Abdelhamid Abdouli reports on the theme of Territorial Development and describes the EU LEADER programme as an interesting initiative for private-public partnership for local development within the European context. LEADER investment projects are participatory in design and cost, and competitive in relation to resource mobilisation. NEN countries that have already signed or are in the process of signing their association or partnership agreement with the European Union could learn from this programme, especially in the area of agro-industry and market linkages.

The field visit to the Grosseto Fruit and Vegetable Cooperative was quite informative, particularly with regards to product traceability down to the producer/farmer level. Contractual farming in IFAD recipient countries usually stops at linking exporters/processors to the farmers associations. The product’s origin remains unknown. Moreover, field observation and discussions with the cooperative President confirmed value-adding is maximised when improvements take place at all stages of the chain.

Abdelhamid shared his thoughts on the Rural Finance theme and describes the presentation given by Omer Zafar and Thierry Mahieux to have confirmed once again the urgent need to innovate, test and scale up rural micro finance initiatives in the NENA region. Several lessons learned from within the region and outside could be the basis for a strong promotion of rural microfinance.