Engaging with farmers’ organizations for more effective smallholder development
This toolkit (PDF) by IFAD provides guidance on developing sustainable partnerships with farmers’ organizations (FOs) within IFAD projects that consider FOs as relevant partners and not simply as beneficiaries of IFAD-funded activities. In particular this toolkit aims to support those needing to address the following issues when engaging in partnerships with FOs: i) how to improve the identification of FOs in the geographic areas concerned; ii) how to improve the understanding of the strengths and challenges faced by FOs in delivering services to link their smallholder members to market opportunities and; iii) how to design the types of support needed to enhance sustainable development of FOs (e.g. type of activities, implementation arrangements, institutional set-ups). Given the complexity and diversity of both country contexts and FOs, the toolkit is not intended to be rigidly prescriptive. Rather, it provides an overview of the different approaches IFAD uses when building partnerships with FOs for the purposes of designing its strategies and programmes and implementing IFAD-supported projects. The toolkit consists of:
Teaser, which provides an overview of IFAD’s engagement with farmers’ organizations for more effective smallholder development, and the following parts:
How To Do Note: Engaging with farmers’ organizations for more effective smallholder development
And three specific modules on:
Module 1: How and when to conduct a mapping and profiling of farmers’ organizations
Module 2: How to support farmers’ organizations in designing their business plans
Module 3: Support to farmers’ organization business models