AFRI-CIRD Partnered Gender Research Alliance (GRA) South Africa to deliver an International Labour Organization (ILO) commissioned study entitled: Needs Assessment for Cooperative Development with a Focus on Cooperative Promotion in Vegetable Value Chain in Kaduna State, Nigeria.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) AFRI – CIRD (Mohammed Bello) was the Nigeria Country Researcher on this ILO commissioned study. He was assisted by the Senior Programme Manager (Abbas Adamu) to undertake this ILO commissioned study in Jere town of Kagarko LGA of Kaduna State. AFRI-CIRDs’ team was responsible for fieldwork, particularly scheduling interviews, conducting Key Informant Interviews (KIIs), Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), transcribing the qualitative data and generating the qualitative report.  The assessment aims to: better understand the current situation of cooperatives and other similar Organisations in Jere (their capacities, strengths, weaknesses and needs). It also payed attention to cooperatives opportunities and challenges in succeeding in vegetable value chains with focus on vegetables such as pepper, garden egg, okra and tomatoes. The assessment which lasted for 22 days has since been completed and report submitted to ILO.