Improving Institutional Capacity:
Strengthening Farmer Organizations in the OIC Member Countries
27
board. 6 countries (15%) had no identifiable apex marketing or promotion body in their most
important crop. Government-run boards were found across the OIC, with no major regional
concentration, although they are perhaps especially common in Central Asia, where all 3
countries in the sample had government-linked bodies in their major crops.
2.1.4. Main conclusions
With this review of the cross-country analysis (covering 90% of OIC member countries and
bringing together a wide range of in-country sources in a single document likely for the first
time) complete, it is worth briefly restating the main findings. Some of the most interesting
facts and findings uncovered include:
 90% of countries researched have a recognized co-operative law that gives legal
standing to farmer organizations and other co-operatives, likely making the OIC similar to
the world as a whole (though exact data is not available) on this metric
 73% of countries have a body within the government (usually within Ministry of
Agriculture) with a mandate to strengthen and work with farmer organizations, including
68% of Arab countries and 76-77% of Asian and African countries. It is likely that the OIC
is reasonably in line with other regions in this area, although one ILO study in Africa found
that all eight (100%) non-OIC states surveyed had such a department.
 Numerous countries across the OIC have implemented policies or programs aimed at
strengthening FOs, with a renewed focus on rural organization promotion in post-conflict
and post-transition states, as well as a focus on FOs as an economic diversification and
environmental protection effort in Gulf states. African nations have also been leaders in
innovative policies aimed at making FO registration easier, reducing tax burdens, and
setting up ways to support FOs in the field.
 The average share of farmers belonging to FOs, in the 40% of countries for which direct
data is available, was 30%. It seems likely that OIC member countries are within global
norms on this metric, and based on a limited comparison set, may even be above average.
Combining this with data on the relative number of FOs registered allows us to show that
32% of OIC member countries (and 56% of those with data available) have >20% of
farmers in FOs or >5 FOs per 10,000 farm labor force. However, lack of data is a
significant issue ( as it is in other parts of the world), with no data available for 43% of
countries analyzed.
 81% of countries have some sort of apex body for farmer organizations or national-level
farmers’ union, and, importantly, more than ¾ of these are independent – 19% of
countries have a government-linked apex body and 19% have no identifiable apex body.
 Marketing arrangements in the major crop in each country appear to be generally
liberalized, with only 36% of countries showing some sort of government-linked
marketing board and 44% showing some sort of independent marketing body (generally
aimed at promotion and coordination)
A more detailed exploration of recent policy actions by OIC member countries in support of
farmer organizations follows.
2.2. Public Policy on farmer organizations in OIC member countries
This section builds on the high-level trends discussed above and provides a more complete
overview of policies, partners, and strategies that can be leveraged to support FOs within the
OIC. First, recent policy developments across five, selected OIC member countries (Egypt,