After each multi-day capacity development workshop organized by PARM, participants often challenged us with a recurring question: “So what now?” And every time we presented the results of PARM’s risk assessment studies, they followed up with a similar concern: “How do we use these results?”
Through continued dialogue with these workshop participants, we found a shared answer: training in Agricultural Risk Management (ARM) must be transferred to other beneficiaries, and the findings on how to better manage agricultural risks must be implemented. This realization, how to transfer knowledge and implement ARM tools, became the foundation of the institutionalization (INST) project, which was piloted in Burkina Faso and Madagascar in 2024, and in Tunisia in 2025. In practice, the INST pilot project revealed that institutionalizing ARM goes beyond training and implementation. Its true goal is to strengthen the capacity of small rural organizations to design, implement, and monitoring projects, while capturing valuable and precious lessons learned along the way.
Piloting Institutionalization across countries
The institutionalization (INST) of ARM is a strategic process to ensure a long-lasting impact of capacity development and to implement selected tools identified through PARM’s Agricultural Value Chains Risk Assessment Studies (AVC-RAS). It promotes country ownership of both the studies and the trainings.
With support from its donors (AFD, EU, Italy, and IFAD), PARM launched pilot INST initiatives in Burkina Faso[1] and Madagascar[2] in 2024, and in Tunisia[3] in 2025 (ongoing). The INST process also enabled PARM to collaborate closely with IFAD’s Financing Facility for Remittances (FFR) and the Mastercard Foundation, demonstrating the growing interest of the private sector in ARM. Both partners expressed interest in supporting the institutionalization of ARM in Senegal.
To ensure a bottom-up approach and foster ownership, organizations that attended PARM trainings were encouraged to develop their own action plans to guide their institutionalization journey.
- In Burkina Faso where PARM’s risk assessment study pointed out the high risk of drought, a women farmers’ organization partnered with a rural training centre to implement and train participants on hydroponic practices, a method that uses less water and soil, offering a viable adaptation to drought conditions.
- In Madagascar where PARM recommended agroecology as a holistic tool to address multiple risks, a rural training centre has set up agroecology pedagogic sites to train young entrepreneurs in sustainable farming practices.
- In Tunisia, the institutionalization is being carried out by a women farmers’ organization in Kasserine. PARM’s AVC-RAS recommended quality and organic production as integrated tools to address multiple risks in the country. The organization is focusing on organic practices. Innovatively, the initiative will also aim to develop training materials to estimate the carbon footprint of agri-processing activities, such as the production of organic olive-oil-based soap. As part of this initiative, the organization implementing the INST process will organize a mission to Rome from 6 to 8 November 2025 to visit the Co.br.ag.or and Co.r.ag.gio cooperatives. The visit will include a tour of olive groves and a mutual exchange of experiences, particularly on best practices in marketing, a field in which the Co.br.ag.or cooperative has recognized expertise.
The INST process across pilot countries has involved a diverse range of organizations, including universities, farmers’ organizations, microfinance institutions, and rural training centres. This diversity reflects PARM’s belief that effective risk management requires cross-sector dialogue and collaboration, combining complementary expertise to generate added value favoured by the holistic approach to ARM adopted by PARM.
Key steps to effective institutionalization of ARM
PARM’s INST process consists of three mains steps:
(a) Assessing the demand for ARM training
Understanding the training needs has led to important recommendations for innovating PARM’s capacity development workshops in terms of content (focusing more on ARM tools), format (shorter and tailor-made sessions), and approach (emphasizing risk management, not only risk assessment).
(b) Developing tailored training materials
Participating organizations developed ARM training content adapted to the specific needs of their members, whether women farmers, microfinance clients, students, or young entrepreneurs.
(c) Leveraging lessons learned
The INST project has already provided PARM with key takeaways: (i) Including the private sector in the INST process, rather than focusing solely on academia, has fostered innovative ideas, such as hydroponics, agroecology pedagogic sites, and achieved greater impact; (ii) Institutionalization tends to progress faster in the private sector, while public institutions (e.g., universities) face longer timelines due to administrative constraints (e.g., universities can only update their curricula every three years), though their long-term impact may prove more durable; (iii) Cross-organizational collaboration has been particularly effective, for instance, microfinance institutions (MFIs) training rural centres and vice versa, highlighting the importance of having diverse organizations institutionalize ARM simultaneously; (iv) PARM donors could leverage the INST process to integrate their country priorities into the INST action plans and support their implementation; and (v) Fund transfers to support pilot activities remain challenging, and bankarization takes time, however, this experience allowed the implementing organizations to learn more about budget management of the allocated funds.
Another important impact of the INST project has been the training provided by microfinance institutions to their own personnel, enabling them to better understand agricultural risks, thus helping PARM fill in this long-standing gap in agriculture, where financial institutions often lack knowledge of agri-risks, leading to an overestimation of risks and missed investment opportunities. Additionally, microfinance institutions have integrated ARM into their by-laws, and two organizations successfully opened their first bank accounts. This demonstrates that institutional change takes time. Sustainable transformation requires engagement at multiple levels of governance, from technical staff to decision-makers. Yet, the progress made so far shows that the process is well underway.
Scaling up and expanding partnerships
In Senegal[4], where PARM’s risk assessment study focused on livestock and identified remittances as a tool for managing agricultural risk, the INST process will help develop training materials on remittances in collaboration with IFAD’s FFR and three local organizations — a university, a microfinance cooperative, and a livestock training centre.
In parallel, an independent INST initiative will be carried out in collaboration with the Mastercard Foundation, focusing on job creation and innovation through ARM, particularly for women and youth, thanks to the support of the Foundation’s Employee Innovation Fund.
These INST pilots mark only the beginning. The ideas and action plans that emerged from PARM’s training workshops involved many more organizations willing to institutionalize ARM within their own operations. The next step is to scale up these pilots in Senegal and Uganda, ensuring that the benefits extend across sectors and regions, building a truly inclusive and resilient agricultural ecosystem.
[1] The organizations that carried out the INST pilot in Burkina Faso include: University Nazi-Boni, the Professional Association for Decentralised Financial Systems, the Center for Rural Promotion in Fada, and the Women Farmers’ Organization Tin Buaba.
[2] In Madagascar, the INST process was carried out by: the University of Itasy, the Malagasy Mutual Savings and Credit Society (SMMEC), and the Rural Training Center of Antsirabe.
[3] The Association for the Development of Rural Women of Kasserine (ADFR) is implementing the INST pilot project in Tunisia. It is a certified organic cooperative specializing in olive oil production and the processing of olive oil-based products.
[4] The organizations that will carry out the INST process in Senegal are: Cheick Anta Diop University (UCAD), Coopec/RESOPP (a financial cooperative), and the Livestock Training Centre of St Louis.
