1.2 Develop your intention

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Why should I do this?

To articulate and document a shared understanding of the desired outcomes with others in your investment. Articulating and sharing your expected or preferred outcomes can help ensure there is alignment on what various partners are working toward.

In this activity

In this activity you will:

• Draft an intention statement that connects your data goals to the broader objectives of the investment, establishing a shared purpose.
• Describe what you aim to achieve by addressing the data problem.
• Reflect on how your data-related goals tie into the larger project objectives.
• Consider questions such as: What does success look like? What impact do you hope to achieve?

This statement will serve as a guiding light, helping to shape the direction of your data interventions and ensuring alignment with broader project goals.

Instructions

1) If you are a Program Officer (PO), you may want to share this page directly with your grantee, so they can act on it.

 

2) You can use the workbook (and supporting factsheet) for Step 1 here. We recommend using the same document throughout this step, so you have a single document that captures all your workings. The workbook contains guiding questions to help you formulate your data problem statement.

 

3) Use the guiding questions below to help you get started on defining your investment’s intention statement:

 

• What is the outcome of the investment?
• How would the beneficiary describe the outcome?
• Does the outcome have a tangible in-country benefit?
• How would the beneficiary describe the benefit?

A project’s intention statement could be, “To provide smallholder farmers with real-time, location-specific soil health data, enabling them to make informed decisions on crop rotation and fertilization, thereby improving yield and sustainability.”

 

4) Refer to the investment type examples below while formulating your intention statement.

 

5) If the investment has already developed an intention statement that both the grantee and PO are aligned on, populate the template with the existing statement and move on to the next activity.

Investment types

Overview AgriConnect: a digital solutions investment AgroThrive: a policy and advocacy investment NGBT: a field research investment

Investment types

©Gates Archive/Mansi Midha

Every investment project is unique

The application of the six steps will vary accordingly. To provide examples that align with your project, common characteristics of AgDev investments were researched and three ‘investment types’ were developed.

©Gates Archive/Alissa Everett

AgriConnect’s Intention Statement

AgriConnect’s digital platform will empower users to access high-value agricultural inputs, financing options, and educational resources on crop cultivation and precision farming. By centralizing reliable and verifiable data, the platform provides insights that go beyond traditional practices, enabling farmers to monitor productivity, manage risks, and make informed decisions. Ultimately, this platform aims to improve crop yields and strengthen livelihoods for smallholder farmers.

©Gates Archive/Thomas Omondi

AgroThrive’s Intention Statement

AgroThrive will foster an enabling environment that benefits all AgDev actors and strengthens the national economy. By building trust among different groups, the aim is to improve accessibility to key data sources to help make informed decisions. It will provide evidence-based policy recommendations to address critical challenges in Datapur’s AgDev sector. This research-driven policy advice will support policymakers in making informed decisions on sector development, covering areas such as current agricultural practices, environmental impacts, technological innovation, credit and financial support, and stakeholder capacity building.

©Gates Archive/Esther Mbabazi

NourishGen BioTech’s (NGBT) Intention Statement

NourishGen BioTech (NGBT) will employ a lab-to-field approach, focusing on capturing local relevant agriculture knowledge to develop a barley crop variant with enhanced nutritional value and resilience to extreme weather, pests, and diseases. This advanced crop aims to increase productivity and yields, directly benefiting the smallholder farming community in Datastan. By reducing dependence on traditional crop varieties, NGBT seeks to improve the quality of agricultural outputs, enhance farmer well-being, and contribute to Datastan’s economic growth.

Deeper consideration on data reuse is essential at the early stages of a project.

Chipo Cosford, Senior Project Manager, CABI

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