Improving Institutional Capacity:
Strengthening Farmer Organizations in the OIC Member Countries
16
necessarily guarantee strong farmer organizations but they give some indication of how much
work remains within the OIC.
2.1.2. Enabling Environment and Farmer Organization Penetration
Three areas related to policy and institutional structure can elucidate the enabling
environment across OIC member countries: Co-operative laws, specific government
departments with a mandate to serve farmer organizations, and specific policy initiatives
aimed at strengthening or encouraging FOs. The current penetration of FOs is also examined
across various metrics related to the size of the FO landscape in a given country. Due to the fact
that such metrics are not tracked globally in any central database, it is difficult to draw
conclusions about the standing of OIC member states relative to global averages (such a
comparison would require undertaking the same exercise described in Sectio above for
the entire world). However, where possible, some non-OIC comparisons are discussed.
Findings are presented below.
Does the country have a co-operative law that gives legal standing to farmer
organizations?
In general, most countries would be expected to have a law that allows cooperatives to be
created as a specific type of legal entity, giving them legal standing to conduct business and be
formally recognized as the voice of a group of farmers. This type of law is a basic precursor to a
strong enabling environment, as FOs in the 21st century must often provide a wide variety of
services for their members – purchase of inputs, facilitation of credit, negotiation of sales and
marketing agreements – that require legal recognition and the formal ability and enter into
contracts.
Fortunately, the majority of countries covered by the research (47 out of 52, or 90%) do have
a formal law widely viewed as recognizing co-operatives. Exceptions are:
 Azerbaijan and Oman, which have laws in various stages of consideration or drafting
 Mozambique, which has a law covering farmer organizations but outside observers
have noted that it does not empower them as independent entities
 The Comoros, which has no official law, although some cooperatives do exist in the
country
 Guinea-Bissau, which has a cooperative law from the colonial era but has not instituted
a similar law, post-independence. However, Guinea-Bissau has made progress in
implementing ILO recommendations on cooperative development and has passed a
National Policy on Cooperative Development
One point that is worth noting here is that while the OIC is certainly demonstrating strong
results and is positioned similarly to other regions in terms of the prevalence of cooperative
laws, some other regions have taken the next step forward by establishing supranational
cooperative regulatory frameworks. For example, In South America, the Mercosur Common
Cooperative Statute paves the way for cross-border cooperatives in South America, and the
Framework Law for Cooperatives in Latin America (2009) was created as a guide for policy-
makers.22 Similarly, the European Union Regulation on the Statute for a European Cooperative
22 IISD, Investment in Agriculture, June 2014