Plenteous Research Group Ltd has successfully responded to a call for consultancy services by MEDA to offer Gender Advisory Services for RAPID Banana in Uganda.  MEDA is an international economic development organization, whose mission is to create business solutions to poverty. The RAPID Banana project is a four-year initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that seeks to improve the production and distribution of early generation seed (EGS) in Tanzania and Uganda, by commercializing seed multiplication technologies and creating new business models that can help drive private sector investment into banana seed systems.

MEDA is working with grantee companies including tissue culture labs, nursery operators and private seed companies to enable varietal innovation and transformation of the future banana seed systems. The RAPID Banana project will adopt a “gender intentional” approach to enhance grantee company capacities for gender equality and inclusion, alongside broader technical and business-related capacity building. MEDA has identified key gender mainstreaming strategies to help build gender-responsive business models that can contribute to a more equitable and inclusive banana seed system.

To enable this process, MEDA seeks to partner with local service providers in Uganda to provide technical assistance to RAPID grantee companies between June 2022 – December 2022, in three selected service areas, namely: (1) Human Resource Policy Development for 2 grantee companies; (2) Organizational Capacity Building and Staff Training (2 grantee companies); and (3) Strategic Marketing and Market Research (1 grantee company).