EVIDENCE OF IMPACT - AgriCord · political and social environment, of the main challenges faed y fames [ movements, and of the majo food security issues of the country. Les agri-agences

EVIDENCE OF IMPACT JULY 2014

1. FARMERS' INCOME AND LIVELIHOOD

2. GENDER EQUALITY

3. ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

4. ORGANISATIONAL STRENGTHENING / RENFORCEMENT ORGANISATIONEL

5. FINANCIAL HEALTH OF FARMERS' ORGANISATIONS

Evidence Report on Organisational Strengthening – July 2014 |

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CONTENTS

SUMMARY / RÉSUMÉ ................................................................................................................................................................. 3

2. OBJECTIVES AND METHODOLOGY.......................................................................................................................................... 6

3. ORGANISATIONAL STRENGTHENING AND FARMERS FIGHTING POVERTY ............................................................................. 6

4. PRACTICES AND APPROACHES OF AGRI-AGENCIES ................................................................................................................ 7

4.1 The diversity of approaches ................................................................................................................................. 7

4.2 A common global approach: “Farmer to Farmer” ................................................................................................ 7

4.3 Approaches of agri-agencies ................................................................................................................................ 7

5. SUPPORT ACTIVITIES OF AA’S IN TERMS OF FO ORGANISATIONAL STRENGTHENING ......................................................... 10

6. OVERVIEW ............................................................................................................................................................................ 11

7. A SHARED TOOL FOR THE PARTICIPATIVE ASSESSMENT OF FOs: THE PROFILING ............................................................... 14

8. Examples of activities and results obtained by agri-agencies in terms of organisational strengthening ............................. 16

FOCUS 1: Bonding relationships among small producers in FOs .............................................................................. 16

FOCUS 2: Bridging relations between smallholder producer organisations to create apex organisations ............... 21

FOCUS 3: Linking relations between FOs and market actors and policy makers ...................................................... 22

9. RECOMMENDATIONS ........................................................................................................................................................... 24

Report prepared by Isabelle Martin (Afdi) and Jur Schuurman (Agriterra) on basis of agri-agencies’ inputs


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SUMMARY / RÉSUMÉ

Farmers Fighting Poverty (FFP) has been a framework for action by agri-agencies (AAs) since 2007. It operates through a fund managed by AgriCord and supports farmers’ organisations across the developing world. Organisational strengthening of Farmer Organisations (FO) is one of the core-activities of agri-agencies gathered within AgriCord. This report is the first attempt of consolidated report upon AAs’ practices in terms of organizational strengthening. It aims at: 1) presenting the diversity of practices and methodologies implemented by AAs to strengthen FOs; and 2) illustrating these practices with concrete examples of AAs supporting activities.

Agri-agencies do have an added value to work on organisational development because of the nature of their relations with FOs: they build long-term partnerships between Farmers Organisations from the North and from the South. “Farmer to farmer” approach is the common global approach implemented by AAs in their partnerships with FOs, focusing on peer to peer capacity building. However, every AA has developed its own focus and methodologies to support organisational and institutional development of FOs, which makes the collaboration and exchanges between AAs highly pertinent. Some tools have also been developed within AgriCord to serve the needs of all AAs, and FOs, in terms of global organisational assessment: the “Profiling”, measuring nine core-capacities deemed as necessary for the proper functioning of a member-based organisation, and the “Financial health” tool.

Generally speaking, we considered in this report that the organisational development of FOs relies on the concomitant development of three types of relationships (IFAD/FAO 2013):

1) Bonding relationships among small producers in FOs (ex: promoting the democratic and associative vitality of FOs, training managers and leaders, supporting member participation, etc.)

2) Bridging relation between small producer organisations to create apex organizations (ex: supporting the structural settings of FO, the emergence of new leaders, the replication and up-scaling of successful services, etc.)

3) Linking relations between FOs and market actors and policy makers (ex: supporting the networking efforts of FOs)

Paysans contre(nt) la Pauvreté (PcP) est le cadre des actions des agri-agences (AA) depuis 2007. Ce programme, qui fonctionne sur la base d’un fonds géré par AgriCord, soutient des organisations paysannes réparties dans l’ensemble des pays en voie de développement. Le renforcement organisationnel des organisations paysannes (OP) est une des activités essentielles des AA rassemblées au sein d’AgriCord. Le présent rapport est la première tentative de consolider sur les pratiques des AA en matière de renforcement organisationnel. Les objectifs sont : 1) de présenter la diversité des pratiques et méthodologies mises en œuvre par les AA pour renforcer les OP et 2) d’illustrer ces pratiques à l’aide d’exemples concrets d’activités de soutien menées par des AA.

Les AA sont bien placées pour travailler au développement organisationnel en raison de la nature de leurs relations avec les OP : elles créent des partenariats à long terme entre des organisations paysannes du Nord et du Sud. L’approche « producteur à producteur », qui permet de mettre l’accent sur le renforcement des capacités entre pairs, est l’approche globale communément adoptée par les AA dans leurs partenariats avec les OP. Chaque AA a toutefois développé sa propre spécialité et ses propres méthodologies pour soutenir le développement organisationnel et institutionnel des OP, ce qui rend les échanges et collaborations entre AA très pertinents. Certains outils ont également été mis au point par AgriCord pour les besoins de toutes les AA et OP en termes d’évaluation organisationnelle globale : l’outil « santé financière » et l’outil « profilage » qui mesure 9 capacités clés considérées comme essentielles au bon fonctionnement d’une organisation dirigée par et pour ses membres.

De façon générale, nous considérons dans le présent rapport que le développement organisationnel des OP s’appuie sur le développement concomitant de 3 types de relations (IFAD/FAO 2013):

1) Relations fortes et durables entre petits producteurs membres des OP (notamment pour promouvoir la vitalité démocratique et associative des OP, former les cadres et dirigeants, soutenir la participation des membres etc.)

2) Relations « passerelle » entre organisations de petits producteurs dans le but de créer des fédérations « coupoles » (notamment pour renforcer les cadres structurels des OP, favoriser l’émergence de nouveaux dirigeants, reproduire et étendre les services performants etc.)

3) Relations de mise en lien entre les OP, les acteurs du marché et les responsables de la politique (notamment pour soutenir les efforts des OP en matière de création de réseaux)


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Agri-agencies promote the development of the three types of relationships, but may focus on one or two types out of the three. The analysis and illustration of AAs’ practices showed that AAs have a lot to learn from one another, and that they could improve their global impact on FOs organisational development with a better coordination and sharing of experiences between AA. Social inclusion is also one of the challenges that AAs could consider with more attention when working on organisational strengthening, given the prospective in terms of global food security in many countries where AAs intervene.

Points of attention that can be proposed for future support to FO organisational strengthening are:

1. Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning. Agri-agencies could improve the monitoring, evaluation and learning (i.e.: capitalization) upon their action of organizational strengthening as it is one of the specificity of the support they provide to FOs. For example, the profiling tool could be used in a better way to improve the evaluation of the changes observed within FOs, if they are made at year 0 and year 3 (after 3 years of support for example), providing information on the impact of AAs’ support.

2. Focus on enhancing member participation. Organisational strengthening encompasses the enforcement of the 3 types of relationships developed in this report: bonding relationships among farmers (Focus 1), bridging relationships between FOs (Focus 2) and binding relationships with other stakeholders (Focus 3). AAs may in some partnerships focus on one or 2 relations and neglect others. For example, bonding relationships among farmers is often taken for granted in FO platforms or apex organisations and agri-agencies mainly collaborate with leaders of the focus 2 and 3. But member participation requires a continuous attention, as it is a key element of FOs representativity, and legitimacy, hence support for the institutionalization of the mechanisms of communication and information of members, or for the elaboration of procedures favouring a better accountability, and should not be neglected by AAs.

3. AA complementarities in use for FO strengthening. The AAs have sometimes same partners. AAs have different focus in their partnerships with FOs. They have developed diversified competencies. Hence a better coordination between AAs working with the same FO, or working in the same country, could allow a better use of AAs’ complementarities, increase the sharing upon AA experiences, and eventually improve the global support provided to FOs. For example, the elaboration of a common strategy of AAs per country of intervention could be considered as a good step toward improved coordination. It could stem from a shared analysis of the political and social environment, of the main challenges faced by farmers’ movements, and of the major food security issues of the country.

Les agri-agences promeuvent le développement de ces 3 types de relations, mais il peut arriver qu'elles concentrent leurs efforts sur un ou deux types particuliers. L’analyse et l’illustration des pratiques des AA ont montré que ces dernières ont beaucoup à apprendre les unes des autres et qu’elles pourraient augmenter leur impact global sur le développement organisationnel des OP si elles échangeaient davantage leurs expériences respectives et amélioraient la coordination. L’inclusion sociale est un autre défi auquel les AA pourraient accorder plus d’attention, étant donné les perspectives en termes de sécurité alimentaire globale dans de nombreux pays d’intervention.

Les points clés pour favoriser le renforcement organisationnel des OP sont :

1. Le suivi, l’évaluation et l’apprentissage. Les agri-agences pourraient améliorer le suivi, l’évaluation et l’apprentissage (i.e : capitalisation) dans le cadre de leurs actions de renforcement organisationnel, étant donné qu’il s’agit d’une des spécificités du soutien qu’elles fournissent aux OP. Par exemple, l’outil profiling pourrait être plus utile s’il était utilisé pour évaluer les changements observés en comparant par exemple le résultat de l’année 0 et celui de l’année 3 de soutien, ce qui permettrait d’obtenir des informations sur l’impact du soutien des AA.

2. Stimuler la participation des membres. Le renforcement organisationnel couvre le développement des 3 types de relations décrites dans le présent rapport : relations durables et fortes entre producteurs (Focus 1), relations passerelles entre OP (Focus 2) et relations de mise en lien avec d’autres parties concernées (Focus 3). Les AA peuvent, dans le cadre de certains partenariats, privilégier un ou deux types de relations au détriment des autres. Par exemple, les relations fortes entre producteurs sont souvent tenues pour acquises au sein des plates-formes d’OP ou des fédérations coupoles. Mais la participation des membres, étant par nature un élément clé de la représentativité et de la légitimité des OP, requiert une attention continue, de sorte que les AA ne doivent pas négliger de soutenir l’institutionnalisation des mécanismes de communication et d’information des membres, ni de soutenir l’élaboration de procédures favorisant une meilleure responsabilisation.

3. Complémentarité des actions des AA en faveur du renforcement des OP. Les AA travaillent quelquefois avec les mêmes partenaires. Elles ont cependant des approches différentes dans leurs relations avec les OP et ont développé des compétences diverses. C’est pourquoi une meilleure coordination entre AA travaillant avec la même OP, ou travaillant dans un même pays, permettrait de faire meilleur usage des complémentarités entre AA, d’augmenter les partages d’expériences entre les AA et finalement d’améliorer le soutien global fourni aux OP. Par exemple, l’élaboration d’une stratégie commune aux différentes AA pour chaque pays d’intervention peut être envisagée comme une avancée sur le plan de la coordination. Celle-là pourrait reposer sur un partage des analyses portant sur l’environnement social et politique, sur les défis majeurs auxquels sont confrontés les mouvements de producteurs, ou encore sur les principaux problèmes de sécurité alimentaire dans le pays concerné.


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4. More attention to social inclusion. From all topics social inclusion seems to be one of the more challenging for AAs, as FOs partners are often reluctant to work on these subjects. However food insecurity impacts mainly vulnerable populations (i.e.: poor, women, youth). It is also forecasted that in the near future vulnerable populations of Southern countries will be more impacted by the climate change. Hence it seems appropriate and strategic that AgriCord and its constitutive AAs consider social inclusion with more attention, and try to find innovative institutional arrangements, and to promote organisational development for organisations representing these populations and providing them with adapted services.

5. Organisational strengthening requires a close support. Experiences of AAs show that the means required to support effectively the development of FOs need to be adapted FOs’ level of development (i.e.: maturity). But generally, except in FOs which are already mature and need very punctual support, the organisational strengthening asks for a close support with staff based locally and cannot be done only through short exchange missions.

4. Accorder plus d’attention à l’inclusion sociale. De tous les thèmes, l’inclusion sociale semble être un des plus difficiles à aborder du point de vue des AA, étant donné que les OP partenaires renâclent souvent à travailler sur ce sujet. Cependant, l’insécurité alimentaire impacte principalement les populations vulnérables (à savoir les pauvres, les femmes et les jeunes). Il est également prévu que dans un avenir proche les populations vulnérables des pays de l’hémisphère Sud seront davantage affectées par le changement climatique. Il semble par conséquent approprié et nécessaire d’un point de vue stratégique qu’AgriCord et ses AA constitutives accordent une plus grande attention à l’inclusion sociale, tentent de mettre en œuvre des accords institutionnels innovants, soutiennent le développement organisationnel des organisations qui représentent ces populations et leur fournissent des services adaptés.

5. Fournir un soutien rapproché. Les expériences des AA montrent que les moyens requis pour appuyer efficacement le développement des OP doivent être adaptés au niveau de développement des OP (leur maturité). Mais de façon générale, sauf dans le cas des OP qui sont déjà matures et nécessitent un soutien très ponctuel, le renforcement organisationnel exige un appui rapproché du personnel basé sur place et ne peut pas s'effectuer exclusivement par le biais de courtes missions d’échange.


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2. OBJECTIVES AND METHODOLOGY

The objective of the report is to present a brief overview of the support provided by AAs to promote the organisational and institutional development of Farmer Organisations, for them to be able eventually to provide better services to their members. Organisational strengthening encompasses a diversity of topics and the AAs have developed different approaches and practices to tackle similar issues. The report is an inventory of these topics and approaches, illustrated with concrete examples of supporting activities implemented by AAs.

The methodology used for the elaboration of this report can be presented in three steps: 1) screening of policy and methodological documents used by AAs regarding organisational strengthening; 2) Identification of the main topics or kinds of support activities implemented by AAs to support FO organisational strengthening; 3) Interviews with AAs on the effective implementation of the strategies and methodologies, on the different topics tackled by the AA, and on concrete examples of activities implemented to strengthen FOs. For each topic one example of agri-agency action is provided, the AIN number of the project is specified when the project is entered on agro-info.net.

3. ORGANISATIONAL STRENGTHENING AND FARMERS

FIGHTING POVERTY (FFP)

In the last decades, globalization involved the monetization of rural economies, the orientation toward an agriculture increasingly market-oriented, submitting farmer to important prices variations and harsher competition. This evolution did make collective action a necessity and strong and legitimate FOs have been eventually recognized as playing a key role in empowering small agricultural producers, and eventually in improving global food security. Consequently Farmer Organisations have been given an increasingly decisive role in providing services to individual farmers as well as in defining agricultural policies. However to better fulfil this major role, at local and national level; it soon became evident that FOs need a broad membership base, and stronger capacity. The founding assumption of AgriCord is that Farmer Organisations greatly benefit from interacting with one-another 1) to share experiences and promote collective innovation, and 2) to defend common interests of famers in an increasingly uncertain environment (ex: climatic, economical risks).

The main purpose of AgriCord through the “Farmers Fighting Poverty” programme is “that FOs evolve into

stable, performing, accountable, organisations able to effectively represent their members and advice farmers in their farming enterprises”. Organisational strengthening is the cornerstone of the FFP programme. It is considered as an essential pre-condition to the efficient and sustainable delivery of services and to the effective defence of the common interests of FO members. Eventually, agri-agencies consider that the strengthening of democratic Farmers organisations capacities will improve food security, but also enforce democratic development and equity within the civil societies in which they are implemented.

The strategy implemented by AAs to support FOs presented in the FFP put them in a perfect position to achieve good results in terms of organisational strengthening. Indeed 1) their action is demand-driven, FOs are considered as responsible and independent partners

and the support is tailored to serve FO strategy; 2) agri-agencies intervene as facilitators of existing organisational development process, not as implementer of projects; 3) agri-agencies have a comprehensive approach where they tackle not only issues linked to economic operations but also to internal organisational capacity; 4) their support is flexible, hence adapted to the life cycle of the FOs; 5) they support FOs’ own institutional budget, designed to finance the implementation of the FO strategy, thus allowing the empowerment of FOs, promoting the improvement of their accountability, and providing them with the opportunity to develop sustainably their structure; 6) agri-agencies modus operandi implies a peer-to-peer cooperation, through long term partnerships, which is especially efficient to improve professionals capacities within FOs and strengthen organisations as a whole.

Contexts are obviously diverse in the different regions of the world, and the economic and political drivers can be more or less conducive to the development of FOs. Eventually each organisation is also specific. Support has to be adapted to local context and to the organisation. In the same vein, agri-agencies do have common objectives, similar operating methods to support the strengthening of FOs, which are based on the “Farmer to Farmer” approach, but they have different focus and methodologies to do so. This diversity makes the interaction between agri-agencies more productive and allows the development of effective complementarities, through the exchange of competencies and methods, various visions being exposed and discussed in the different fora of AgriCord.


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4. PRACTICES AND APPROACHES OF AGRI-AGENCIES

4.1 The diversity of approaches

Organisational strengthening is the core activity of agri-agencies; their collaboration within AgriCord led them to share experiences, visions and methods, allowing them:

1) To improve every agency’s practices in terms of organisational strengthening;

2) To identify complementarities in terms of competencies, and foster team working in their support to FOs;

3) To elaborate progressively a common understanding of what is essential to be done in terms of organisational strengthening by AgriCord;

4) To design together tools that can be used by every agri-agency.

All agri-agencies facilitate cooperation between FOs through the “Farmer to Farmer approach”, but they have their own histories and specificities; consequently they have different focuses and practices. They support different kinds of rural organisations (e.g.: cooperatives, farmer associations, or saving&credit groups), which gather mainly small-scale producers, but also small scale-entrepreneurs (ex: Trias). They focus rather on economical services provided by FOs (ex: Fert, UPA DI), on the defence of members interests (ex: CSA, initially), or they support both functions of FOs (ex: Afdi, Trias). For some agri-agency “Organisational strengthening” is a specific topic in itself on which they collaborate with FOs (ex: Afdi), for other agri-agencies (ex: Fert, UPA DI), supporting the implementation of services within FOs allow the strengthening of the organisation, it is not their main focus. Agri-agencies may also give priority to different crossing-issues (ex: global inclusiveness-of youth, women and vulnerable populations-, for Trias and We Effect, inclusion of youth for Afdi and Fert, gender for the CSA). The table presented in annex 1 shows for all AA the diversity of partners, approaches, focus and activities in terms of organisational strengthening.

4.2 A common global approach: “Farmer to Farmer”

All AAs’ action is based on the Farmer-to-Farmer approach, which refers to the cooperation between two or more farmers, and two or more farmers’ organisations, either North-South or South-South. It is a broad approach, covering many activities (such as sharing knowledge, developing an organisation, building competences, raising awareness and catalysing joint advocacy) that contribute to better livelihoods for small-scale producers.

Agri-agencies intervene through long-term partnerships, which ensure that partner FOs are the owner of their activities and development, and gives the priority to long-term and sustainable results. However exchanges between farmer organisations can take various forms within the different agri-agencies:

-Transfer of expertise and competence. It involves short- to medium-term training on technical, organisational

and/or institutional issues, usually with the aim of developing a particular subsector or service within the farmers’ organisation (ex: Fert, UPA DI, Trias)

-Long-term peer-to-peer contact for at least five years, framed within a long-term partnership between farmers’ organisations. It implies often twinning arrangements between two Farmer organisations (ex: Afdi, FFD). These partnerships deal with various themes and issues in parallel with the institutional evolution of the farmers’ organisation being supported.

Exchanges can be North/ South (N/S), or South/North (S/N) and South/South (S/S).

4.3 Approaches of agri-agencies

Afdi

Afdi supports farmers’ organisations (cooperatives, formal associations gathering family farmers) at all levels (local, intermediate, national), i.e.: the agri-agency may support a national platform to a local farmer group.

Organisational strengthening is supported in all partnerships of Afdi, as a specific topic. Support is mainly provided through long term twinning partnerships between a local Afdi and a FO.

The objectives set up for Afdi in terms of strengthening organisations are:

1) Improvement of governance (i.e.: promotion of associative and democratic vitality, external and internal communication, elaboration of FO vision and strategy);

2) Improving capacities of staff and board;

3) Improving human resources management (i.e.: set up of procedures, recruitment).

Afdi provides support through the following means:

-Twinning partnerships between FO and one Afdi, promoting NS, NS and SS exchanges;

-Local team (cellule) specialized in organisational strengthening in 5 countries of intervention;

-Supporting funds for the FO.

Agriterra

For Agriterra the organisational strengthening is a condition for cooperation. The agri-agency provides its support to rural membership-based organisations (farmers' unions, cooperative societies, rural women's organisation), mainly at local or district level, but also to organisations of subnational, national, international levels. The support is offered in sometimes multi-annual projects but with one contract each year.

The objectives set up by Agriterra in terms of strengthening organisations are summarised and monitored by the 'profiling' tool, and are the following:

1) Networking 2) Participation 3) Professional capacity 4) Accountability 5) Gender and youth 6) Financial solidity


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7) Results (i.e.: services)

The support has the form of both advice and funding. The advice is preferably peer-to-peer. Recently six agribusiness advisors have been recruited locally to provide a closer support.

AsiaDHRRA

AsiaDHRRA provides support to farmers’ organisations (including other marginalized rural sectors -fishers, women, agricultural workers) and cooperatives, from local, national, regional levels. It focuses on the representation and defence of members' interests, and economical services.

For AsiaDHRRA, organizational strengthening is foundational to the cooperation; its action is based on the following principles:

-Participatory approach to define with every FO the changes to work on;

-Anchored on the organisational vision and strategic directions and plans: the tools are modified and adapted to each FO context;

-AsiaDHRRA provides support on the following topics:

a) strategic planning process; b) review of governance set-up; c) leadership development; d) improving operational capacity; e) human resource development and management; f) defining sustainability strategies

The support is derived from national member/partner DHRRAs who are linked to national FOs. An agreement is signed between FOs, service provider and agri-agency on milestones to guide the strengthening process ("Begin with the end in mind").

The leading approach is “FO to FO”, promoting learning exchanges between FOs, it mobilizes a pool of experts (from FOs and civil society or specialized consultants).

Asprodeb

No information available.

CSA

CSA supports farmers’ organisations (cooperatives, formal associations gathering family farmers) mainly of national level. It focuses mainly on a specific function of FOs, the representation/defence of member interests, but it recently began to work on economic services.

CSA does not have a specific strategy in terms of organisational strengthening; its support is adapted to specific issues identified with the FO during the elaboration of FO strategy.

The support of CSA is provided through S/S exchanges mainly (FO to FO). It aims at promoting methods that can be replicated by the apex FO from FO members to others (i.e.: up scaling), or from an FO to another.

CSA finances and organizes SS exchanges between FOs and provide supporting funds for the FO partners.

Fert

Fert provides support to farmers’ organisations of local, intermediate, national levels. It also supports the emergence of new FOs. The agri-agency mainly focuses on the set-up of sustainable economic services within FOs.

Fert works on organisational strengthening with all FO partners. In developing countries the support is provided in 3 main phases:

1) Emergence of FO with a Fert supporting team within the FO (10-15 years);

2) Transition toward FO autonomy with external service providers (ex: for human and financial management) (3-5 years);

3) Punctual support tailored to FO demand with FOs which are autonomous.

In more favourable economic contexts, i.e. in countries with higher level of economic development such as Brazil and Eastern Europe, Fert’s support begins directly at the 2nd phase because of lesser needs but also, in some cases, because of lesser resources to finance the support.

Fert provides its support through a team based locally (may be internal to FO), managed by expatriates in the first phase. Then the support is provided by external cabinets and more punctual support by Fert when the FO is mature (second and third phases).

In all phases Farmer to Farmer N/S, S/N and S/S exchanges are also organized.

For all FOs partner, Fert provides a supporting funds to the FO; it decreases when the FO improves its financial autonomy.

FFD

FFD is a very recent agri-agency as it was created in 2012. It supports mature FOs established in stable countries. The main focus is in forestry sector, hence FFD supports the development of services dedicated to smallholder forest producers within FOs. Another main focus is support to cooperatives’ development.

FFD provides support through twinning partnerships (partnerships between Finnish FOs and Southern FOs), promoting N/S and S/N exchanges. It also provides funds to be managed directly by FOs.

Trias

Trias provides support to MBOs (member-based organisations) like cooperatives, credit and saving groups, gathering family farmers and small-scale entrepreneurs, at local, intermediate, or national. It may also support the emergence of new FOs.

Trias works on organisational strengthening with all MBOs partners. The leading method is ERI, a grassroots approach where farmers are considered as active or potential agro-entrepreneurs who can take matters into their own hands. It gives them the opportunity to choose what they need and want, after being supported in acquiring objective information. Another key element in


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this approach is that it encourages the entrepreneurial spirit within farmers: it encourages them “to produce what they can sell to the market rather than trying to market what they produce”.

Close support is provided by Trias advisors (local) who are specialized in organisational strengthening. They coach, train and facilitate organisational development. Trias finances and organizes Farmer to Farmer N/S and N/S exchanges, and provides support funds to FOs.

UPA DI

UPA DI provides support to farmers’ organisations (cooperatives, formal associations gathering family farmers) of local, intermediate, national levels. The agri-agency focuses mainly on economical services provided by the FO partners to their members.

UPA DI works upon organisational strengthening with all FO partners. The leading approach is SLGT (Savoirs des Gens de la Terre), which basically aims at supporting the development of an organisation through the capacity-building of leaders and managers, staff, but also of members. The SLGT is composed of 5 main training programmes:

1)"Job: farmer" targeting members

2)"Farmer solidarity" targeting MBO members

3)"Democratic farmer action" targeting leaders of apex organisations

4) "Farmer to farmer", exchanges North-South

5) Missions of follow-up

More recently, three complementary programs have been added:

6) Support to financial management

7) Support to NRM

8) Agricultural policies

UPA DI provides support through Training of Trainers, giving trainings possibly upon the 8 programmes. The programmes are implemented according to needs and funding available, aiming eventually at the training of members, leaders and staff at all level of the organisation.

SLGT funds are also attributed in the different programmes: some are attributed to a selection of individual farmers to finance their individual projects (programme 1); some are attributed to FOs (programmes 2, 3, 6 and 7).

Finally, UPA DI finances and organizes N/S, S/N exchanges.

We Effect

We Effect provides support to cooperatives and other FOs. The agri-agency works on organisational strengthening with all FO partners. It also engages in humanitarian assistance.

We Effect action is based on rights-based approach. The support to FOs is provided in 2 steps:

-Joint assessment to define the type of support the partner organisation needs in order to

develop into an effective, democratic organisation (organisation’s capacity, productive and financial strength, etc.);

-Provision of support which consists mainly in supporting funds for FOs, training, advisory services, sharing of experiences, building synergies through N/S and S/N exchanges.


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5. SUPPORT ACTIVITIES OF AGRI-AGENCIES IN

TERMS OF FO ORGANISATIONAL STRENGTHENING

The strengthening of effective smallholder producer organisations relies on three interdependent types of relationships that small-scale producers develop. These relationships can be classified as follow

1:

1) Bonding relationships among small producers in FOs;

2) Bridging relation between smallholder producer organisations to create apex organisations;

3) Linking relations between FOs and market actors and policy makers.

The development of the 3 types of relations is essential for the performance of FOs, one feeding the other, and agri-agencies work on the 3 types with their partners. Enforcing these relationships require different ranges of activities which are summarized below, in bold being presented activities implemented systematically by all agri-agencies with all their FO partners, the other activities being implemented by only a number agri-agencies. The support to the improvement of financial health is presented in another “Evidence of impact” report, although it is intrinsically linked to organisational strengthening. It is also important to add that some agri-agencies also work on organisational strengthening and institutional development of Northern Organisations of their constituency, to optimize the support of their member to South FOs (ex: Trias, Afdi).

1 FAO (2012) Good practices in building innovative rural institutions to increase food security

Categories of FO activities supported by agri-agencies to strengthen FOs:

Type of relationships to enforce Supporting activities of agri-agencies

1) Bonding relationships among small producers in FOs

-Promotion of democratic and associative vitality of FOs

-Training managers and leaders (i.e.: leadership skills, share of roles and responsibilities, etc.)

-Elaboration of vision and strategy

-Support of member participation (i.e.: promote proper distribution of information to members, and between different levels of FO, set up of feed-back mechanisms, etc.)

-Improvement of the representation of specific groups (i.e.: young, women, or other groups such as vulnerable populations)

-Support to the emergence of new grassroots FOs

-Support of HR management

-Development of Monitoring and evaluation capacities within FOs

2) Bridging relations between small producer organisations to create apex organisations

-Support to structural settings of FO -Support to the emergence of new leaders -Support replication and up-scaling of successful services

3) Linking relations between FOs and market actors and policy makers

-Support networking activities of FOs (or institutional development)


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6. OVERVIEW OF THE AA APPROACHES FOR FO ORGANISATIONAL STRENGTHENING

Afdi Agriterra AsiaDHRRA Asprodeb CSA Fert FFD Trias UPA DI We Effect

Partner focus

_Farmers organisations (cooperatives, formal associations gathering family farmers) _At all levels (local, intermediate, national) _Focus on both economical services and representation/defence of member interests

_Rural membership-based organisations (unions, cooperatives, rural women) _Cooperatives: mainly at local or district level. Others: subnational, national, international. _Focus on both economical services and representation/defence of member interests

_Farmers organisations (including other marginalized rural sectors -- fishers, IPs, women, agricultural worker) and cooperatives _at local, national, regional levels _Focus on representation and defense of members' interests, and economical services

_Farmers organisations (cooperatives, formal associations gathering family farmers) _Mainly at national level _Focus mainly on representation/defence of member interests

_Farmers organisations _At all levels, support also the emergence of new FOs _Mainly focus on economical services

_Smallholder forest producers organisations _At local and intermediate level _Mainly focus on economical services

_MBOs: cooperatives, credit&saving groups, family farmers and small-scale entrepreneurs _At all levels (local, intermediate, national), support also emergence of new FOs _Focus on both economical services and representation/defence of member interests

_Farmers organisations (cooperatives, formal associations gathering family farmers) _At all levels (local, intermediate, national) systematically -Focus mainly on economical services

_Cooperatives (Farming cooperatives but also in other sectors such as housing) and other FOs _Focus on both economical services and representation/defence of member interests

Strategy

_in all partnerships as a specific topic _long term twinning partnerships _Improvement of governance; Improving capacities of staff and board; Improving HR management

_condition for cooperation _Networking; Participation; Professional capacity; Accountability; Gender and youth; Financial solidity; Results

_foundational to cooperation _Participatory approach anchored on the organizational vision and strategic directions and plans

_adapted to specific issues of FO strategy _S/S exchanges mainly (FO to FO)

_with all FO partners _Support in: emergence of FO; transition toward FO autonomy; punctual support when autonomous

_long term twinning partnerships

_with all FO partners _ERI method, a grassroots approach to encourage entrepreneurial spirit within farmers

_with all FO partners _SLGT approach (Savoirs des Gens de la Terre)

_with all FO partners _Rights-based approach _joint assessment of needs for organisational development; provision of support


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Means

_Twinning partnerships, promoting NS, NS and SS exchanges _Combined in most countries of intervention by a local team (cellule) specialized in organisational strengthening _Supporting funds for the FO

_Both advice (preferably peer to peer) and funding _six agribusiness advisors locally in place

_Support from national member DHRRAs linked to national FOs: TA and accompaniment _Agreement on milestones to guide the strengthening process. "Begin with the end in mind". Social contracting _organizational strengthening tools; pool of experts (FOs and civil society or specialized consultants); FO-FO learning exchange _Internal team of Asiadhrra

_Finance and organize S/S exchanges between FOs _Supporting funds for the FO

_Support team based locally, managed by expatriates in a first phase _Support by external cabinets and more punctual support by Fert HO when the FO is mature (second and third phases) _Farmer to Farmer N/S, S/N and S/S exchanges __Supporting funds for the FO

_Twinning partnerships (partnerships between Finnish FOs and Southern FOs), promoting N/S and S/N exchanges _Supporting funds for the FO

_Trias specialized advisors (local): coach, train and facilitate organisational development _Finance and organize Farmer to Farmer N/S and N/S exchanges _Supporting funds for the FO

_Training of trainers, aiming at the training of members and leaders at all level of the organization -LSGT funds managed by farmer (prog. 1), or MBOs (prog. 2&3, 6,7), supporting the setup of economic services _ Finance and organize N/S , S/N exchanges

_Primary implementers are organisations, except in sensitive countries or in the beginning of the venture; _Support mainly provided through training, advisory services, sharing of experiences, building synergies through N/S and S/N exchanges _Supporting funds for the FO

Promotion of associative

and democratic

vitality

x X X x x _ x x _

Training managers

and leaders x X x x x _ x x _

Support elaboration

of vision and strategy

x X x x x _ x _

Support member

participation X x x _ x x _

Improve representation of specific

groups

x X x x x _ x

x _

(youth inclusion) x (women

inclusion) (youth inclusion)

(women inclusion)


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Support to HR

management x X x x x _ x x _

Support to structural settings of

FO

x x x x _ x _

Support emergence

of new leaders

x x x _ x x _

Support to M&E X x x x _ x x _

Support to emergence of new FOs

very limited x x _ x _

Support to provision of

services x X x x x _ x x _

Support replication

and up-scaling

x x _ x _

Support networking x X x x x _ x x _


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7. A SHARED TOOL FOR THE PARTICIPATIVE

ASSESSMENT OF FOS: THE PROFILING

A number of agri-agencies use a common tool to assess the strengths and weaknesses of their partner FO: the profiling. It has been initially developed by Agriterra and lately modified to include the concerns of other agri-agencies. A number of core capacities which are important for member based organisations as well as a number of key indicators for each core capacity have been identified. The assessment process starts with a holistic and profound organisational analysis, made in a participatory way (by the whole group in case of a small organisation, or by a representative sub-group in bigger organisations). It is therefore a self-assessment or self-evaluation. The idea is not only to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the organisation, but to develop a shared understanding and awareness by the group of what the organisation and its members do, how they do it, the environment in which they operate, their common history, their opportunities and possibilities, their limitations and weaknesses, their goals, etc.

The profiling can be used for different purposes depending on the agri-agency policy. It can be used:

-To validate a potential new partner -To identify the main core competencies of the FO to be strengthen through the partnership with the agri-agency -To assess the changes in the core competencies being the subject of the support (measuring the impact of the partnership for the agri-agency).

For the FO, the profiling can be a useful management tool on which basis a farmers’ organisation can build its further organisational development.

During the past couple of years the profiling tool has been further developed to include the aspect of financial sustainability and review the coverage of other indicators. At present, nine core competency indicators of organisational strength (each on a scale from 0 to 100%) are used in the profiling; they are presented in the table below.

The difference with other organisational models is that some of the above indicators are specifically geared towards the membership-based nature of the rural organisations that agri-agencies work with. Participation, accountability, gender and representativity: they all have to do with the fact that the farmers’ organisation is an association of members, who in the final analysis (should) own the organisation. From the nine core competencies, seven are presented in one scheme, the “spider map”. The indicators for income diversification and representativity are not included in the spider map due to their nature. The income diversification measures the degree to which the organisation is capable of generating its own income (and doing so in a diversified way); representativity measures the size of the membership of the organisation; absolute membership numbers are used because of methodological difficulties to obtain reliable data on potential membership of FOs .

Core competencies of a well-functioning farmers’ organisation considered in the profiling:

Core competency Meaning

Participation indicator Does it involve its members?

Accountability indicator Does it report back to its members?

Diversity indicator Does it involve women and youth?

Results Does it provide useful services?

Networking indicator Does it relate to other actors?

Professional capacity indicator Is it a professional organisation?

Income diversification indicator Does it obtain income from other sources than donors?

Financial solidity indicator What is the financial sustainability of the organisation?

Representativity indicator Is it a representative organisation, with a significant proportion of the farmers in its membership?


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Example of Profiling as tool to monitor and support the organisational strengthening: CFAP-Cambodia - Cambodian Farmers Association Federation of Agricultural Producers The development which the spider maps from the years 2007, 2008 and 2009 shows is the improvement most notably in the areas of Participation, Accountability and Strategic Potential. Both the realisation of a (first) General Assembly and the formulation of a strategic plan have contributed to this progress. During a mission of Agriterra’s liaison officer in 2008, a SWOT analysis was executed with the board and staff. The main weaknesses turned out to be: • Weak awareness among members of added value of CFAP: no clear services rendered that distinguish it from NGOs • Limited capacity of Board and high dependence on Managing Director • Limited capacity among staff in cooperative marketing and saving & credits As a consequence CFAP adapted its ambitions and decided to put more emphasis on: • Mobilising training services to members • Facilitating access of members to savings and credits • Developing marketing services to members • Organisational development and strengthening through exchanges and study tours Thus, CFAP and Agriterra agreed upon the following priorities for support for 2010 – 2013:

1. Improvement of horticulture production and management: the basis for better access to markets and better pricing are good quality products 2. Improvement of cooperative marketing and access to markets (with support from SNV) 3. Through a more focused youth programme, CFAP aims to develop economic activities and rural employment 4. Improvement of the membership registration system by including production and marketing priorities.

The next organisational strength profiling will be carried out during 2014 to see the impact of agreed priorities for support to the organisation’s development.


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8. EXAMPLES OF ACTIVITIES AND RESULTS

OBTAINED BY AGRI-AGENCIES IN TERMS OF

ORGANISATIONAL STRENGTHENING

FOCUS 1: Bonding relationships among small producers in FOs FOs are groups of farmers (grassroots groups, cooperatives, etc.) who share similar constraints and plan to overcome these constraints through collective action. Mutual trust and bonds of solidarity among farmers are the fundaments of strong rural organisations, allowing on the long term the development of a sense of ownership of their organization, and ensuring that small producers are engaged in their own development.

Promotion of associative and democratic vitality of FOs

Development of relationships between members, from the grassroots to the apex, is an on-going process which must be filled along all the life of the FO through specific activities. The capacity-building of members may motivate and promote their involvement in their FOs. The set-up of democratic bodies, and the elaboration of clear and transparent procedures, are essential parts of organisational strengthening, allowing the build-up of sustainable bonds of trust and solidarity among members. Then the setup of mechanisms of communication between leaders and members, between apex and grass roots, are also important to maintain bonds on the long-term.

Agri-agencies may provide capacity-building to members; they ensure that their FO partners have appropriate status and internal rules, and do apply the procedures defined in these documents (ex: holding of board committees and General Assemblies, etc.). They assist them if there is any flaw is detected on this side, during a participative analysis of the FO for example, and may provide partial funding for the functioning of essential governance bodies in the beginning of a partnership. Agri-agencies can also support internal communication (ex: radio). Membership fees collection, even if they are not significant, can also be promoted as a good mean to clearly define membership and promote the associative and democratic vitality of the organization.

Promoting collective initiatives and good governance with UGPM and FPA in Senegal, UPA DI (AIN 5255) In Senegal, UPA DI implemented from 2009 to 2011 the Farmers Knowledge Program (TFKP), in collaboration with two partner Farmers Organisations (FOs): the “Union des groupements paysans de Meckhé” (UGPM) and the “Fédération des perimètres autogérés” (FPA). The program supported the capacity building at farmer level (ex: training on farm business) and at FO level. The TKFP also aimed at promoting collective initiative and at informing members of the fundaments of the democratic functioning of an organisation, through

training modules such as “Roles and responsibilities of the members of a FO”, “Democratic life within a farmer group” and “Basic tools for associative life (decision making, animation, etc.)”. Consequently, in the medium term, the program's activities have resulted in farmer organizations and groups that have a greater capacity to serve their members and promote agricultural development, with the setup of effective services (i.e.: improving access to credit, inputs, etc.), by raising the consciousness of members. One participant from Darou remarked: “In the past, here in Darou Gaye, we benefited from economic projects but most of them failed. We did not know the reason why. With TFKP, we realize, now, the whole difference that lies in capacity building”, said a participant in Darou Gaye. Transparency, inclusiveness, individual and collective responsibility and ownership played a key role in the success of the program.

Source: Final Evaluation -LSGT-TFKP, UPA DI

Promotion of member participation within FOs

Member participation in FO functioning is the fundament of effective and sustainable FOs. It allows the development of a sense of ownership of their organization, and provides assurance that services are adapted to member’s needs, that the position of FOs does reflect the opinion of its members when participating in public debates on rural development issues.

Agri-agencies do promote member participation at different stages of the development of the FO:

- Promoting good governance, supporting for example the proper organization of General assemblies and board meetings according to the status of the FO;

- Promoting transparency and accountability throughout the organisation, improving internal capacities in terms of analysis and presentation of FO financial and technical information for example;

- Supporting the payment of annual fees, which is a good indicator of farmer implication in the FO;

- Promoting communication of FOs with their members (ex: radio broad cast) and between the different levels of organization (local, regional, national) through the organization of meetings or visits of elected administrators to the lower levels;

- Supporting processes of member’s consultations for the elaboration of FO positions, for example when the FO is involved in the elaboration of laws concerning rural development;

- Support to the monitoring of FO activities, the follow-up of the results allowing the FO to respond instantly;

- Support the implementation and systematic use of a membership database


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Promoting member participation with in FOP in Guinea, Trias (AIN 5583)

The regular follow up of unions and grassroots groups by elected representatives of the umbrella MBO through periodic field missions has improved the communication from the base to the top and allowed elected officials to anticipate/manage the conflicts that arise in the field (Fédération des organisations paysannes de Basse-Guinée- FOP). Trainings of producers and breeders and communication upon laws concerning natural resources management (pastoral code), and concerning organisations (Act 14), resulted in more clarity and coherence regarding the creation of groups and unions in line with the legislation, and in minimizing conflicts between farmers and pastoralists. The MBO has translated the texts into the 2 national languages susu and peuhl (FOP). Good and democratic governance of the federation (FOP) has been enhanced by:

- The establishment of new operational mechanisms and tools improving governance within both organizations;

- Increasing the sense of responsibility of elected board members who are involved in the defense of the interests of members and conflict management.

The introduction of the "vote of confidence" in promoting the principle of accountability has stimulated a greater sense of responsibility among elected members and improved the governance of MBOs. The approach of “training cascades" resulted in reaching a large number of members against reduced costs and through peer training. The examples reveal that working towards more democratic governance has taken place at different levels in the organization: at the level of the basic groups, the central structure and also between the basic and the central level. Improved democratic governance relates to increased functioning of the internal bodies, but also to more representation and participation of vulnerable groups like women en youth. Source: Evaluation of the Trias DGD program 2011-2013

Emergence of new FOs

The level of global farmer organisation, or representativity of FOs, may vary a lot from a country from another, and at lower level, in a region or another, depending of historical, political and cultural background. Up to now, some areas, some specific groups, are not be well represented through existing FOs. Now that FOs are recognized as major stakeholders of rural development, and that they are supported as such, improving their representavity through the increase of their membership seems strategic. For the same purpose, some agri-agencies support the emergence of new FOs in areas where farmers are not yet organized, or with groups of farmers not represented in existing FOs. New FOs have then the possibility to join higher level apex FO or FO platforms to extend services provided to their members, improving then their representativity.

Creation and growth of the cooperative Khemisset Chaouia in Morocco, from 1996-Fert (AIN 4951)

An informal group was created in 1996 in Khemisset Chaouia, gathering a number of farmers who were facing similar issues and who have been able to identify common objectives thanks to the facilitation of INRA (Institut National de recherché Agricole) of Settat, and Fert. Farmers concerns were mostly the impact of climatic constraints (i.e.: repetitive droughts) and issues of cash flows. They were mainly selling cereals but wanted to diversify their sources of revenue with the development of cow milk production, to build up their resilience. Then the cooperative Coop KC or « Coopérative Khemisset Chaouia pour le développement agricole” was created in 2001 to collect and sell members ‘milk, in a zone where milk had always been a product dedicated to auto-consumption only. Today the cooperative allows the collection and sale of milk for the members, and provide access to equipment and technical support to improve cereal cultivation through the application of Agriculture of Conservation principles. The success of the cooperative led to the extension of the organizational process to surrounding areas, and the creation of 3 other cooperatives. In 2005, 1200 farmers had their milk collected through 19 centers of collection, in total 6.8 million of milk were collected. Eventually the cooperatives gathered within a union called de «Union des Coopératives agricoles de la Chaouia » in 2009.

Source: « Livre Fert: Le développement en partage, Fert, une histoire, une démarche », Fert

Training of elected leaders and managers

The development of organizational capacities implies the empowerment of leaders, be they elected leaders or salaried managers. Hence one of the main activities of agri-agencies in terms of organizational strengthening is the training and/or continuous coaching of elected leaders and managers, building their skills such as: interpersonal skills, character (ex: integrity), personal capabilities (i.e.: management of financial and human resources), capacities in getting results (ex: planning, share of roles and responsibilities between elected leaders and managers), capacities in leading changes, etc. Moreover, the roles of FOs becoming increasingly important in a more complex world, their leaders need nowadays to develop also a number of skills, such as adaptive skills, being able to work in a multi-actor environment, being flexible. There is also a need for continuous training within FOs, as they usually have a regular out-phasing of old board members and an influx of new ones.

Training leaders through the “Leadership trajectory” in Uganda 2012-2013, Trias (AIN 5593, 5592, 5579)

Trias has worked for more than 10 years on leadership empowerment in Uganda. Gathering experiences and inputs from intensive research, experts and partners, they have elaborated a method called “Leadership trajectory”. The method implies a first phase of leadership assessment to find out which competencies


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they would work on during the trajectory. Capacity building is then achieved through a mix of training and coaching, with a participatory approach based on competencies rather than topics. Participants of the “Leadership trajectory” programme mentioned that the training and coaching sessions helped them both in their work and in their personal lives. Achieving a lasting impact requires indeed to work on changing attitudes, rather than merely imparting skills and knowledge. “You may not change your organisation if you don’t change the way you do things yourself”, Lauben Baseeta, participant in the trajectory. The next step for Trias is to make the trajectory continuous and sustainable, by helping partners to institutionalize it in their organisations, creating mechanisms to finance it, and training local ToT.

Source: Report-Pilot Leadership trajectory 2013, Trias

Support to the elaboration of a shared vision and strategy within FOs

The elaboration of a common vision and a strategy is an essential step in bonding relationships among small producers:

- It gathers members around common values and shared objectives for the FO; - It allows communication between members and leaders; - It helps the clarification of everyone expectations, and duties toward the FOs; - It is essential in the process of decision-making and planning within the FO, providing long-term shared goals.

A clear vision of agriculture development and of the role of the FO in the process, as well as a clear strategy, do empower FO externally and are important assets for the institutional development of FOs, enforcing their position among other economic and political stakeholders, and promoting the development of new partnerships.

The elaboration and implementation of a FO strategy follows most often the following basic steps:

1) Participative FO assessment (ex: using SWOT tool), involving members in the process,

2) Elaboration of a vision and strategy,

3) Sharing of the outcome with technical and financial partners,

4) Elaboration of the operational plan (ex: 5 year-plan, yearly plan) précising the activities planned in order to achieve goals, and indicators allowing the measurement of their achievement,

5) Follow-up of planning and goals achievement. Agri-agencies support the process through guidance and facilitation (i.e.: exchanges N/S or S/S).

Elaboration of the vision and strategy of the FEB (Fédération des Eleveurs du Burkina), corner stone of the organization (2012-2013), Afdi

The FEB, gathering local and regional herder FOs of Burkina, elaborated its document of vision during a 9-

months process with the facilitation and financial support of Afdi. The process has been an essential step in the organizational development of the FEB, allowing to its constitutive FOs to fix common objectives in terms of advocacy and other services to members and to elaborate a strategy to implement in order to achieve these goals. The process of elaboration was participative, down-top, and eventually implied also the other stakeholders of the husbandry sector (ex: Ministry of Animal resources and agriculture, local authorities, etc.). It allowed the FEB to take a central role in the consultation between the stakeholders of the different chains of value, contributing to its institutional development. The different steps were the following: -Workshops at regional levels (assessment of livestock sector in Burkina Faso);

-Workshop at national level (compilation)-involving FOs and partners;

-Elaboration of a draft report presenting the vision and strategy of the FO;

-Amendments and validation of the report, by constitutive members and institutional partners;

-Finalization of the final vision document.

Source: “Coup de projecteur: L’élaboration du document de vision de la Fédération des éleveurs du Burkina (FEB), socle de la structuration de l’organisation”, Afdi

Improvement of human resources management

Relationships between leaders and staff are a key element in the performance of FOs. Most agri-agencies provide peer-to-peer support to FOs to improve this core competency, i.e.: for the elaboration of manuals of procedures, for the recruitment (process, elaboration of job profiles, proper contracts), or for the set-up of a balanced distribution of roles and responsibilities within the staff but also between elected leaders and salaried managers.

Supporting the CPF in its transition toward better efficiency, 2013 and 2014-Afdi (AIN 5865)

The CPF (Confédération Paysanne du Burkina), the national platform of Farmer Organisations, has become since its creation in 2002 an essential stakeholder in the debates upon rural development in Burkina, giving a voice to small producers through its participation to the processes of elaboration of the LOA (Loi d’orientation agricole) for example. In 2002 at its creation the CPF was gathering 5 apex organisations; it gathers now 12 organisations; this rapid growth constitutes a real challenge for the organisation in terms of quality of support it can provide to its members, and in terms of capacities of representation of members interests. Indeed its central position asks for of a continuous implication and a high-level expertise at the level of leaders and managers. Consequently the CPF went through an acute internal crisis in 2013, and Afdi offered its support for the up grading of administrators and staff capacities, for the CPF to be able to fulfill thoroughly its role as a driving force in the national debates upon rural


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development. This support has been provided in various steps:

1) Skills assessment of the staff, which highlighted deficiencies in terms of management and the lack of specific skills (ex: analysis of rural development laws); the assessment was implemented by a French expert, manager within a French FO, who could assist the CPF thanks to its specific professional capacities in human resources management;

2) Skills assessment of the administrators, which demonstrated the important gap and lack of mutual trust existing between staff and administrators and consequently a lack of implication of administrators in the organization:

3) Organisation and facilitation of 5 workshops, gradually supporting administrators in the profiling of the CPF according to its role, the workshops treated the following aspects, in a progressive process of co-construction of solutions: 1) Auto-evaluation of CPF action with administrators, and partners; 2) Elaboration of future CPF strategy; 3) Co-construction of the organizational and institutional framework adapted to the challenges identified in previous workshop (ex: needs in terms of human resources, elaboration of profiles, elaboration of a new structure, etc.); 4) Sharing of the strategy and new framework, with FO members, and with partners (state, NGO, etc.).

Afdi also provided support for the implementation of the decisions: providing expertise for the facilitation of the organizational and institutional transition, for the recruitments of manager and staff, for the set-up of cooperative relations between staff and administrator through proper communication, and clear distribution of roles, the elaboration of clear procedures (elaboration of a manual of procedures). The acute internal crisis has been transformed into a progressive transition leading to a CPF better tailored to fulfill the role of main representative of small producer’s interests in Burkina.

Source: « Coup de projecteur : Accompagnement de la CPF à « quitter le milieu du gué » : Stratégie axée sur un processus de réflexions prospectives pour le reprofilage organisationnel et institutionnel, Afdi

Improvement of the representation of groups such as women, young farmers and vulnerable populations

Women, youths, and vulnerable populations are specific “groups” of the rural civil society that have statistically low access to resources and power, face specific constraints and have specific needs; hence they are important to be considered when speaking of rural development and food security. Having them represented within FOs, or through their own organizations appear to be necessary for them to be provided with services adapted to their specific needs and constraints. But their effective inclusion does ask for specific organizational arrangements.

-Women inclusion

Women are now widely recognized as essential stakeholders in the production of food, and in food

security, being in charge of both productive and reproductive tasks. However, women have until now limited access to resources (financial and natural resources), which are essential factors of agricultural production, and limited power, including in Farmer Organisation. Given these remaining inequities, and given their specific roles within households, women do have specific needs in terms of advocacy (i.e.: asking for improved access to land for example), in terms of time management (i.e.: women being busy with intra-household tasks are much often less available and needs meetings and FO activities to respect their time constraints), in terms of support for agricultural production (ex: presenting higher rates of illiterateracy, women may require specific trainings; they may also cultivate different crops than men, being usually in charge of food crops, etc.).

Specific actions are implemented by agri-agencies to improve the representation of women, to empower them within FOs, end eventually to provide women services tailored to their needs and constraints. These actions are, for example, in terms of organizational strengthening: support to FOs to facilitate the entry of women within FOs (most FOs supported are mixed), creation of women committees within existing FOs, at the different levels of organization (local, intermediate, and national), support to FOs targeted as being purely feminine, strengthening of leadership and participation of women in FOs. These activities are presented in details in the report “Evidence of Impact” 2014 on gender.

-Youth inclusion

Given the demographic dynamic, there are assumptions that 330 million young Africans will enter the job market by 2025. Two thirds of them will be living in rural areas, and for the sake of sufficient diversification of the continent's economies, agriculture shall continue to play a key role in the economic insertion of these young people and in the continent's stability.

2 However, until

now youth have limited access to resources and limited power; moreover, there is a concerning lack of interest for agriculture among the rural young population who migrate in number towards urban centres. Those who want to be farmers face important challenges when they intent to set up, given the increasing pressure upon natural resources, such as land.

Hence, youth have today specific needs in terms of advocacy and other services (ex: support for setting up their farms, etc.) and it is essential that they be represented in FOs.

Many agri-agencies do work on the improvement of youth representation with FOs through the following activities concerning organisational strengthening: creation of youth committees within FOs, strengthening

2 Bruno Losch, CIRAD; Crisis prevention in Sub-Saharan Africa - Agriculture: the key to the employment challenge, Perspective No. 19, October 2012.


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of leadership and participation of young farmers in FOs, supporting networking between FOs and with other stakeholders involved in the setting up of young farmers (ex: training centres, ministries, local authorities, NGO, etc.).

-Inclusion of vulnerable populations

Nowadays it is largely acknowledged 1) that food insecurity remain a major challenge in some areas of the world, mostly in countries of Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, and 2) food insecurity is no more due to a lack of food production, but to the unequal access to food and to nutritional issues, indeed part of the population in food-insecure countries do not have the means to produce nor purchase enough food, or food of sufficient quality, to fulfil their daily nutritional needs.

Hence increasing food security implies to improve the access of vulnerable populations to food, through agriculture production at household level and auto-consumption, and/or improved revenue of agriculture products, and through more largely to livelihood diversification.

However vulnerable populations, just as women and youth, have limited access to resources (ex: land, water, etc.), to markets, to power. Hence they have specific needs and constraints, and it is important that they be represented in FOs.

It remains a challenge for agri-agencies to work on the inclusion of vulnerable populations: FOs are frequently reluctant to include vulnerable farmers, as it might hinder their progress towards organizational & financial independency. Some agri-agencies do work on the inclusion of vulnerable populations, through the promotion of intuitional arrangements for example (See the example of Trias below).

The creation of specific local MBOs, benefiting from a specific technical and financial support for the provision of services tailored on vulnerable population needs, may be one way to improve their inclusion in a first stage. It asks for specific actions targeting these populations that are most often marginalized, not represented in existing FOs.

Supporting women inclusion in Honduras (AIN 5211), and youth inclusion in Tanzania, Trias

Social inclusion is a major focus for Trias which is mainstreaming it in its collaboration with FOs

-Inclusion of youths in Tanzania: MVIWAMO (Mtandao wa Vikundi vya Wakulima wa Wilaya ya Monduli ) has managed to organise youths into a youth network with the support of Trias. At regional level the network has established a Youths business center which, among other services, provides access to equipment such as milling machines, services of packing and selling for maize flour; it also employs 7 youths. When agriculture sector presents business opportunities, youth starts to be attracted. In the value chain young farmers are more interested in the processing of crops, which increase the added value of crops, and in marketing.

-Inclusion of women in Honduras AMPRO (Asociación de Microempresarios y Productores Agrícolas del Occidente de Honduras) decided to put an emphasis on active and equal participation of women and men in the functioning and activities of MBOs. It has resulted in an increased number of female leaders in the organization, women being empowered with higher self-esteem: they don’t fear anymore to speak out for themselves (men and women). The participation of women has also increased in meetings of basic groups. Consequently more women have been allowed to work and earn their own money. Eventually this focus resulted in an organisation globally empowered, at all levels (local and apex levels).

-Inclusion of vulnerable populations in Philippines Trias does work on the inclusion of poor populations through institutional linkages: they link MBOs gathering poor populations to MFIs (ex: ASHI, Insol, etc.), or to the government’s conditional cash transfer program, for example.

Source: Inclusion and social impact_PLATS A1.4-extracts, Trias

Improvement of monitoring and evaluation practices within FOs

AgriCord policy in terms of M&E policy is to strengthen capacities within FOs for them to be able to implement their own systems internally. Indeed M&E systems provide information that can be extremely useful to FOs for advocacy purposes and for decision-making (ex: in terms adaptation of FO services to FO needs).

The promotion of systematic planning, monitoring and evaluation of activities through the use of yearly plans and frequent follow-up meetings (ex: board meeting or other) has proved to be essential when speaking of organizational strengthening of FOs and is globally supported by agri-agencies.

The next step, and a challenging one, is the set-up of indicators for the follow-up of FO goals achievement, and the measurement of FO impact. The measurement of socio-economic impact asks for important technical capacities and sufficient skilled human resources, which make it difficult to achieve for local and intermediate FOs , even if this kind of data are strategic to provide evidence of the central role they play in terms of rural development. However some FOs of national level (ex: FONGs, and other FOs platforms members of ROPPA), do work on the design and set-up of M&E systems that provide data on small producers farms, and their social, environmental and economic impact, with the support of agri-agencies and other partners. These data shall provide also information upon FOs impact in terms of small-producers development on the long term.

FOs and agri-agencies may also concentrate upon the follow-up of specific services to be able to improve their quality, or for specific needs in terms of advocacy.

http://www.agro-info.net/?menu=organisations&view=organisation&organisation_id=15914





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The FONGS, national FO platform in Senegal, set up a M&E system to follow the technico-economical and environmental data of small producer farms (2013-2015), CSA (AIN 5968)

The monitoring of small-producers farms will provide the FONGS with essential information 1) to advocate for the important social, economic and environmental impact of family farming and refine FONGS position in debates upon rural development issues taking place within CNCR and ROPPA arena, and 2) to adapt services to small producers’ needs and constraints (and their diversity). The data collection and analysis is done by local FOs with the technical support of the FONGS, but also with the support of de-concentrated state technical services. The FONGS then gather the data obtained in the different FOs, and obtain eventually a global understanding of rural dynamics in the different areas of Senegal.

Source: Annex4-rapportage narratif_FONGS FINAL, CSA

FOCUS 2: Bridging relations between smallholder producer organisations to create apex organisations Developing bridges between FOs is essential to access to market, to lobby jointly with an enhanced influence, etc... It can also allow FO to organise joint learning and pooling of experiences, or offers possibilities to provide integrated services. AgriCord in itself is a good example of useful collaboration between FOs, promoting capacity building through the peer-to-peer approach “Farmer to Farmer”. The creation of apex organisation or FO networks is one of the main ways leading to farmer’s empowerment.

Support to structural settings of farmers organisation

Organisational settings have to be adapted to legal frameworks (ex: adoption of the OHADA law for cooperatives in Africa), to variation of economic and political contexts, and to the need of members in terms of services. The agri-agencies are a good support for the FOs in this organisational transition which is often a complex processes, thanks to their knowledge and experience of such processes in their own countries.

For example, FOs provide mainly to types of services: specialized services (ex: services developed for a specific value chain) and/or cross-cutting services (ex: advocacy for a better access to credit, to land, etc.). In the last decade, FOs have been strongly influenced by governments and donors toward the provision of specialized services which also ask for the specialization of FOs in terms of value chain. This evolution aims at supporting FOs in being more effective economic stakeholders, but it may also weaken their political power, dividing them in several entities focusing on their different economic objectives.

However, to be able to play their role in rural development, FOs need to redevelop diversified functions in their networks, including cross cutting services that all small producers need (ex: advocacy appropriate legal framework for agricultural activities,

access to resources). This necessity then asks FOs networks to find out proper institutional and organizational arrangements to be able to provide both types of services.

Specialized services and cross-cutting services, value chain FOs versus generalists FOs: the case of FUPRO in Benin (AIN 5935) - Afdi

In Benin, the UCP (Union communale des producteurs) of Grand Popo, member of the FUPRO (Federation des Unions de Producteurs du Benin), had play an important role in terms of representation of farmers but could not manage to provide economic services to its members. With the support of PPAB and Afdi, the UCP created 6 working groups (rice, vegetables, etc.) with the objective to assess the needs at the grassroots of the FO. This assessment led the organization to the conclusion that it was a necessity to group farmers by value chain and to identify, on this base, the services to be provided by members. The UCP then created different groups and Afdi supported them for the recruitment of a facilitator able to implement actions in the field. This evolution has been general in FUPRO, several economic FOs specialized by value chain (ex: cotton, rice) were created during the 2000s at local (ex: UCP of Grand Popo) and national level (ex: creation of the ANPC-l’Association Nationale des Producteurs de Coton- and of the CCR-B -Conseil de Concertation des Riziculteurs du Bénin- in 2006). In the meantime the “generalist” FOs, anchored in the territories and working on the cross-cutting services, saw the decrease of their financial support and their political power. To maintain a role of farmer representation and keep the economic FOs within the network, the FUPRO adopted a new organization to improve the link between its “economic” members and its “generalist members” anchored in the territories. The territorial organization has been preserved but to each level organization is attached an organisation by value chai (“economic FO”). The FUPRO then became a framework for the permanent consultation and strategic thinking of FOs in Benin.

Source: « Effets des changements institutionnels et politiques sur les OP d’Afrique de l’Ouest et stratégies d’adaptation. Leçons des expériences de la Confédération Paysanne du Faso et de la Fédération des Unions de Producteurs agricoles du Bénin », Célia Coronel (IRAM), Seydou Keita (Afdi)

Support to the emergence of leaders

There is a continuous need to support the emergence of leaders in farmers’ movements to maintain a sustainable dynamic in FOs. It also guarantees better governance on the long term. But supporting the emergence of new leaders requires specific actions 1) to select continuously potential leaders at the grassroot, and 2) to train and coach them. For the sake of sustainability, some agri-agencies intend to promote the institutionalization of these mechanisms within FOs progressively.

http://www.fupro.org/

http://www.fupro.org/


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Supporting the emergence of new leaders in Madagascar with Cap Malagasy, Fert, 2011-2012

Cap Malagasy (Conseil Agricole de proximité Malagasy), with the support of Fert, promotes FO members, or leaders, who presents potential to become agent of changes in their FO (local member-based organisations), or community. They select candidates, train them with 6 modules and coach them afterwards through individual interviews or participation to FO meetings led by trained leaders. The selection of candidates is an important step, Cap Malagasy tries to identify persons who will be able to acquire new competencies of leadership but who will also have a strong motivation to bring these capacities to his/her FO/community, to be an agent of change. Hence the first step of selection is done by the FO, in order to engage members in the process; then the adviser does a final selection to ensure the respect of important criteria (ex: reading and writing skills, living locally, leader with little responsibilities, proportion on women and youth, etc.). Selected participants then have to prepare a commitment letter explaining their motivation to be a leader and to use his/her new competencies to serve his/her FO or community. The programme has led significative changes in terms of capacities (know, know-how to do, behaviors), the final result being the local initiatives led by the participants, and their election for higher responsibilities within their FO or community.

Source: Promotion des leaders paysans: Capitalisation des acquis (OP de Base)-Fert

Support replication and up-scaling of successful services

There are numerous examples of innovative farmer organisations that have proven to be successful on a small scale at helping farmers to overcome their constraints, or at providing them with sustainable solutions, through the services provided. The challenge is often to replicate and/or upscale success stories. Apex FOs or platforms of FOs, with the support of agri-agencies, are in a good position to promote and support this process by capitalizing failures and successes, sharing the “lessons learnt” of the different experiences, facilitating exchanges between their constitutive FOs on specific services or transversal issues, providing technical advice on the set up of services, advocating for issues linked to specific services, etc. These activities do strengthen the apex FO in a feed-back loop effect, improving its legitimacy toward constitutive members and partners.

FIFATA in Madagascar supports its constitutive 8 OPR (Organisations de Producteurs Régionales) in the implementation of services for their members (2010-2012), FERT (AIN 5951)

FIFATA supports its 8 constitutive regional producers’ organisations (OPR) to provide services of proximity to their members (animal health, storage, training, etc.). The process builds up their legitimacy towards their

members while the legitimacy of FIFATA is also reinforced in its actions of advocacy. FIFATA act as the facilitator of the OPR network, through the organisation of exchanges and workshops between OPR, but each OPR is in charge of innovating upon new services, capitalizing on these experiences and sharing this information with other OPR. For example, in the beginning of the programme two OPR, FFTS and Fifatam, were providing animal health services (ex: vaccination) to their members, in remote areas. Then considering the success of these services, 3 other OPR (Vombo, VFTV, VFTM and Sahi) began to implement the same services, adapting them to the local constraints. FIFATA plans now to set up efficient M&E system to measure the impact of animal health services provided by the OPR, to be able to bring proves of evidence that the development of alternative animal health services provided by FOs is necessary to complement the public Animal health services. Fifata could then advocate that FO could improve significantly of epidemio-surveillance in Madagascar and should be better supported by the government and donors in bringing these services in remote areas.

Source: Evaluation finale Evaluation finale du projet "Accompagnement de Fifata et de 8 OP régionales dans le développement, la professionnalisation et la défense de services à l’agriculture portés par la profession à Madagascar ",L. LIAGRE, R. RAMBOARISON, Fert

FOCUS 3: Linking relations between FOs and market actors and policy makers A major part of FOs performance depends on the size and quality of the network of relations they can mobilize. Institutional arrangements, with national/local authorities, with the private sector, with NGOs and other stakeholders, enable small producers to mobilize and control resources, to overcome their constraints, in order to eventually contribute to global food security.

Multi-stakeholder partnerships are promoted, and other innovative institutional arrangements are currently being developed, and they provide excellent opportunities of creating new linkages which are essential for the institutional development of FOs. These institutional arrangements are for example:

-Inter-profession associations: they bring together stakeholders of a same value chain (FOs, processors, traders, exporters) to promote transparent collaborations based on common interests;

-Agricultural Research for Development (ARD): this approach encourage researchers to collaborate more with FOs and other stakeholders of the private sector, in order to promote the inter-crossing of different competencies and ultimately to develop a “user-led” research more oriented toward the provision of solutions to vulnerable populations, to improve food security;

-Partnership between FOs and policy-makers to improve food security (multi-stakeholder forum, etc.): FOs are being increasing solicited to participate


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to the elaboration of policies concerning rural development

-Network gathering private enterprises, FOs, Research centres, NGOS involved in agricultural development (ex: AgriPro Focus promoted by Netherland cooperation)

-Market linkages with private enterprises but also government (ex: public storage of staple food such as the SONGAGESS in Burkina Faso), or international organisation (ex: WFP purchase staple food to FOs in West-Africa).

Practices of agri-agencies related to institutional strengthening are mainly supporting

1) the increase of the awareness on the benefits of these synergies and alliances, through S/N and S/S exchanges, workshops,

2) the strengthening of skills and knowledge in this area, through training and coaching of leaders,

3) the promotion of linkages through exchanges, workshops,

4) the establishment of sustainable linkages with the proposition of specific methods (ex: the approach of “Collective system of marketing”, UPA DI).

Adding value to local products through the promotion of their origin and quality with the FUPRO (Federation des Unions de Producteurs du Benin) in Benin - Afdi since 2011 (AIN 5935)

Three FO constitutive of (or affiliated to) the FUPRO want to improve the marketing of their products through the promotion of their origin and quality: the CRR (Conseil de concertation des Riziculteurs), the ARPA (Association Régionale des Producteurs d’Ananas) and the UCP-Z (Union Communale des Producteurs- Zou Collines) which has organized a group of chicken producers. Afdi support the initiative connecting and promoting exchanges with French Farmer Organisations specialized on origin and quality labeling. The FUPRO acts as a facilitator of the capacity building process and provide marketing support (one advisor); the national platform is also in charge of capitalizing the experiences, one of the final goals being also to advocate for a national policy on the promotion and labelling of agricultural products in Benin. The whole process implied the FUPRO, intermediate and local FOs, French FOs, Benin state, Afdi, private sector, allowing the enforcement of local value chains. All stakeholders gathered in June 2012 in a workshop, which concluded on the following recommendations: creation of a “multi-partnership” platform to promote “quality” in Benin and elaboration of conducive policies for the promotion of agricultural products of quality.

Source: http://www.agro-

info.net/?view=project&menu=projects&project_id=24996




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9. RECOMMENDATIONS

The AgriCord Project Committee will discuss the following recommendations, which are based on the current knowledge on gender mainstreaming and the material on AA strategies and practice collected for this report.

1. Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning. Agri-agencies could improve the monitoring, evaluation and learning (i.e.: capitalization) upon their action of organizational strengthening as it is one of the specificity of the support they provide to FOs. For example, the profiling tool could be used in a better way to improve the evaluation of the changes observed within FOs, if they are made at year 0 and year 3 (after 3 years of support for example), providing information on the impact of AAs’ support.

2. Focus on enhancing member participation. Organisational strengthening encompasses the enforcement of the 3 types of relationships developed in this report: bonding relationships among farmers (Focus 1), bridging relationships between FOs (Focus 2) and binding relationships with other stakeholders (Focus 3). AAs may in some partnerships focus on one or 2 relations and neglect others. For example, bonding relationships among farmers is often taken for granted in FO platforms or apex organisations and agri-agencies mainly collaborate with leaders of the focus 2 and 3. But member participation requires a continuous attention, as it is a key element of FOs representativity, and legitimacy, hence support for the institutionalization of the mechanisms of communication and information of members, or for the elaboration of procedures favouring a better accountability, and should not be neglected by AAs.

3. AA complementarities in use for FO strengthening. The AAs have sometimes same partners. AAs have different focus in their partnerships with FOs. They have developed diversified competencies. Hence a better coordination between AAs working with the same FO, or working in the same country, could allow a better use of AAs’ complementarities, increase the sharing upon AA experiences, and eventually improve the global support provided to FOs. For example, the elaboration of a common strategy of AAs per country of intervention could be considered as a good step toward improved coordination. It could stem from a shared analysis of the political and social environment, of the main challenges faced by farmers’ movements, and of the major food security issues of the country.

4. More attention to social inclusion. From all topics social inclusion seems to be one of the more challenging for AAs, as FOs partners are often reluctant to work on these subjects. However food insecurity impacts mainly vulnerable populations (i.e.: poor, women, youth). It is also forecasted that in the near future vulnerable populations of Southern countries will be more impacted by the climate change. Hence it seems appropriate and strategic that AgriCord and its constitutive AAs consider social inclusion with more attention, and try to find innovative institutional arrangements, and to promote organisational development for organisations representing these populations and providing them with adapted services.

5. Organisational strengthening requires a close support. Experiences of AAs show that the means required to support effectively the development of FOs need to be adapted FOs’ level of development (i.e.: maturity). But generally, except in FOs which are already mature and need very punctual support, the organisational strengthening asks for a close support with staff based locally and cannot be done only through short exchange missions.

Documents

EVIDENCE OF IMPACT - AgriCord · political and social environment, of the main challenges faed y fames [ movements, and of the majo food security issues of the country. Les agri-agences