AMEA's Annual Learning Event 2026 brought together close to 100 participants from across our global network, eight Local Networks and our wider partner community for two virtual half-days on 23 and 24 June. The event was structured around two connected themes: how agri-SMEs can access high-quality Business Development Services (BDS) and finance, and how BDS best practice can be scaled across diverse contexts.
As AMEA Network Director Mark Blackett put it in his opening remarks:
"We need to focus on the effectiveness of BDS to transform food systems, deliver inclusive growth and achieve sustainable outcomes."
Six themes shaped the conversation
Across both days, a clear picture emerged of what a well-functioning BDS ecosystem needs to look like:
- Local context matters most. There is no single model that works everywhere. Local Networks and Multi-Stakeholder Platforms bring the contextual understanding needed to design effective interventions.
- Quality assurance is foundational, not optional. Without it, investment facilities lack a benchmark, matchmaking platforms cannot build funder trust, and digital tools sit on an unreliable service base. Uganda's draft BDS Strategy Framework, with its focus on standards, certification and a national provider registry, is leading the way.
- Data needs to be treated as infrastructure. Speakers from Akvo and others made the case for designing data systems before collection even begins, so that data outlasts individual projects rather than becoming another by-product of the grant cycle.
- SMEs will pay for BDS when they trust the value. AMEA Uganda's ABLAST Cost-Share Facility pilot found that all 24 participating agri-SMEs were willing to co-pay 20% of BDS costs once they trusted the provider to deliver.
- Digital and human delivery need each other. The AgriPath programme's research across four countries confirmed that digital advisory services work best as a complement to in-person extension, not a replacement, particularly for reaching women farmers.
- Sustainability requires new financing models. From commercial matchmaking (Vula) to lender-aligned technical assistance (Aceli Africa) to revolving loan funds (Farm Africa), the sector is testing multiple paths to reduce BDS providers' dependency on donor cycles.
Looking ahead
The event closed by setting a Future Learning Agenda across seven areas, from commercial BDS models and certification through to data-sharing platforms and the persistent challenge of financing agri-SMEs at scale. Access to finance was flagged by 60% of survey respondents as the single biggest challenge facing agri-enterprise development today.
As the report concludes, AMEA's network has moved well beyond simply diagnosing the problem. The task now is building the systemic conditions, standards, data infrastructure, associations and financing, that let proven approaches scale and sustain beyond individual projects.
