Improving Institutional Capacity:

Strengthening Farmer Organizations in the OIC Member Countries

Table 7: Major Turkish policy interventions and their link to FO capacity challenges

Capacity

Gap/Challenges

Intervention

Intervening Body

Institutional:

Organizational

Legal

Modifying regulations to ease

women’s co-ops dealing with

government, including developing

specific regulations and simplifying

procedures for registration

Ministry of Customs and

Trade

Technical:

Production (access

to finance)

Development of a strategic plan

including tax exemptions and

preferential access to long-term low

cost credit

Ministry of Customs and

Trade

Advocacy: Policy

representation

Greater dialogue between KEDV and

government

Development of a specifc, women-

focused “Strategic Plan” for Co-ops

Ministry of Customs and

Trade

Yemen

Yemen has a long history of community solidarity and self-reliance efforts. However,

enterprise-focused cooperatives were introduced in Yemen only in the early 1960s, when the

colonial administration encouraged the production of cotton through cooperatives. After the

independence of South Yemen in 1967, many FOs were established by the government to

control production, deliver credit and inputs, and collect and distribute agricultural produce.

Until unification in 1990, South and North Yemen were legislated to have two separate

cooperative unions. There is no indication of any capacity-building and enabling interventions

pursued by the Yemeni government. After unification, however, a significant consolidation

started to take place, with most state-controlled FOs disbanding and new, member-controlled

organisations initiating. Since 1994, the development of cooperatives in Yemen has been

coordinated by a new cooperative law, amended in 1998. Slightly prior, though, in 1991, a

conference of 450 cooperative representatives set up the Agricultural Cooperative Union

(ACU), which links the government and cooperatives with the aim of effectively channelling

government support. The ACU then, in many ways, can be seen as a state-sponsored or -

sanctioned FO that addresses the following capacity gaps:

This table summarizes and draws on the same sources cited in the preceding paragraphs

Polat, H.

Cooperative in the Arab World : Reaffirming their validity for local and regional development.

ILO Regional Office

for Arab States, 2010.