Improving Institutional Capacity:
Strengthening Farmer Organizations in the OIC Member Countries
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4.2. Examples of Development Actors Working to Strengthen FOs, and
Their Strategies
A number of bilateral and multilateral institutions and agencies have championed the support
of FOs as a means to improve smallholder productivity and income. The World Bank, FAO, and
other organizations have, through program investment and policy support, highlighted the
importance of FOs to agricultural development. These agencies support FOs on a number of
levels, using a variety of strategies to enact change.
4.2.1. Overall strategies
Strengthening FOs requires a commitment to developing the capacity of members and
empowering leadership and management, while enabling them to maintain autonomy. But the
work is not done in a vacuum; it is imperative that an enabling environment be fostered in
order for FOs to meet registration requirements, welcome members of all genders and political
backgrounds, and offer voluntary membership that empowers smallholder farmers. By
understanding the institutional context and supporting conducive policies, agencies can
support the government buy-in for FO-strengthening efforts. While varying methods and
approaches have been adopted to strengthen FOs, some common, overarching strategies
emerge on close examination; they focus on developing (i) technical capacity, (ii) managerial
capacity, and (iii) political capacity of FOs.
Technical capacity. Approaches where farmer-to-farmer assistance or mentorship has been
offered is most common and promising. The resulting technical capacity includes best
practices on farming techniques, affordable access to inputs, and reliable supply. In some
cases, the seed and input industry has received specific focus, ensuring that smallholder
farmers in remote locations have timely and affordable access to seeds. In other cases, direct
funding was channelled to programs for national, regional and local FOs to build professional
and financial knowledge and adaptive research capacity, as well as the potential to transfer
research findings, technology and know-how to members. Such efforts constantly seek to
improve knowledge generation and dissemination, sometimes compiling these “best practices”
in print form for members’ easy access.
Agencies are also building these FOs’ technical capacity to get products to markets. Engaging in
policy dialogues in some countries, has helped ensure smallholder farmers are not negatively
affected by trade agreements. While this type of assistance generally takes the form of
advocacy by external agencies, in the future, internal capabilities will hopefully be developed
by FO management. An alternative example is the tack taken by the International Fund for
Agricultural Development (IFAD), which provides advisory services to FOs as they integrate
into value chains and generate, share, and capitalize on experience getting products to market.
Managerial capacity is also being developed for ensuring the cooperative to be able to
eventually function completely independently. Donor interventions and capacity building
initiatives have focused on the development of core competencies such as activity planning
and coordination, training, mentoring, and evaluation, with a view to enhance delivery of
planned objectives and accountability.
Common donor intervention strategies in both policy advocacy (working at a national or
regional level on behalf of FOs) and direct outreach (working directly with farmer
organizations at a lower level) are described and linked to the specific capacity challenges they
are meant to address in Table 19 .