Progress Report: Progress Narrative

Advisory services were conducted in-person, with a two-day centralized workshop on "Good Accounting Practices and Cash Flow Analysis" hosted by Root Capital in July. Participants learned accounting principles, financial statement analysis, and completed actual financial statements by the end of the session. In Ghana, approximately 85% of Advisory service engagements were held in-person, the highest rate of in-person training for PSSC countries. Advisory services focused on financial planning and analysis with four agri-SGBs, including on-site training with two maize agri-SGBs that are new to PSSC. Additionally, two PPSC clients attended a three-day workshop on business planning, training attendees in developing a comprehensive business plan with sections on background, products and services, markets, human resources, legal, risk, and executive summary. In Indonesia, a spike in COVID-19 infections in July kept travel restrictions in place until mid-September. As a result, 30% of training was done in-person, the lowest for all PSSC countries. Advisory services reached five agri-SGBs and focused on accounting, financial planning and analysis, and internal controls. Internal control training helped two agri-SGBs to develop Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for both finance and tax procedures. The COVID-19 Resilience Grants program was launched with Keurig Dr Pepper's investment to meet agri-SGB's urgent cash flow and crisis-related needs in the wake of the pandemic and natural disasters. In Year 1, Root Capital disbursed COVID-19 Resilience Grants each worth $8,695.68 to help 20 coffee enterprises design and launch interventions to mitigate the pandemic's impact on the health and economic wellbeing of their farmers. As a result, PSSC protected the livelihoods of an estimated 6,000 smallholder farmers, including 1,700 women, from the enduring impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and aided the recovery of all 20 enterprises.