policy outcomes.
 

The program aims to do this by investing in and reinforcing productive human and social capital and developing strategic partnerships that help bring these innovations and capacity investments to scale to achieve a critical mass of local actors with the ability and opportunity to effect positive policy change through collective action.
 

Policy LINK’s general approach is grounded in facilitative leadership and collaborative governance, which emphasize engaging stakeholders from civil society and public and private sectors in consensus-oriented decision-making, collaborative problem-solving, and adaptive learning.
 

Ghana Policy LINK is a five-year activity with the overall objective of fostering behavior change that strengthens the capacity and ability of Ghanaian stakeholders to participate in a more transparent, inclusive, and evidence-based agriculture and food security policy process that leads to improved food and nutrition outcomes and broad-based economic growth. Specifically, the activity will facilitate the transition towards a policy development paradigm driven by multiple stakeholders.

 

This approach to policymaking will strengthen the capacities of Ghana’s main agricultural policy system actors and institutions and support them to engage stakeholders traditionally excluded from decision-making, including academia, financial institutions, the judiciary, civil society organizations (CSOs), non-governmental Organizations (NGOs), and private sector representatives from the national, regional, and local levels.
 

This approach is underpinned by Policy LINK’s overarching theory of change focused on increasing human and social capital, engaging policy system actors in collaborative processes, and developing mechanisms for collaborative governance and dynamic learning systems and platforms to sustain collective action.

Background

Agricultural extension and advisory services (AES) remain important in the quest to improve farmers' productivity and livelihood outcomes. AES facilitates access to critical information and technologies. In Ghana, the public sector has always played a leading role in AES provision aimed at enhancing skills, knowledge, and capacity building among farmers in co-creating modern agricultural practices. However, public extension services1 face numerous challenges, such as inadequate funding, limited trained personnel, and logistical constraints. This has increased interest in how private sector participation could complement that of the public.
 

In recent years, the number of private sector extension providers has grown significantly in Ghana. These include agribusiness firms, NGOs, input dealers, and financial institutions. The private extension service providers have extension services embedded in their business packages, and they provide advisory services to farmers in collaboration with public extension service providers. This has created new dynamics in the sharing of agricultural technologies and information. Private extension service providers often have access to modern technologies, flexibility, and the ability to tailor services to specific farmer needs, potentially improving the efficiency and effectiveness of agricultural technology transfer and co-creation.
 

Previous studies have compared public and private extension delivery and emphasized the need for collaborative efforts to enhance extension delivery to farmers in Ghana. For example, despite cocoa farmers providing a superior rating for private extension services compared to public, Tham-Agyekum et al. (2024)2 concluded that a collaboration between the two is necessary for improved extension service delivery in Ghana. In assessing the private sector’s role in agricultural extension systems, Feder et al. (2011)3 reviewed extension reform modalities that entailed partnerships between the public sector, farmers’ organizations or communities, and private sector providers. They concluded that while private sector participation can overcome some of the deficiencies of the public extension systems, challenges still remain, and their involvement in itself is no panacea to the challenges in the extension service delivery sector. Even for extension education, Kwarteng et al. (2016)4 used the Sasakawa Africa Fund for Extension Education (SAFE) to highlight the importance of public- private partnerships in improving extension service delivery.
 

However, while information on the public extension system, such as the number and location of extension agents, technology transfers, challenges, etc., are mostly available and overseen by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), there is inadequate and disjointed information on the private sector extension delivery system. For example, while some studies may have identified some private sector providers in their study area or interviewed farmers who use their service, a repository of private sector service providers, their areas of specialization, geographical area of focus, etc., is not known to exist. Consequently, knowledge of their impact and contribution to the agricultural extension landscape in Ghana is limited. Improving such knowledge will facilitate the design of stronger public-private collaborative/ partnership models to elevate extension delivery and shape policies on extension service delivery in Ghana.
 

This study seeks to address the knowledge gaps by mapping private agricultural extension service providers and assessing their contribution to technology transfer and information dissemination in the agricultural sector in Ghana. The proposed study will evaluate how private extension services complement or compete with public services and examine their contribution to enhancing the resilience of smallholder farmers, agribusinesses, and overall agricultural productivity.
 

By generating insights into the role and effectiveness of private extension service providers, the study aims to inform policy decisions and strategies that can foster a more efficient and collaborative extension system in Ghana, ultimately contributing to sustainable agricultural development.

 

The primary objective of this study is to map out private sector agricultural extension service providers in Ghana and assess their contribution to technology transfer and information dissemination systems. Specifically, the study is expected to:

 

• Literature Review: Conduct a comprehensive review of existing studies, reports, and documents related to agricultural extension services in Ghana (public-private sector), with a focus on private sector involvement.
• Mapping of Private Extension Service Providers: Identify and create a database of pri- vate sector organizations, NGOs, agribusinesses, and other entities offering extension ser- vices in Ghana.
• Technology Transfer: Document the types of technologies being transferred by private extension providers and their relevance to local farming systems; Document the types of tools, strategies, and methodologies in transferring agricultural technologies and their rele- vance to local farming systems.
• Field Data Collection: Conduct field surveys, interviews, and focus group discussions with key stakeholders, including farmers, private extension providers, and public extension officers, to gather qualitative and quantitative data.
• Report Writing and Dissemination: Prepare a comprehensive research report and pre- sent findings to relevant stakeholders, including the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), private sector entities, farmer-based organizations (FBOs), and other key players.

Deliverables
The successful consultant is expected to deliver the following outputs:

• Inception Report: Detailing the methodology, work plan, and timeline for the assignment.
• Database of Private Extension Providers: A comprehensive list of private entities of- fering extension services in Ghana, categorized by region and service type.
• Progress Report: A report summarizing findings from stakeholder engagements.
• Final Research Report: A detailed report that includes the results of the technology transfer and impact evaluation, and actionable recommendations for enhancing the contribu- tion of private sector service provision in agricultural extension.
• Policy Brief: A concise document outlining key research findings and policy recommenda- tions.
• Presentation of Findings: A stakeholder workshop or seminar to disseminate the re- search findings.