The presentation looked at two key drivers for the development of institutional structures that can support or obstruct the growth of inclusive and economically viable FBOs: organizational governance and state policy.

New evidence was presented from a long-term research project on agricultural cooperatives in Uganda’s coffee sector, in addition to data from other sub-Saharan African countries.

The talk concluded with recommendations for the analysis of governance structures and state policy to help identify context and sector specific weaknesses and develop effective interventions to strengthen an enabling environment, at meso and macro levels, for FBO development and growth.

Farmer based organisation — critical for rural transformation

In view of the increasing globalization and commercialization of agriculture and the urgent need for rural transformation, FBOs such as farmer associations and cooperatives, producer and marketing groups are rapidly gaining importance. The main reason being that small agricultural holdings lack assets and economies of scale to meet changing market requirements in terms of delivery volumes, supply reliability as well as quality demands and consistency. Smallholders are disadvantaged regarding access to financial services, appropriate and new technologies as well as remunerative markets.

In the capacity development strategies of German development cooperation, organizational development plays a key role alongside human resources capacity development, network development and the promotion of improved framework conditions. In this logic, various GIZ programmes and recently the special initiative One World – No Hunger set priorities for structural transformation, entrepreneurship development and innovation for increasing rural incomes, reducing poverty, improving resilience as well as assuring food and nutritional security.

Who gave the lecture?

Karin Wedig, Assistant Professor of Development Economics, at the University of Denver.

More information

Download the report Guest Lecture Documentation with Slides or
kindly contact katharina.schlemper@giz.de, +49 228 4460-3976

Organisers

Sector Project Agricultural Trade and Value Chains in GIZ Division G500 – Rural Development, Agriculture. Heike Höffler and Katharina Schlemper.