Making a dense methodology click: co-designed AVC training in East Africa
The challenge: great theory, new context
Oikocredit International wanted to scale the Agricultural Value Chain methodology, originally developed by IDEPRO in Latin America, to a larger and more mixed group of professionals across East Africa. The methodology is robust, but that was part of the problem. A full walkthrough risked overwhelming participants before they had a chance to use it.
MDF’s starting point is that adults learn best when training connects to their own experience, involves hands-on practice and produces something they can apply straight away. That principle determined everything about how this training was designed.
The approach: Co-designing a better way to learn
MDF worked with local consultants and the methodology’s owner to agree on learning priorities and key messages before any session was built. Rather than walking participants through the methodology from start to finish, the team designed an exploratory process that built confidence gradually: starting with practical tools and introducing the wider method in feasible steps.
Five elements made this work:
- A user-friendly tool guide, co-created with local input
- Interactive, hands-on sessions instead of lectures
- Local case studies, including Unaitas Microfinance in Kenya, to ground the learning in familiar contexts
- Peer learning, where participants brought their own insights and experience into the room
- Practical takeaways after each session for direct use with smallholder farmer clients
The content of the methodology did not change. What changed was how participants encountered it. Consultants who had found the methodology heavy and abstract left as confident facilitators. Financial institutions gained concrete plans to pilot the tools with their farmer clients.
Real learning doesn’t happen to people it happens with them. And that’s exactly how we love to work.
