Competitiveness Seminar. Competitiveness Seminars (CSes) have been held in all six target countries. In some countries more than the target number (one per year) have been held and in others less. In both Nicaragua and El Salvador, recent CSes focused on the coffee competition “Cup of Excellence” have been held – with remarkable, industry-wide benefits. From first-year general sessions focusing on generic topics such as export constraints, standards and norms, credit and industry structures, the CS has largely focused on the development and discussion of strategic plans for specific industries, looking at the whole value chain of a given product and sector-specific issues and concerns. The average cost per CS has been about $20,000, half from USAID. For TNS, CSes have been good tools for reaching out to new partners and developing new work, helping with networking and establishing TNS as an industry leader. For the participants, it has been a useful forum for learning about issues and solutions, for mobilizing interest in the sector and discussing problems, and for making business linkages. It has also been a means of bringing stakeholders together to learn about and discuss TNS research efforts and to forge a consensus on industry development strategies. After the first few CSes, they have been organized by TNS and stakeholders on an ad hoc basis, when particular needs or motivating forces were identified. Tea and coffee governmental regulatory reforms motivated several CSes in Tanzania, as did industry strategy planning in Kenya for horticulture and in El Salvador for dairy (assisted by the work of volcons). In some cases they have also evolved into “investor conferences”, as the Cup of Excellence programs in Central America or horticulture in Mozambique (outside of the Matching Grant). They also provided stakeholders an opportunity to learn new models of industry analysis and value chain development. As a result of the Kenya dairy seminar, GTZ consulted TechnoServe for input on approaches to value chain development. Its partner organization, SNV, subsequently asked TechnoServe to carry out a dairy value chain analysis in Ethiopia. One of the stars of this activity has been the Cup of Excellence events over the last four years in El Salvador and Nicaragua. Through the recently incorporated “Alliance for Coffee Excellence” a non-profit organization based in the USA (a TNS representative is on the board), highly publicized events have been held at the end of each coffee growing an...
Competitiveness Seminar. When tied directly into ongoing country activities, competitiveness seminars have been valuable tools and fora for educating, discussing, and sharing. Bringing together stakeholders from government, communities, and the private sector in these collaborative events that focus on a particular economic sector, product, or service has been very successful. The use of competitiveness seminars warrants continuation when there are sufficiently motivating circumstances that pull all the actors together for a productive dialogue. The successful Cup of Excellence programs will continue and others will be initiated, with TNS providing limited support.
