Well done, KASFA, new WFTO member!

David MacDonald • November 1, 2021

By Cathy Ratcliff of Thrive (www.thrive-scotland.org)

My first visit to KASFA (Kapora Smallholder Farmer Association) was a delight. Hard-working, no frills, community-based and democratic – those were the first things I noticed about KASFA. Staff and board took me to visit farmers in their fields, where we were dwarfed by the high-growing Kilombero rice, and all were keen to learn about the WFTO process. My subsequent visits to KASFA went just as well. I enjoyed working with these businesspeople, who made time in their busy work schedules to fit in all the decision-making, actions and monitoring that the WFTO membership process entails. KASFA’s Business Manager, Masangwi Mang’andale was the driving force in the process of WFTO membership, ably supported by board and staff. Early on, he facilitated a training session for the board on WFTO principles, and I brought WFTO posters which he put up around KASFA’s premises of office and warehouse. Initially I visited KASFA quarterly on half-day visits. As well as work meetings, we had lunches by the shore of Lake Malawi, a visit to Karonga’s museum (featuring a model Malawisaurus!) and a peer visit to the nearest WFTO member, in Tanzania. These all helped cement relations, while I also met key contacts – visiting the National Association of Smallholder Farmers (NASFAM) and US African Development Fund (USADF) in Lilongwe, and liaising frequently with WFTO Africa in Nairobi. (USADF gave KASFA a new rice mill and working capital.) And so, by the end of our first year of working together, when KASFA had achieved Provisional Membership and the global pandemic stopped my visits, KASFA and I had built up trust in each other.

In the first year, a graduate intern had written a broad assessment of how KASFA lived up to WFTO’s 10 principles. Thereafter we used an Excel timetable with WFTO’s 66 compliance criteria for producers, deciding how KASFA would meet these criteria, and monitoring KASFA’s progress in quarterly meetings, initially in person and then by Zoom. I also attended quarterly meetings of the Balmore Trust, which contracted me to work on this, as they held the Scottish Government grant to help KASFA become a WFTO member. And I met Scottish Fair Trade Forum, which advised on the process, reviewed KASFA’s Living Wage Ladder, and held the final meeting to celebrate achievements. All the way through, I monitored, met people, sorted problems, networked, coaxed, planned, suggested ideas, reported and advised the Balmore Trust when to send funds to KASFA.

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In the second year, Masangwi completed the Self-Assessment Report (SAR) online, and KASFA continued to make good progress in spite of the pandemic. The Scottish Government and Corra Foundation, to whom I reported on this grant, allowed us to adjust the budget to make the project safe from COVID, for example using radio to get messages to farmers and air time for board meetings by phone. But nobody could get around the fact that KASFA now couldn’t host a peer review by another WFTO member, as the pandemic had stopped international travel. Fortunately KASFA’s SAR was good enough to allow WFTO Africa to waive the peer review requirement, but the project was still plagued by staff illness after getting their COVID-19 vaccines.

As if the pandemic was not enough to deal with, we also had to contend with the fact that KASFA is the first WFTO member in Malawi. So not only did the peer visit have to be to another country (to Kahawa Coffee in Tanzania), but there was no WFTO auditor in Malawi. KASFA identified consultants who could train to be a WFTO auditor, and WFTO Africa selected Ruth Phiri, trained her and contracted her to conduct the audit. She travelled safely by car to Karonga, where KASFA is based, conducted her audit and then worked with WFTO to write a report of the standard required. She did this without ever having seen a WFTO member, met anyone from WFTO, or observed a WFTO audit. She learned well and fast.

KASFA passed the audit. WFTO in the Netherlands reviewed KASFA’s Improvement Plan. And finally KASFA was pronounced a WFTO member! After 2.5 years of work, in the global pandemic and a country with no prior WFTO presence, KASFA had made it to its goal. KASFA’s measures to achieve WFTO membership had included infrastructure improvements at its warehouse, adoption and implementation of new policies, and training its 4,515 members (62% women) in various matters. Given its democratic structure plus previous and ongoing support from NASFAM, Balmore Trust and USADF, KASFA had started out in a strong position to gain WFTO membership, and everything came together to help KASFA advance and improve. But KASFA could never have achieved WFTO membership without the dedication of its people, in particular the encouragement of former Chair Howard Msukwa, active participation of board members, contributions by staff (especially the Miller, Ray Manda and Field Officer, Veronica Subi), and most of all the hard work and integrity of KASFA’s dynamic Business Manager, Masangwi Mang’andale.

KASFA is a pleasure to work with. I wish them well in their continuous improvement over years to come. Well done, KASFA!

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