Strategies for Strengthening Farmers’ Organizations in Sub-Saharan Africa

African farmers’ organizations (FOs) operate in a changing development landscape that presents new opportunities and challenges for the commercialization of smallholders’ products. For smallholder farmers, the new opportunities lie in the potential for them to maximize their gains in lucrative agricultural value chains. However, these prospects depend on their ability to identify emerging opportunities and to meet the greater competitive requirements. FOs have attempted to take on some of these requirements by serving as aggregation mechanisms for smallholders and as service providers for their members. Although in some instances they have made significant progress, there are still some major gaps and challenges. To strengthen the capacity of FOs, the Farmer Organization Support Centre in Africa (FOSCA) was recently established by Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF).

About FOSCA

FOSCA seeks to develop the managerial, organizational and technical capacity of FOs by linking them with service providers that focus on demand-driven and income-enhancing services. FOSCA is expected to contribute to AGRA’s overall vision of increasing smallholders’ incomes and livelihoods through effective FOs capable of delivering on the needs of their members. The contribution can come in the following ways: (i) identifying and engaging FOs in target countries, on emerging opportunities and challenges faced in selected agricultural commodity value chains, and identifying income-enhancing needs of their members; (ii) improving the supply of relevant services available to FOs to respond to their needs; (iii) linking FOs with service providers to enhance their capacity for effective service delivery for their members; and (iv) evaluating outcomes, documenting lessons and building the knowledge base on FOs that would promote learning and best practice.

 

Objectives of the event

The objectives of the event, organized by FOSCA, are to: engage and dialogue with participants, especially with FOs and other key stakeholders, on opportunities and challenges of working with FOs; strengthen their position in lucrative agricultural value chains; facilitate members’ access to better prices and incomes; and promote a more favourable environment for smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. The event will also share experiences and lessons about FOSCA’s  first year of operation, as well as its envisaged programming interventions and the expected impact of future operations.

Expected outcomes

• Enhanced knowledge about FOSCA
• Better understanding of the capacity challenges facing FOs in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Sharing of success stories and lessons from AGRA’s programmes with FOs
• Networking and dialogue with potential FOSCA partners for future collaboration
• Deeper insights about how FOSCA could better engage, collaborate and partner with FOs to  strengthen their capacity for a transformed smallholder agriculture

Agenda

16:30	Introduction of the participants
16:45	Presentations (Session Facilitator: Namanga Ngongi, President of Agra) Keynote address Fadel Ndiame (FOSCA): Presentation on FOSCA’s strategy implementation status and lessons learned so far Experiences and Lessons from Farmers’ Organizations across Africa I. Sunga (SACAU): SACAU experience of providing support to their members in Southern Africa J. Mutunga (KENFAP Kenya): Insights on experiences and effective strategies for providing economic services to smallholder farmers in Kenya
17:30	Questions and Answers
18:15	Conclusions Closing statements by Mercy Karanja (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) and Fadel Ndiame (FOSCA) summarizing the key issues emerging from the discussions and their implications for AGRA and FOSCA