Improving Institutional Capacity:
Strengthening Farmer Organizations in the OIC Member Countries
50
funds training and international study trips for co-operative members, and ensures that the
cooperative has a reserved space in the Morocco Mall where it can presents its products.
3.3.3. Conclusion and lessons learned
The Tighanimine co-operative is a young organization that has grown more than 300% since
its start. It is a well-organized co-operative that puts full decision-power in the hands of its
members. It has successfully made use of certifications, becoming Fairtrade certified in 2012,
in order to help its members capture more of their products final value. It is also supported by
a strong policy environment fostered by a government that has both acknowledged the value
of FOs in agricultural development, and unlike in some other case studies, actually put
resources into co-operatives at the local level. However, it continues to struggle with
commercialization and pricing. Additionally, while generally supportive, the overarching
policy environment could be improved around production cost control and commercialization
techniques.
The important lesson from this case is the effectiveness of Morocco’s relationship with
Tighanimine. The government’s commitment to partnership, and financial support for
certification and overseas study trips, is likely an important component of the co-operative’s
success and is a notable counterpoint to cases where government policies are not backed up by
resource allocations.
3.4. Indonesia: Indonesian Peasants’ Union (SPI) and Consortium for
Agrarian Reform (KPA)
This section profiles two national or apex farmer organizations in Indonesia, the SPI and the
KPA. These two FOs are examples of primary peasant, smallholder and community co-
operatives and unions. Both organizations have an extensive footprint in Indonesia’s rural
areas, a track record of successfully providing services to their members, and a reputation for
championing agrarian reform. As such, they are unique among this report’s case studies in that
they emphasize their advocacy role above other typical roles of FOs such as technical
assistance, input provision, and market development.
It should be noted that in Indonesia, there are many FOs with different goals, including, for
example the National Outstanding Farmers Association (KTNA), which focuses more on
capacity building, technical assistance, and access to finance. Because this study is naturally
limited in its scope to only five case studies across the entire OIC, it is not possible to capture
the full range of farmer organization perspectives within one particular country. Thus, this
section is intended to capture only one specific view on major policy questions within
Indonesia, by focusing on the challenges and experiences of these two advocacy-focused FOs. It
is very likely that a country-specific analysis of the full range of FOs would uncover alternative
views regarding needs, goals, and agricultural policies.
The SPI is summarized below, followed by an analysis of its performance. The subsequent
section analyzes the KPA and concludes by considering the FOs’ own views on how the overall
Indonesian policy environment has affected their work.