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Sharing, discussing and learning from successful and less successful experiences is the ultimate goal of all learning organizations. Since 2001, with the support of IFAD, a Latin American training organization specialized in rural development has promoted an innovative learning approach known as ‘learning routes’. Participants of a learning route on market access in poor rural territories visited the business enterprises of five associations in Ecuador and Peru and took valuable lessons back to their own activities and communities.

The learning route on Rural Poor Territories and Successful Access to Dynamic Markets included visits to five small-scale businesses in poor rural communities in Ecuador and Peru

Learning routes, known in Latin America as rutas de aprendizaje, bring together a multidisciplinary group of rural development workers and partners in a series of thematic visits to communities that have faced development challenges.
The learning routes are executed by the Regional Programme for Rural Development Training (PROCASUR) – a Latin American training organization specialized in building capacities for rural development – and cofinanced by IFAD. The routes involve visits to rural development projects to learn about the struggles and successes small entrepreneurs encounter when trying to start their businesses and make them successful. This approach is enriching both to the visitors – mainly development professionals of various disciplines, community leaders and policymakers – and their hosts, and provides opportunities for discussion and collective analysis.

Themes of learning routes have included ecotourism, rural microenterprises, rural microfinance and local development.
“The learning routes have been designed to fill a vacuum of knowledge among development practitioners and policymakers who have not yet found the answer to many basic development questions,” says Ariel Halpern, coordinator of the learning route project at PROCASUR.

Simple questions, complex answers

	Fernando Zelada, director of a marketing consultancy firm in Lima, analyses the marketing strategy of Quesinor, a cheese- processing union of small-scale producers

In March 2007, a learning route on Rural Poor Territories and Successful Access to Dynamic Markets included visits to five small-scale businesses in poor rural communities in Ecuador and Peru. The 18 participants from eight countries included producers’ representatives, development workers, market experts and members of the communities.
The aim of the route was to try to determine which factors make or break a poor rural producer’s business.

“There are no simple answers,” says Nuria Felipe Soria, IFAD’s regional communication officer for Latin America and the Caribbean and a participant in the route. “There are many variables, including management capacities, capacity for innovation, leadership styles and market opportunities, that determine how successful a small business will be. The learning routes programme understands this complexity, and that is why it takes a multidisciplinary approach to seeking answers and knowledge.”

Participants in the market access learning route visited the businesses of five rural associations:

• Quesinor, a cheese-processing union of small producers’ associations in the sierra norte of Ecuador
• Jambi Kiwa, an association of traditional indigenous medicinal plant growers in Riobamaba, at the foot of the Chimborazo volcano in central Ecuador
• CACH, an association of weavers and producers of artisanal handicrafts in rural areas of Chordeleg, in southern Ecuador
• Café Femenino, an association of women coffee growers in Agua Azul, in the department of Cajamarca in Peru
• ACOPAGRO, an association of cocoa producers located in the valley of Huallaga Central, in the jungle highlands of north-eastern Peru

Learning from success – and from failure

	Learning route participants go through a purification ceremony at Jambi Kiwa, an association of traditional indigenous medicinal plant growers in Riobamaba, Ecuador

Participants studied the successes and failures of the enterprises in the areas of markets and marketing opportunities, organization and leadership, technology and innovation, and business management. 

One of the discussions among the participants centred on the opportunities and constraints of fair trade markets. Four out of five of the communities on the learning route chose to focus almost exclusively on international organic and fair trade markets without considering local markets. This strategy has its benefits but also its risks.

Fair trade markets usually offer higher prices, which translate into higher profit margins and can absorb small production volumes, unlike traditional markets. Small-scale Latin-American producers are taking advantage of the current situation on global markets, even though it is highly unstable.
However, the fair trade market is starting to reach the saturation point because of its popularity and the continual entrance onto the market of small producers from all over the world.  

Recommendations for success

Based on their observations and interaction with members of the five associations, the participants developed several recommendations.

Markets and marketing opportunities: Small rural producers should diversify their markets rather than earmark all of their production for sale on the international solidarity market. One solution is to increase production to cater to a range of markets instead of only one, even though it may be the most attractive.

Organization and leadership: Businesses that revolve around a specific product or skill should be established by the producers themselves. If a number of members are not producers, there should be mechanisms in place to ensure that the contribution of non-producers and producers to the business is equivalent.

Technology and innovation: Many of the businesses analysed operate in markets that are not yet fully formed and are not very demanding or competitive, as in the case of the producers of coffee and handicrafts for export. For the others, innovation is an essential way of making a difference.

Business management: Before starting a business, no matter how small, it is necessary to develop a strategic plan and an operational plan, and then develop mechanisms for implementing the strategy.

Taking the lessons home

	Rosa Guamán, head of the Jambi Kiwa cooperative, shows participants the areas where members collect and sell medicinal herbs and tea

During interviews at the completion of the route, participants indicated that the end of the route was actually just the beginning for them and their organizations.

Participant Cesar Visarrea is a capacity-building specialist at Consejo de Desarrollo de las Nacionalidades y Pueblos de Ecuador (CODENPE) in Ecuador. CODENPE is a public institution whose role is to promote the social, economic and cultural development of indigenous identities and peoples of Ecuador.

“I’m particularly interested in strengthening the capacity of these communities,” he said. “This routeis a great opportunity for me to learn about these experiences and about opportunities in accessing markets, so that I can then share this knowledge with the communities we work with. I was pleased to see that external partners and donors played an important role in stimulating the communities to outdo themselves and overcome market access difficulties. I think the methodology of the route is excellent, and I would like to develop similar thematic routes in Ecuador on specific themes such as how fair trade and organic markets, bio-certification and quality requisites function. This is a work plan I’m taking away with me.”

Participant Ana Lucia Palaquibay, a financial advisor for Banco Solidario in Ecuador, said she learned a lot about what needs to be done and what should not be done in business management.

“I work in a bank that provides credit to small rural producers,” she said. “For me, this route is an excellent opportunity to better understand the realities of living in poor rural communities, and the challenges and difficulties poor people face when starting their own businesses.”

Flor Salazar, a weaving teacher at the Fundación CholChol in Chile works with indigenous Mapuche women, helping them develop their weaving skills and textile designs.

“I’m very interested in reconciling tradition and innovation in our textile production to open up new markets for our products,” she said. “I see this route as a chance to learn how to do this. What I learned here is how other organizations with similar activities have dealt with accessing new markets, which is my main focus at present. I will take home with me a lot of what I have seen in these last 10 days.”

Jesús A. Pérez, a rural development expert at the Programme for the Economic Development of the Dry Region in Nicaragua, said that the main lesson he learned was how complex and difficult it is to give the correct support to people in their fight against poverty.

“As a rural development expert I work with poor farmers in the dry region of Nicaragua. I came to this route to learn about product innovation and how to introduce changes in business management. In my country, there are families that have been producing the same product in the same way for generations, and it’s important to me to be able to provide them with new options.”

Louise McDonald, IFAD’s country programme manager for Swaziland,
said the route was a valuable opportunity to experience and learn about enterprise development and market access in another region.

“A significant difference between group formation in the two regions is the original purpose,” she said. “In Latin America most groups were formed around issues of culture and tradition and have since turned into enterprises. The organizational and planning skills of these groups were impressive to say the least – even over large distances – and our region, Eastern and Southern Africa, could benefit from some of the lessons learned here.”

Since 2002, a total of 40 learning routes have been implemented in six Latin American countries, and in 2007 some transcontinental routes were added. At the end of 2007, Asian and African development experts visited 15 successful microfinance projects in Latin America. In June 2008, the same experience was carried out in Africa.