Rural organisations

Much effort and development resources have been invested in building all kinds of rural organisations from agricultural cooperatives to water user groups up to community and village organisations. Despite the at best mixed success, nowadays most development thinkers see such organisations again as an essential foundation for rural poverty reduction, better livelihoods and more voice of rural people.

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Key documents:

Walking tightropes: supporting farmer organisationsfor market access November 2005 Author: E.Chirwa et al. (OverseasDevelopment Institute, ODI) Despite their mixed record in the past, Farmer Organisations (FOs) are being asked to play an increasing role in supporting commercial agricultural development among smallholder farmers in SubSaharan Africa. As NGOs, donors and governments encourage both scaling up and diversification of FOs’ activities and membership, this paper draws on research on FOs in Malawi to suggest principles for policy and practice in support to FOs. With limited resources and facing a very challenging environment those FOs generally need external support for start-up. However, getting the balance right between external and internal resources, between accountability and leadership, between flexible and effective structures, and between over- and under-ambition means that FOs and their supporters walk a difficult set of tightropes. External support needs to be skilled, sensitive, consistent and patient if FOs are not to be another development disappointment at the start of the 21st century