PROCEEDINGS OF THE SACAU FANRPAN WORKSHOP ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF A COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY FOR SACAU Windhoek, Namibia – July 2004 Workshop participants Workshop funded by FANRPAN would like to thank the speakers and participants to the workshop. This Workshop Report was Prepared by: Mabel N Hungwe and Coillard Hamusimbi Food Agriculture Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network 12th Floor, Social Security Centre Cnr Julius Nyerere Way and Sam Nujoma Avene P.O. Box Box CY2765, Causeway Harare Zimbabwe Tel :+263 4 792348 Fax :+263 4 792409 Email: policy@fanrpan.org Website: www.fanrpan.org 2 Policy Advocacy and Representation by Farmers’ Organizations Hotel Safari, Windhoek Namibia 19 – 20 July, 2004 D R A F T P R O G R A M M E Sunday July 18, 2004 09.00 – 18.00 Arrival of delegates 18.00 – 18.30 REGISTRATION Monday July 19, 2004 – DAY ONE Session I: 08.00 – 08.30 Registration Introductions Welcome Address From Host FANRPAN Node Overview on FANRPAN – Dr. Lindiwe Sibanda Overview on SACAU – Mr Roland Charles Workshop Objectives And Overview - Facilitator 10.30 – 10.45 Tea Break Session II: 10.45 – 13.00 Presentations by Farmer & Commodity Organisations 13.00 - 1400 Lunch Break Session III 14.00 –17.30 “Current Status of Farming Organizations in the region” Plenary Discussion 15.00 – 15.15 Tea Break Group Discussions : Advocacy Case Study Plenary Discussion ***** Tuesday 20 July 2004 – Day Two Session IV 08.00 – 12.00 Recap of Day One Development of a communications strategy - Communication objectives - Group Discussion : Communication Messages / Activities - Group Discussion : Building partnerships - Communication tool selection 10.30 – 10.45 Tea Break 12.00 – 13.00 Plenary Discussion 13.00 – 1400 Lunch Break 14.00 – 15.00 Way Forward Departures 3 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SACAU FANRPAN WORKSHOP ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF A COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY FOR SACAU This report gives a summary of proceedings of the workshop on “Strengthening Policy Analysis and Representation Capacity of Farmer Based Organizations in SADC” held on st nd the 21 and 22 of July, 2004 at Hotel Safari in Windhoek, Namibia. The report gives the workshop objectives; challenges and constraints affecting farmer based organizations in SADC; and recommendations on how to improve Farmer Organisations’ institutional capacity on policy formulation and analysis, and information dissemination. Background SACAU began in 1992 as a forum in the Southern African region. The regional organization was formed by farming unions. The key interests in the formation of SACAU were marketing and trade, regional development of the sub-continent, land settlement and environmental issues; security , law and order; labor, wages, conditions of employment and benefits; research, extension and training and organizational issues. The objectives of SACAU is to :  Strengthen the voice of agriculture in the region  Promote common understanding of approaches to matters of common concern  Facilitate Information sharing  Interact among SACAU members through a forum of discussion  Promote a common approach to relevant authorities on matters of concern  Strengthen national farmers organization  Cooperate to promote agriculture in southern Africa vis a vis the rest of the world  Develop and implement a regional/international market information system In implementing these objectives the key programmes SACAU has been focusing on:  Regional Communication – through linkages and interactions  SACAU ICT- website and database development  Capacity building projects – building capacity of unions  Marketing information development – development of a marketing information system Membership Membership of SACAU is open to all SADC countries but currently the participating countries are namely South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe. The members of SACAU in these countries are Zambia National Farmers Union, Zimbabwe 4 Farmers Union, Commercial Farmers Union (Zimbabwe), Namibia Agricultural Union, Namibia National Farmers Union (Namibia), National Farmers Union (RSA), and Agri South Africa (AgriSA). SACAU is a confederation of autonomous national farmers organizations in southern Africa cooperating for their common good. It aims to attain regional cooperation and understanding among stakeholders in the SADC region. The regional secretariat for SACAU is in Pretoria, South Africa. SACAU has provided smallholder farmers with stronger lobbying and negotiating skills with regional, international and national bodies and has also allowed a forum for national organisations to meet, receive information and exchange views. SACAU represents the starting point for improved institutional collaboration for development within the SADC region. The issue of capacity building farmer organizations has been on the agenda of SADC and NEPAD as well as other developmental organizations in the region. FANRPAN FANRPAN is a stakeholder driven policy network in the SADC region that works closely with public and private sector institutions in promoting policy research, analysis on key specific strategic themes affecting food security, agriculture and natural resources. Through its partnership with the Centre for Technical Cooperation, (CTA), in the area of information and communication management, FANRPAN has benefited in experience of newsletter production, policy brief series, creation of databases, capacity building programs and hosting stakeholder conferences. Out of the same FANRPAN/CTA partnership, a need to strengthen farmer based organisations (i.e. commodity associations, smallholder agribusinesses, and smallholder farmer organizations) in order to; (i) reinforce the understanding of regional and international trade; (ii) support the formation of national and regional agricultural trade fora; (iii) build a shared agricultural market information system; (iv) promote regional and international agricultural trade; and (v) develop a common approach towards trade liberalisation among these Farmer Organisations in SADC region has emerged. The Safari hotel workshop in Namibia is one such activity that stems from the afore- mentioned FO institutional capacity developments needs. The overall objective of the workshop was to assist strengthen policy analysis and representation capacity of farmer based organizations in SADC. As a result of these consultations, FANRPAN will initiate the strengthening of farmer based organizations at the regional level through working with already existing Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions (SACAU). Farming unions and commodity associations have had a long history in agricultural and policy development in most of the countries in the SADC region especially the settler colonies of Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Recently other countries such as Malawi have developed strong and effective commodity associations. As a result, smallholder farmers have seen the benefit of organization so as to benefit from the 5 membership in terms of access to services, goods, policy, research and development, markets and information. Most producer associations have failed as a result of lacking value to the membership. TheseMost producer associations lack the technical capacity to organize, advocate, analyse and coordinate activities. Today in most of the countries in the region, producer associations are expected to have the skills necessary to be of value to their members. FANRPAN has analysed the necessary skills required by farmer organizations at national and regional level and hence will endeavour to strengthen these institutions. The two day workshop attracted a total of twelve participants representing national farmer based organizations from Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Other participants included; two SACAU representatives, two FANRPAN board members and three secretariat staff. The workshop was facilitated by the lead consultant Mabel Hungwe who was assisted by Coillard Hamusimbi from Zambia. See Annex 1 for the participant details. FANRPAN – CTA – SACAU WORKSHOP The key objectives of the workshop were to:  Strengthen farmer based organisations at regional level including commodity associations;  Develop a common approach towards regional and international trade through a shared market information system;  Develop a framework for a communications strategy for SACAU, which may be utilized to improve stakeholder relations in the next three years;  Discuss various experiences of farmer organizations in the region with a view to improving the regional network;  Facilitate engagement and consultation of stakeholders on key issues affecting farmer based organizations;  Communicate the existence of SACAU in southern Africa as well as programmes and programming priorities; Workshop outcomes  A regional communication strategy for SACAU  Policy papers to enhance dialogue with national and regional policy makers  Improved capacity of farmer organisations to enter into dialogue with key stakeholders  Enhanced lobbying/advocacy skills DAY ONE – 19 July 2004 Agenda/Programme 6 The schedule below gives a summary of the workshop programme outlining major activities during the two days’ workshop. OPENING SESSION Introductions The workshop started with participants introducing themselves and their role in their farmer organizations, FANRPAN and SACAU network. Welcome address – Namibia Node Coordinator After self-introductions of all workshop participants, Mr Ben Fuller , FANRPAN Node Coordinator representing NEPRU, gave brief welcoming remarks highlighting the importance of institutional capacity building initiatives for farmer based organizations in the region. He reiterated the need for institutional capacity building as a means for establishing sustainability features of any agricultural development programmes and projects in the region, citing the Namibia’s Community Based Natural Resource Management Programme as one such successful project as a result of appropriate institutional capacity building efforts. He urged the workshop participants to take the proceedings seriously and to use their vast experience to contribute effectively in coming up with appropriate recommendations needed to strengthen policy analysis and representation capacity of farmer based organizations in SADC. Overview of FANRPAN - Dr Lindiwe Sibanda, Chief Executive Officer Dr Lindiwe Sibanda, the newly appointed Chief Executive Officer of FANRPAN introduced the newly elected FANRPAN Board Chairperson, Professor Haidari Amani. The Chief Executive then gave a presentation of the FANRPAN network (the full presentation is attached as an Annex). Dr Sibanda stressed that FANRPAN was not an organization but a regional network of national networks. Dr Sibanda gave an overview of the mission, background, composition of member countries, network structure and objectives of the network. She also highlighted the network’s thematic areas with emphasis on the research study processes; on-going programmes; challenges; and way forward/new vision for sustainability. FANRPAN sees the national nodes being involved in stakeholder dialogue and capacity building in areas of analysis and advocacy. Dr. Sibanda further poised the following challenges and urged the workshop participants to come up with recommendations on; (i) how FANRPAN could best assist in strengthening policy analysis and representation capacity of farmer based organizations in SADC? (ii) What relationship should exist between FANRPAN and SACAU? and (iii) What are the burning policy issues and how could FANRPAN assist and analyse these policy issues so that they are fed into farmer based organizations’ policy dialogue, and advocacy/lobby? 7 Address by SACAU – Mr Peter Rammutla, Vice President of SACAU SACAU Vice President, Mr Peter Rammutla gave an overview of his organisation and explained the importance of such a workshop to SACAU and its affiliates, and other farmer based organizations which are at the moment not members of SACAU. Apart from spelling aims and activities of SACAU, he also outlined challenges and constraints affecting farmer-based organizations in SADC as a consequences of globalisation and market liberalization. He cited lack of financial resources, weak institutional representation capacities and policy analysis skills as some of the major constraints currently affecting farmer based organizations in SADC. Vice President Peter Rammutla further highlighted the need for the farmers based organizations in SADC to be the custodians of food security, agricultural production and natural resource management. However, his challenges to the participants were on; (i) How Farmer Organisations could ensure that agriculture remained the engine of growth in SADC? (ii) How Farmer Organisations could effect farmers to produce quality and competitive products? (iii) The most practical ways and solutions to build capacity of the regional and national farmer based organizations? and (iv) How to ensure Farmer Organisations represented their members farmers effectively? (Full speech is attached as Annex). SACAU Vice President challenged FANRPAN to find practical ways of supporting a regional policy capacity building program especially on advocacy and policy analysis. He noted that the management and success of SACAU was a joint effort between farmer organisations and interested stakeholders. The following questions were discussed: (i) What was the common thrust for SACAU? (ii) Was SACAU membership open to commodity associations or other non national associations? (iii) How members could access more information on SACAU. SESSION TWO – PRESENTATION BY FARMER ORGANISATIONS Following presentations on the overview of FANRPAN and SACAU, Farmer Organisations (FO) representatives were given time to make brief presentations about their organizations. This was meant to allow participants to have some understanding of the prevailing operational environments, challenges/constraints, and development needs for different types of FO that were represented at the workshop. A total of seven FO representatives made presentations. This was followed by a presentation of the study results on FOs in SADC. The detailed presentations are attached as annexes. 8 Farmers Union of Malawi – Benito Eliasi, Chief Executive Officer Mr Benito Eliasi gave a background on his organization, Farmers Union of Malawi. FUM was the youngest member of SACAU as it had been formed in 2004. He noted that for the past 30 years in Malawi, the environment had not been conducive for farmer organizations. The farmer organizations that had existed had failed due to lack of focus, poor financial records, lack of organizational skills and inability to fund raise. As a result, commodity associations who saw the need for a national umbrella body to represent their needs formed FUM. The membership of FUM exceeds 400,000 farmers. The organization’s main areas of concern are in policy strategy development- currently guided by a constitution As the organization is in its infancy, FUM intends to use experiences from other established unions in the region to strengthen it. i. After the presentation, challenges discussed for the union were as follows (i) What is the structure of FUM? (ii)What is the relationship between FUM and NASFAM? (iii) How does NASFAM, a commodity association see itself cooperating with SACAU on a regional level? (iii) The criteria for membership at NASFAM (iv) How can we build farmers’ capacity from a subsistence level? NASFAM Presentation- Ms Betty Chinyamunyamu, NASCENT Director, NASFAM Mrs Chinyamunyamu gave NASFAM’s motto as “The future belongs to the organized!” NASFAM was described as a non-partisan NGO in Malawi. NASFAM develops and builds a commercially viable network of smallholder directed business associations that provide a consistently higher level of return for participating farmers. Its main emphasis was on ensuring that the smallholder farmer commercializes with little or no political interference. The Director explained that NASFAM had member representatives at national and international level whose role was to solve problems and improve policies, provide training and technical assistance, linkages, market research, auditing and financial services in order to maintain the financial integrity of members. The major traded commodities were: mixed crops, coffee, Birds Eye chillies, Spices and herbs, Cotton and Groundnuts For sustainability, the association has created two subsidiary companies to buy and sell produce from farmers and to conduct policy analysis, training and capacity building. The Association had managed to develop various methodologies for their clientele. The success of NASFAM had been on the development of its own policy platform to assess the key policy issues that affect members. The association had allowed dialogue at national policy symposium, panel discussions and radio presentations. The Director noted that this year, a first for Malawi, there will be a National Farmer Conference where the high ranking government officials were expected to officiate. 9 With limited policy research and analysis at times especially on issues that may need to be handled at regional and international level, this has been a challenge to the association. As a result, the association sees FANRPAN assisting in building its capacity. The challenges posed to NASFAM included: (i)Has NASFAM considered networking with Chillies & Herbs organisations in South Africa for trade purposes? (ii)What do you attribute your success to in Malawi?(iii) Why are traditional leaders not allowed to occupy offices and is this not undermining the value of the traditional system? (iv) What is the value of the business in horticulture exports for these smallholder farmers in the association? (v) How do you intend to formalize the relationship between NASFAM and FUM? Presentation by NAFU (South Africa) – Mr Bigman Maloa, Technical Advisor Mr. Maloa gave a synopsis of the National Association of Farmers Union (NAFU) of South Africa. Within the South African scenario, for NAFU, there are commercial “High flyers” who made up 1% of the farming community; the emerging Commercial farmers comprise 19% whilst subsistence farmers were 80%. The challenge for NAFU was to turn negative deficit food producers into commercial producers and this requires smallholders to be organised. NAFU had worked with the government on its campaigns to fight poverty and create work. Mr Maloa explained that NAFU had ensured that traditional leaders played a crucial facilitation role in the rural areas. The NAFU structure is a single federation with nine provincial based constituent affiliates. There are 27 local branches at district and municipality and amakhosi areas. NAFU was a paid up member of SACAU and supported NEPAD policies for African renaissance and allowing Africans to solve their own problems. Mr Maloa narrated the SACAU 2003 Victoria Falls resolution challenges where there was need to address on common issues among all farmers. There was need for a common thrust to promote interests of all farmers in the region. Another issue was on constitutional development among SACAU members namely the issue of governance and the technical expertise to: know, develop, manage, and exploit agricultural resources so as to have markets research, access, rewards, to ensure sustainability. Mr. Maloa challenged regional farming unions to be leaders not only in politics but in marketing, trade etc. The key to strengthen commodity groups was in building strong local commodity structures. Mr. Maloa was keen to know on; (i)How best farmers could have strong commodity structures focused at the local, district and national level? (ii) How the group could learn and replicate the NASFAM Malawi experience; (iii)How to ensure that the diverse farmers interests were included? (iv) How to ensure organised relevance through developing professional and technical capacity/ Competency Farmer leadership. 10 Mr Maloa challenged the network to ensure sustainable Funding Mechanism instead of continuing to rely on external funding and for farmers to adopt the principle, “User pays.” a. The discussion from the presentation raised the following: (i)Do small and large scale farmers have common interests?(ii)Is it possible to level the playing field? (iii)How can we ensure that farmers succeed in a partnership?(iv)FANRPAN had a role to train smallholder farmers to demand for services and enhance commercialization (v)How do we level the plain field? CFU Presentation – Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Henry Olivere The Chief Executive Officer of CFU (Commercial Farmers Union) in Zimbabwe gave a historical background of CFU. His organization was founded in 1942 and is one of three farmers union operating nationally in Zimbabwe. The organization has 71 association members with a system that is effectively governed by own and interlink constitution. There are five affiliated commodity associations that deal with issues directly affecting specific commodities of interest. Mr. Olivere explained that his organisation had lost a large membership base due to the land reform process in Zimbabwe. This had diminished their financial base. As a result, a new arm had been formed to cater for members no longer farming. This wing provides legal advise to farmers and also addresses farming opportunities for the membership beyond Zimbabwe. CFU had links with diverse organizations such as government ministries and many other relevant organisations with direct or indirect involvement in agriculture. On the role of the Union in SACAU, the Chief Executive explained that the CFU was a founder member of SACAU and a driver for its formation. CFU now saw SACAU as a more formal organization for exchange of information among farmer organizations. The union had benefited from this exchange of ideas with other unions in the region and there were mutual advantages in having a forum for exchanging pertinent issues affecting farming. The Chief Executive Officer noted that certain people tended to think that the Union was no longer relevant. He noted though that it was still relevant to the needs of the members. To take advantage of information technology, CFU has over 70% of its membership connected to email and internet. This has made communication easier and cheaper as the union is able to inform its constituency on various services at the touch of a button. . As one of the oldest unions in the region, the CFU extended a hand of assistance to the youngest member, Farmers Union of Malawi. Their slogan is “We once had a farm in Zimbabwe but we now have the technical know how to share with all across Africa.” 11 ZIMBABWE FARMERS UNION Presentation: Vice President Mr. Wilfanos Mashingaidze The Zimbabwe Farmers Union has a membership of 1,5 million farmers who reside in communal, small scale and large scale farming areas. Mr Mashingaidze noted that the ZFU had been cooperating well with the other two national farming unions as the other two unions have acted as mentors of the ZFU. ZFU has 57 district offices in the country. Of these, 32 are equipped with computers. There are also eight provincial offices and a national head office. The Union operates on the basis of a village, ward, district, provincial and national levels. The biggest challenge in such an operation is communication. The Union faces communication constraints as a result of limited finances to support activities; inadequate communication systems; failure to attract qualified staff; failure to maintain the qualified staff; poor databases; weak feedback systems for monitoring and evaluation and leadership and management priorities not always articulating the aspirations of farmers. Another constraint is the underdeveloped commodity associations who fail to give value to membership. On value, Mr. Mashingaidze said that his union carries out a needs assessment on various issues affecting farmers, which are then presented at various fora to the stakeholders. ZFU has managed to have most of the identified policy issues being considered after they have been formulated. The Union is teaming up with other key partners and stakeholders such as input suppliers so as to assist the membership. The Union’s vision is to see farmers benefit and able to access offshore loans facilities whilst competing and communicating globally and attaining government recognition and inclusion in key policy analysis, formulation and representation. ZFU needs capacity building programs for commodity associations to serve as vehicles for commercialisation. As one of the oldest unions in the region, ZFU was one of founding members of SACAU. Issues discussed after the presentation included: (i)How relevant are farming unions to the current needs of members? (ii)How do farming unions lobby, and influence policy? Is it possible? (iii)Do we need as individual countries one union? (iv)Where does the agenda for unions come from? (v)How so we as unions link up with our membership? (vi)What is the objective for having farming unions? (vii)How do we create a learning pocket within our organization – do we have space for incorporating other ideas/lessons? (viii)Small vs big – how can one union represent both? (ix)How do we communicate our strengths? (x)How can we be more effective? FACHIG – Mr. Mupetesi, President Farmers Association of Chiefs and Headman Group (FACHIG) is community based farmer organization that has been operating since 2002. FACHIG operates in four districts in Zimbabwe. 12 Mr. Mupetetsi explained that at FACHIG, individual farmers came together to form investment groups at Chief or Headman level. The organization, he noted, has worked closely with a local councilor and the Chief as a patron. The secretariat has professional staff who report to a board of trustees from the 24 agricultural associations of Chief and Headman groups. Mr. Mupetetsi informed the workshop that FACHIG was legally registered at village or ward level and could act as a microfinance organisation. With no appointed people in the board so as to give direct support to grass roots farmers, FACHIG has been able to develop a strong farmers base than new advocate for critical issues.As a small farmers organisation, FACHIG has not received support from government. In the organization, 65% of leadership are women with five of them being in the Board. Mr. Mupetetsi informed the meeting on how FACHIG had mainstreamed HIV/AIDS in its program and effected some mitigation measures to ensure that the communities could talk about the disease and protect themselves. The Director felt that the policy and legislative frameworks in Zimbabwe should recognize the need for new farmer groups that are rooted at grass-root level. He supported the notion of a paradigm shift in promoting self- managed grass-root farmer organisations. The workshop participants wanted to know how many national unions were in Zimbabwe. Dr. Sibanda commented on various issues concerning unions in general such as: the need as individual countries one union; How to link the union objectives to members and the national objectives? Ways to create a learning pocket; The issue of small farmer vs big farmer- can we have a union that can represent both. Professor Amani, the FANRPAN Board Chair commented that it may be necessary to think about networking whether geographic within or among countries. The role of networking must be strengthened so as to avoid competition among these unions. Lesotho presentation LEHOFA Mr Winston Nketshe Mr. Winston Nketsi, represented his association as the Vice Chairman of the Lesotho Horticultural Association . was formed in 2003. The association was formed in 2003 and emanated from the IDEAA (Initiative for Development and Equity in African Agriculture) program which was a regional initiative funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. IDEAA programme promoted the commercialization of smallholder associations along high value commodities. In Lesotho, the commodity that was promoted by the farmers was horticulture with a specific bias on potatoes both seed and ware. Mr. Nketsi explained that Lesotho was suitable for potato production due its climate and altitude. The objective of LEHOFA is to reduce poverty through commercialization of horticulture. The Vice Chairman explained that currently, there was no farmers union in Lesotho although different commodity associations such as dairy, poultry, horticulture, wool and mohair exist. 13 Mr. Nketsi explained that in Lesotho farmers had held discussions to form a national union. This had culminated in a task force representing members of commodity associations being formed. The chair of this task force is the LEHOFA President. The task force hopes to have formed a National Union by the end of 2004. As a result, Lesotho is not yet a member of SACAU but visions being one once the national union has been formed and legally registered. Mr. Nketsi felt that his country would benefit from being members of SACAU in terms of capacity building in the area of organizational development, policy advocacy and in governance and leadership issues. The workshop was most interested in knowing why there had not been a national farmers organization in Lesotho for all these years. Besides the general recognition of the need and importance of FOs in the region, there are a lot of challenges and constraints affecting these organizations’ effectiveness and relevance to their membership both at national and regional levels. Among the major constraints affecting FOs as perceived by their representatives include; i) Diminishing financial resources, rendering most FOs incapable of carrying out some core business activities such as research and effective information collection and dissemination. ii) Poor and/or lack of policy analysis skills and competence (limited technical expertise), resulting into insignificant advocacy and lobbying (representation) capacity iii) Poor and/or lack of ICT and skills needed for enhanced information collection and dissemination (i.e. improved communication strategies).FOs also lack up- to-date data bases for their membership. iv) Poor monitoring and evaluation of FOs programmes and activities v) Lack of visionary, enterprising, accountable and democratic leadership vi) Weak commodity based associations at national levels SESSION 111 – STATUS OF FARMING ORGANISATIONS Presentation on current status of Farming Organisations in the region Strengthening Policy Analysis – Colliard Hamusimbi and Ndambo waNdambo Study (review of FO status) Results Much in concert with the stakeholders perceptions, the study results on the status FOs in SADC exposed that, pertinent among the teething constraints affecting FOs in SADC are factors such as; i) lack of and/or inadequate financial resource forcing most FOs in the region (including SACAU) to depend mainly on the goodwill from donor agencies for their sustenance; 14 ii) weak institutional capacities (ineffective advocacy and poor policy analysis skills) to influence national and regional agricultural policies and trade practices; iii) high staff (skilled personnel) turns over due to FOs’ failure to retain them; iv) poor leadership and management skills among FO members; and v) poor membership drive due to FOs’ failure to demonstrate valuable membership benefits Institutional Development Needs Following the FOs and study results presentations, participants agreed upon some measures as development needs required for strengthening policy analysis and representation capacity of national and regional farmer based organizations in SADC. Both FOs’ presentations and study results emphasized the need for targeted capacity building (both technical and skills development) assistance for the existing FOs at both national and regional levels to enable FOs; i) operate sustainably and responsively to the current members and sector needs; improve institutional strategic planning and operations; ii) promote effective and quality service delivery; iii) conduct relevant research and information dissemination, so as to command effective lobbying and advocacy (influence) Further, both FOs’ presentations and study results expressed the need for FOs to access technical assistance in the areas of; i) institutional governance structures establishment and operationalization; ii) membership mobilization (awareness creation); iii) establishment of effective inter-organizational collaboration (regional and international alliances); and iv) financial resource mobilization FOs also need to train their members with a broad range of skills in; i) leadership to ensure effective administration, operation and representation; ii) advocacy and policy formulation/analysis to primarily stimulate, harmonize and rationalize public and private sector agricultural development efforts aimed at empowering the farming fraternity in the region; iii) agribusiness and entrepreneurship to improve agricultural productivity and profitability; and iv) ICT to improve communication and information dissemination amongst other skills and practices needs. Plenary Sessions Following FOs and study presentations on challenges/constraints and development needs, the immediate question which arose was whether, countries needed one national FO. On a more general note, participants agreed that it was better that each country allows different FOs as long as they remained united on common issues. SACAU on the other hand, emphasized that it would not make prescriptive decisions on who and how to 15 establish national FOs, but what was important was on the value of the representation of a given national FOs. Following the above consensual agreements among participants, the next issues which required their attention and thought was how SACAU could assist national FOs come together and see synergies that existed between them, without allowing farmers to compete against each other. This necessitated participants to work in groups. Participants worked in two groups to prioritise constraints affecting FOs and the respective developments needs required to alleviate the priority constraints. Subsections below give a summary of the group outputs presented during plenary sessions. a) Group 1 Outputs Group one addressed; (i) critical information needs; (ii) ways by which FOs could formalize relationships at national and regional levels; and (iii) critical services FOs should offer to members. Information Needs: critical information needs for all types of FOs at both national and regional levels include; (i) agricultural marketing and trade (e.g. inputs costs, suppliers, standards, logistics etc); (ii) financial management (interest rates, business plans, budgeting, record keeping etc); and membership profile and needs information (extension messages on production techniques) Formal relationships: need to strengthen grass-root commodity associations and assist establish national alliances (partnerships based on common desired goals) capable of self- sustaining and demonstrating membership benefits. National level alliances (FOs) should be the ones affiliating to SACAU as members. SACAU therefore should be in a position to generate relevant types of information to enable its members satisfy all its diverse constituents. To ensure good governance and corporate management, SACAU should also assist establish basic constitutional requirements and leadership ethical codes requisite any FOs to be and remain a member. Type of services that should be offered to members: the starting point should be making members able to appreciate the principle of user pay, i.e. to pay for any service they require (anything for free was viewed as unsustainable). With such a principle in place then FOs should be able to offer such services as transportation, marketing auditing and accounting services. FOs should also play critical role in establishing linkages with service providers and an up-to-date database of such services easily accessible by members. Targeted skills training was a vital service FOs should strive to offer. Group 2 Outputs: Group 2 addressed priority/key constraints affecting FOs and these included the following; i) Lack of relevant and responsive long-term institutional strategic plans resulting into diluted or not clearly defined institutional vision, values and mission statements; 16 ii) Poor leadership and institutional management. Many FOs operating under poorly crafted constitutions and lack constitutionalism; iii) Lack of human and financial resources required for sustainable FOs operations and; iv) Lack of suitable socio-political environment to tolerate formation and operationalization of interest groups like FOs. DAY TWO – 2O JULY 2004 Recap of day 1 The workshop revisited some of the issues that were left in the last session. The issue of whether to have one union or many and should commodity associations be allowed to be part of SACAU? There were mixed responses but generally the group felt that each country must craft unions that better served membership than be prescriptive. SACAU constitution currently required national unions and not commodity unions but commodity unions could still benefit from SACAU trade information and other services. Discussions were held on the need to discuss lobbying and advocacy and how this could be effected by the farmer organizations. Lobbying was seen to be a process of influencing policy formulation, decision for the benefit of interest groups. It was seen as an attempt to cause a decision on an immediate issue of concern. Advocacy consisted of organized efforts to establish and implement laws and policies that would create a just and equitable society. These efforts included civil action, lobbying, mass mobilization and negotiations. In most cases advocacy and lobbying were seen to be used interchangeably as they implied acting with interaction to cause change on some specific issues. Steps for lobbying and advocacy as agreed in workshop included: clarifying vision; analyzing political context and structural analysis; identifying problems/issues; defining priorities; setting objectives; conducting SWOT analysis; conducting power mapping; deciding on alternatives and activities; identifying appropriate media channels or communication tools; having media events to raise awareness; organizing collective actions; conducting public education; fundraising and having effective networks. SESSION IV – COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT Communications strategy -Presentation by Mabel Hungwe During the development of a communications strategy for FANRPAN, an interactive presentation on the importance of communications to various sectors, to SACAU and its network was used. SACAU presented its Information Communication Technology strategy. The strategy focused on the web as the most appropriate investment and facility to underpin SACAU work. SACAU felt that the web based information technology 17 system would be the one tool to facilitate trade and would assist in empowering its members with new skills. The tool would include an interactive system to generate content, business enquiries, agriculture directory, trade rules, news and events. It was noted that the success of this technology would be dependent on the membership input and output. On communication, the participants viewed it as a transaction that involved reciprocal exchanges of feelings, meanings, ideas and responses. It also involved people working together to create meaning by exchanging symbols. It was important in communication for people to share the same meaning through creation of understanding through the use of language. The key functional areas of communications included to:  create awareness  inform and disseminate knowledge  motivate or shift behaviour change  demonstrate or train An analysis of stakeholders and target audience was viewed as important in creating a level of understanding on how organizations such as SACAU or farmer organisations could communicate to farmers, unions, governments, policy makers, etc. The meeting felt that the best constructed information had no value unless it was used. The flow and exchange of information would help to create its value. The participants were provided with various colour cards. On each card they wrote the target audience for SACU whom they would like the regional Union to communicate with, the messages they would like communicated and the medium to be used when farmer organizations communicate to SACAU and SACAU with stakeholders. The following were the target audiences the network would like to communicate about SACAU with:  National governments (Agriculture, Commerce, Trade & Industry)  Farmer organizations  All farmers  Agricultural trade, Commodity/produce/buyers, Agribusiness organizations  Business persons  SACAU  National & International NGO’s, CBO,s  Input suppliers  Policy researchers  NEPAD  PAP/AU  SADC  Media 18  Banks  Donors  CTA / ACP Countries Medium/Tools identified at the workshop  Meetings  Seminars  AGM presentations, technical presentations,  Dialogues, conferences,  Field days  Fax,  Phone,  Memos,  Letters  Internet, website, email lists, email, ICT (received 15 suggestions)  Newsletters,  Pamphlets,  Newspapers, bulletins, written documents, briefs  Radio,  Talk shows  Networking, communication, appointment, verbal Types of Message  Loans availability at national and regional level  Update on farming efforts and opportunities within the region and international, highlighting areas of concern such as inhibitive legislature and trade  Support of Agriculture  Issues of quality standards  Benefits of organization for members  Members Needs Analysis  SACAU services  General information  Event announcements  Potential members-Value of joining network  Other FO’s- Possible of advising and ensuring SACAU role is strengthened  Member Assistance  Technical messages  Status of SACAU network, regional events, NARS, Complete Agricultural Database, Business Opportunities  Organized information  Internet services 19  Linkages between all FO’s  Business information opportunities  Trade facilities  Industry trends world wide- market  Impact of legislative framework  Contact details of potential partners and business opportunities  Opportunities for demand on products and value addition  Market opportunities, market information – crops, prices, quantity, quality  Membership database  Project document (restricted access to members)  Cooperation  Association/unions formed  Request to join  Membership information  Assistance for capacity building committee  Create enabling policy environment for agricultural trade  Policy formulation and analysis, Policy gaps/problems, Policy positions, Policy Impact on business, Agricultural Policy Information  Strategy Interventions  Available quality products  Current demand for various inputs  Quantity and quality of products available  News of events  Donors information  Best practices of representing farmers  Policy issues  Strategic Planning workshops PARTNERSHIP The workshop felt that it was important fro SACAU to have a partnership strategy as some of the efforts in rural development were best handled by committed organizations. It was important for the network to analyse potential organizations that could be strategic in establishing a partnership. The workshop felt that partners must be (i) enthusiastic about the network, (ii) have credibility, (iii) willing to provide resources (financial or skills). Some possible partners for the SACAU network and farmer organizations include: National Farmer Organization Partner Strategy SACAU Lobby for friendly farmer policies Agribusiness Processors Supply agreements to lesson risk Agri SA (or large scale farming unions) Mentorship on new farmers Universities & agriculture Develop agribusiness curriculum 20 Agro- Input Associations Development of Input Market Information Systems Ministry of Agriculture Awareness campaigns, resources sharing, cost sharing Commodity Buyers Contract farming, provision of inputs, credit Civil Society Lobbying for conducive policy environment, farmer mobilisation Cooperatives Contract sale of produce ( market) Donor funded projects Form partnerships to facilitate production and organisation Possible SACAU Partner Strategy CTA Access to information, advocacy skills NEPAD Lobby for relevant projects, Trade facilitation FANRPAN Policy and Trade research Promote national and regional dialogue Policy research and analysis Trade policy and networks SADC Free trade Policy involvement Sensitise Agricultural Ministers Trade harmonization inputs Development initiatives FAO, UN, IFAD Dissemination of general agricultural information Food security within the region Funding for specific regional and continental programs Government Policy dialogue ICT Service Providers Mainframe Hardware & Software to ensure backbone is secure & reliable International producer Groups Networking Agribusiness Organisations and networks Business partnership Trade facilitation in SADC Business opportunity market creation/ generation- product advice Country level Trade Group Trade Commodity exchange opportunities Trade Promotion Agencies in SADC To help with trade information To have cross links for business new opportunities SACU Imports and Exports Farmer Organisations Policy involvement Regional research institutions Agricultural Technology research, information sharing, collaboration Donors Financing 21 Monitoring and Evaluation The workshop agreed that any communications strategy would not be effective without implementing a monitoring and evaluation strategy. The program would ensure that the following questions were asked during each evaluation: (i)Is the communications strategy appropriate to the network? (ii)Is it pursuing the right goals? (iii) Are members participating effectively in the network?(iv) Are we targeting the right partners? (v) Are the communications objectives being pursued the right ones? (vi)Have the objectives been achieved?(vii) Are the communication tools really appropriate to the targeted audiences? (viii)What has been the impact? SESSION V -CLOSING SACAU -Mr. Roland Charles, Chief Executive Officer, SACAU. From the workshop, Mr. Charles confirmed that people were ready for a full time SACAU. Mr. Charles felt that it was very fortunate that SACAU had ended up with FAO and NEPAD collaboration. A full time SACAU was needed to meet the needs of its members in the region. SACAU had been fortunate to secure funds for programs and one of the main outputs would be on profiling membership. The Chief Executive Officer of SACAU said from the discussions at the workshop, he saw the need to operationalise the regional trade desk to provide more information- a resource that delivers issues from a farmers perspective. On trade policy issues, a trade policy network such as the set up of FANRPAN would be designed with the aim of working for the interest of the farmer organizations who remain the main customer for SACAU. The workshop had been important in helping SACAU realize the usefulness of a network. With limited resources, SACAU hopes to rely on partners such as FANRPAN to assist in making its work valuable to the key stakeholders. Way Forward- Prof Haidari Amani, Chaiperson of FANRPAN Board The Chairperson of the FANRPAN Board, Professor Amani felt that in terms of generating information and assisting in capacity of particular stakeholders, FANRPAN had a key role to play. Since communication was central to development of relationships, Professor Amani felt that it was vital to implement a communications strategy for SACAU and other farmer organizations in member countries. The FANRPAN secretariat was tasked to prepare a position paper that would be specific on areas of cooperation between SACAU & FANRPAN. This would form the basis upon which both organisations would generate a number of research and capacity building efforts. 22 Conclusion There workshop reiterated the need for stronger and democratic farmer organizations at national and regional level. It was felt that sustainability measures were key to survival of farmer organizations in the region and beyond and communications and information management was at the core of this. 23 FANRPAN WORKSHOP – Commercial Farmers Union Presentation Object of Workshop – To Discuss and Establish a Technical Assistance Programme for Farmers Organisations (and members) in the Areas of Policy Advocacy and the Representation Capacity of these Organisations. This will lead to the Development of an Information and Communications Strategy for SACAU. A presentation is requested on the CFU, its linkages with SACAU, and recommendations on how the CFU can be strengthened in the area of policy advocacy and representation. The Commercial Farmers Union CFU was founded in 1942 – it is one of three farmers unions operating in Zimbabwe It represents the views of its membership, mainly derived from the commercial farm sub- sector, to all stakeholders in agriculture in Zimbabwe and to the local and international interested parties. It has a pyramid structure, with 71 farmers associations formed from individual members at district level, with representation of the farmers associations of each province at regional level, and in turn the regions are represented on the Council of the Union which governs its activities at national level. Thus the information flows on issues affecting members and the resulting policies that are generated are two directional – from grass roots up to the Council and then back down to grass roots level through the chain of representatives. The system has been tried and tested over many years and is generally very effective. At present there are eight regions, each with a chairman sitting on Council. These are: Mashonaland Central, Mashonaland East, Mashonaland West North, Mashonaland West South, Manicaland, Masvingo, Midlands and Matabeleland. (See the attached organogram of Council and Associations.) The Union also has five affiliated Commodity Associations which are represented on its Council, and take part in the decision making process. Some, but not all, are structured along the lines of the Union itself. They deal with issues directly affecting specific commodities. Information flows and the resulting formulation of policies follows a similar pattern as that for the Union itself. Interaction between the different commodity associations at Council level and also between them and the Union ensures that ideas are exchanged in this forum and that any conflicts of interest are ironed out, and the best possible policies are drawn up and implemented to the benefit of members. The commodity associations are: a combined Crops association covering Oilseeds, cereals and grains, a Coffee association, Cotton association, Livestock association (incorporating cattle and poultry), and a Dairy association. 24 There is also a staff compliment headed up by the Director, which provides the secretariat for the Union. Since the onset of the land reform process in 2000 the Union has lost a large proportion of its prior membership. This has resulted in a diminished financial base, and the Union is currently in the second stage of restructuring its activities. As a result of the shift in its membership, the Union has introduced a new arm to cater for members who are no longer farming. This is called FIT, or Farmers in Touch, and it has taken a number of projects on board. FIT is primarily involved in the areas of providing legal advice for members and the seeking of compensation for members, as well as developing projects in the region and the rest of Africa. Currently it is looking at farming opportunities in Nigeria, Uganda and Tanzania. The Union has many and diverse links with organisations and persons that have a direct involvement in agriculture or have an interest in developments in the sector. As is well known the needs of farmers are widely ranging and cover a very broad spectrum of problems and issues that must be dealt with. Many of these directly relate to production on the farms while others have a more indirect application. In the public sector the CFU not only has links with Ministries and Parastatals that deal with agricultural and land policies but many others that have responsibilities like health, energy, manufacturing, and trade, to name a few. These links are also extended to a wide range of private sector organisations and companies that have a direct or indirect involvement in agriculture. The Union also maintains contacts with international organisations and the diplomatic community. Information exchanges have a direct bearing on the policies that are formulated and advocated by the Union. The CFU and SACAU The CFU is a founder member of SACAU and was the driving force behind its formation. The Union has been involved in its activities since inception. Initial representation was from RSA, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe More farmers unions from the countries that have more than one agricultural union have joined since the inauguration, so that these four countries are now well represented. What was initially an informal alliance and an annual get together for the exchange of information has developed into a more formal organisation with a recently established secretariat. A widening of activities is sought and membership of agricultural unions in SADC countries like Mozambique, Malawi, Losotho, and Botswana is envisaged for the near future, and set to spread to other countries in the region in the longer term. The CFU has greatly benefited from the exchange of ideas on how to deal with issues affecting agriculture at SACAU meetings in the past, and this is likely to continue. Many of the problems affecting agriculture in Zimbabwe are shared by other countries in the 25 region and there are mutual advantages in having a forum to discuss them. Here I believe SACAU can play an important role in facilitating these meetings. In the past the Union has played an integral role in analysing strategic themes, especially affecting food security, agriculture and natural resources within Zimbabwe and to a lesser degree southern Africa. Sadly, due to the Land Reform Programme where one sector has been seriously affected, certain people and institutions would deem the Union irrelevant. On the contrary, the Union is very much relevant and I foresee in the not too distant future all the Unions in the country getting together and discussing strategic issues of implementing Government and Regional policies on, for example, food security. Huge opportunities are already developing within the region and the rest of Africa and certainly in my view SACAU would play an important role. Perhaps a weakness of the system in the past has been that the discussions are an annual event and that more frequent contacts should be maintained. Information and Communications Strategy The capacity of the CFU to communicate with its members and all other contacts is advanced in the African context. Although there is room for improvement, the post and telephone services are effective and the main road network is reasonably good in Zimbabwe. The traditional means of communicating through verbal and written messages and documents, and attendance at meetings, are therefore maintained. A fortnightly publication that covers topical subjects is also disseminated to members The Union has taken advantage of the great advancement in electronic communications technology, and in 1995 established its own internet website, the address being www.cfu.co.zw and an email driven communications network with members and other individuals and organisations interested in receiving information. This aspect of communications has grown since inception as more and more members have acquired access to email, and it is estimated that currently roughly 70% of the membership have become users of this means of communication. Information of a more general nature is also dispatched to roughly 3000 individuals and organisations who are not members but have asked to be included in the address list. Access to the website by members, however, is much more limited as the quality of telephone services in some rural areas is poor. News items and matters of interest as well as information about the Union itself are posted on the website, and available to anyone in the world having the means to download information from the internet. An electronic agricultural information hub for the region has been initiated and is to be managed by SACAU. A link between this website and the CFU website can easily be implemented and this will also apply to other member unions. It is foreseen that this 26 development plus the availability of email will speed up the process of information exchange and the derivation of common policies for the benefit of all concerned. 27 President’s council President Vice President Two elected commodity councillors Two elected regional councillors REGIONAL AND COMMODITY CUNCIL President Vice President Commodity Councillors – Elected Chairmen of Commodity Associations Regional Councillors – Elected Chairmen of Regions 28 Strengthening Policy Analysis & Representation Capacity of Farmer Based Organizations in SADC Study Commissioned by The Food and Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) Draft Report ©June 2004 29 Table of Content Table of Content ............................................................................................................... 30 _Toc76106978 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 34 1. Background ........................................................................................................... 34 1.1. Study Purpose ................................................................................................... 36 1.2. Study Objectives ............................................................................................... 36 1.3. Study Methods/Scope of Work ......................................................................... 37 2. Challenges and Constraints Affecting FOs in SADC ............................................... 38 2.1. Types of Farmer Organizations in SADC ......................................................... 38 2.2. Challenges Affecting Farmer Organizations .................................................... 39 2.3. Constraints Affecting Farmer Organizations .................................................... 39 2.3.1. Financial Resources .................................................................................. 39 2.3.2. Lobby and Advocacy: Influence ............................................................... 40 2.3.3. Human Resources ..................................................................................... 40 2.3.4. Governance and Member Mobilization .................................................... 41 2.3.5. Farmer Organizations Development Needs .............................................. 42 2.4. FOs’ Technical Assistance Needs ......................................................................... 42 2.4.1. Organizational Structure Establishment and Governance ........................ 42 2.4.2. Membership Mobilization ......................................................................... 43 2.4.3. Establishment of Regional and International FOs Collaboration ............. 44 2.4.4. Financial Resource Mobilization .............................................................. 44 2.5. Skills Development/ Training Needs ................................................................ 45 2.5.1. Leadership skills Development Support ................................................... 45 2.5.2. Advocacy and Policy Analysis Support .................................................... 46 2.5.3. Agribusiness and Entrepreneurship Support ............................................. 46 2.5.4. Information Communication Technological Support ............................... 47 3. Conclusions and Recommendations ......................................................................... 48 3.1 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 48 3.2 Recommendation .................................................................................................... 48 Annexes............................................................................................................................. 50 30 Executive Summary 1) As development stakeholders respond to various impacts of the current whims and dictates of globalisation and trade liberalization on agricultural sector development, key questions have remained unanswered and as a result have kept resurfacing. The most frequent ones being; whether farmer organizations (FOs) are indeed an indispensable partner in agricultural development at national and regional levels; what detriment for instance, would farmers in the region suffer in the absence of FOs; is the farmers’ voice (representation) such a sought-after agricultural development ingredient to warranty national and regional development support focus; and/or do farmers (small-scale or commercial) indeed only require a farmer organization for their interests in agricultural and rural development to be adequately represented? 2) Past experience however, has shown that for any meaningful agricultural development to occur, farmers need strong organizations by farmers and for farmers to stimulate, harmonize and rationalize investments and development efforts aimed at developing the agricultural sector, be it at national or regional level. History has also come to attest, vibrant and focused FOs are key partners for agriculture and rural development, especially in regions like SADC, where majority of the population (about 80%) depend on agriculture for subsistence, employment and income. 3) Without vibrant and focused FOs, other organizations whether competent or not will try to champion farmer needs and influence agricultural development policies. As Rashid 1 Pertev correctly observed, “if there is one principal lesson farmers can draw from history, it is the following: that, when farmers are not strong, many sections of society are ready not only to tell the farmers what they should do, but even worse, to speak on their behalf”. 4) It is on this principle that improving FOs institutional governance, strategic planning and operations, in order to; (i) establish efficient quality service delivery; (ii) strengthen their capacities and means to conduct relevant research and extension for improved farmer productivity/profitability; (iii) ensure effective advocacy and policy analysis; and (iv) assist them develop appropriate ICT to improve communication and information dissemination, have been identified as the critical individual keys required to unlock the current challenges and constraints hampering agricultural development in SADC. 5) However, FOs are not only faced with the challenges of globalisation, liberalization and regional integration affecting agricultural and rural development. Instead they are also faced with critical constraints affecting their very institutional existence and hindering their capacities to competently stimulate, harmonize and rationalize agriculture and trade developments. 6) Pertinent among the teething constraints affecting FOs in SADC are factors such as; lack of and/or inadequate financial resource forcing most FOs in the region (including SACAU) to depend mainly on the goodwill from donor agencies for their sustenance; and weak institutional capacities to influence national and regional agricultural policies and trade practices (ineffective advocacy and poor policy analysis skills). 7) Other constraints affecting FOs include; high staff (skilled personnel) turns over due to FOs’ failure to retain them; poor leadership and management skills among FO members; and poor membership drive due to FOs’ failure to demonstrate valuable membership benefits. 1 The Role of farmers and Farmers’ Organizations; Mediterranean Committee of the International federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP), 1993 31 8) In view of such challenges and constraints, there is need for targeted capacity building (both technical and skills development) assistance for the existing FOs at both national and regional levels. Such kind of assistance would enable FOs to; operate sustainably and responsively to the current members and sector needs; improve institutional strategic planning and operations; promote effective and quality service delivery; conduct relevant research and information dissemination; command effective lobbying and advocacy (influence). 9) FOs require technical assistance in the areas of; (i) institutional governance structures establishment and operationalization; (ii) membership mobilization (awareness creation); (iii) establishment of effective inter-organizational collaboration (regional and international alliances); and (iv) financial resource mobilization 10) FOs also need to train their members with a broad range of skills in; (i) leadership to ensure effective administration, operation and representation; (ii) advocacy and policy formulation to primarily stimulate, harmonize and rationalize public and private sector agricultural development efforts aimed at empowering the farming fraternity in the region; (iii) agribusiness and entrepreneurship to improve agricultural productivity and profitability; and (iv) ICT to improve communication and information dissemination amongst skills and practices needs. 11) From the foregoing analysis it can reasonably perceptible that FOs role in agricultural and rural development in SADC cannot be easily substituted. However, the relevance such FOs to the members they represent can only be sustained if there is cognisance of the change in the operational environment, especially with respect to the challenges and constraints fuelled by globalisation and trade liberalization. For this reason, serious efforts should be made to try and enable FOs depart from their historical and traditional functionalities (lobbying and advocacy and Information provision), move towards creating sustainable business partnerships with the private sector for their sustenance and effective influence. 12) Leadership and good governance structures are also essential for the development of FOs with capacity to articulate the aspirations of farmers and thus taking the central role in driving forward agricultural development in the region. Constraints affecting existing FOs in SADC are many but challengeable, especially if FOs in the region unite through their regional body SACAU, particularly in the areas of market and trade facilitation and effective information sharing. With the foregoing analysis in context, the following recommendations are crucial for FANRPAN to take note of: 1) The role of FOs in agricultural development is indispensable. Thus, support to nurture these organisations and make them formidable representative organisations and custodians of farmers’ interests in the region should continuously and timely be provided, at least for sometime to come. 2) Both small and large-scale FOs require interventions in areas of policy advocacy (influence). Consequently, the need to increase their capacity in self governance matters and constitutionalism with a view for building sustainable leadership structures and other organisational functionalities is crucial. 3) FOs capacity to carry out well-researched position papers in relevant commodity sector industries should be strengthened. 32 4) There is need for increased participation of FOs in trade discussions and analysis so as to make well-informed decisions on both external and internal factors affecting agricultural development. FOs could achieve this role through the formation of agricultural trade fora (ATF) both at national and regional levels. At regional level, SACAU is appropriate to take up this functionality. 5) Partnership building and the need for farmers and agribusinesses to work together in a formalised manner should be the principal focus of every FO, if they are to sustain the provision and delivery of services to members. Alternatively, all players in the agricultural industry, i.e. farmers, processors, input suppliers, and those in the marketing and trade, should be coalesce to establish a consolidated position if their influence on agricultural development at national and regional levels is to be noteworthy. 6) SACAU as a regional FO should be provided with the capacity to take a leading role of being a information desk in market and trade matters and in the development of a workable and sustainable network to reach out the membership. 7) SACAU should also consider admission to membership commodity based FOs as they are well placed in terms business entrepreneurship and these could significantly contribute financially towards meeting the operational cost of the organisation thus improving its capacity to service the membership. 8) If there is any support service farmers, both large and small-scale require indispensably now than ever before, is in the area of; (i) market and trade; and (ii) input supply facilitation. Therefore, it is only prudent that all interventions should be directly or indirectly designed in such a way that they are tailored towards addressing these challenges. 9) While it has long been established that the core functions of FOs is; lobbying and advocacy; and information and communication, it is critical that FANRPAN considers support interventions in enhancing FOs’ capacity in; policy research; business development; institutional governance; and fostering partnership between the FOs and the private sector. 33 Introduction The purpose of this report is to highlight the current status of national farmers’ organizations (FOs) in SADC. Pursuant to the TOR provided this report outlines key challenges and constraints affecting the existing FOs, and identifies development needs essential for improved skills training, negotiations and agricultural pricing capacities, and access by FO members to marketing information. In conclusion, the report also gives some recommendations on necessary assistance for FOs’ development/capacity building needs. This report is the result of a consultation process with many farmers’ organisations and key agricultural development authorities and other stakeholders in the SADC region. 1. Background Agriculture remains the mainstay among majority of the SADC member states economies. As of 2003, it was estimated that up to 80% of the SADC population is 2 dependent on agriculture for subsistence, employment and income . In addition, agricultural exports are a major foreign exchange earner in most of these SADC states. Irrespective of its dominant economical role on the regional economy, agricultural growth has however, continued declining. Regional agricultural sector growth (currently estimated at 1.5% annually) is being constrained by a myriad of problems. Broadly, factors hampering agricultural development in the region include; (i) varying and poor micro and macro economic environments obtaining in SADC states; (ii) unfavourable climatic conditions (floods and/or droughts); (iii) political instabilities and civil strive in some SADC states; (iv) impacts of the HIV/AIDS pandemic; and (v) effects of globalisation and trade liberalization. Of much interest out of the above factors constraining regional agricultural development, are the attendant effects of globalisation and trade liberalization which could be argued to be the most vexing at the moment. Globalisation of world trade; consumer-led quality requirements; regional economic integration; and persistent poverty and hunger in many SADC states; are the new realities and challenges facing agriculture today. Issues of prominent concern in so far as globalisation and liberalization effects on agricultural development include; i) Distortions on international markets brought about by intervening measures such as high tariffs, non tariff barriers, domestic and export subsidies by developed countries. The net effect of this has been lack of access to the markets of the developed countries by some SADC member states; ii) Varying approaches to trade liberalization process by SADC member countries. For instance, SADC states are bound by World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments to phase out their tariffs faster than developed countries phase out their subsidies. This in many instances has resulted into constrained inter and intra-regional trade, especially for agricultural commodities; 2 See the 2003 Official SADC Trade, Industry and Investment Review 34 iii) Lack of anti-dumping legislation of agricultural products especially from developed countries at regional level; iv) Lack of intra-SADC trade and/or under developed domestic agricultural markets. Resultant of this has been the non-existence of a shared regional agricultural marketing information system, and a clear understanding of forces behind intra SADC trade imbalances. In order to address the afore-mentioned challenges and constraints affecting agricultural sector development in SADC, both increased government support and private sector participation is direly required. SADC member governments should provide support through strong and mutually consensual actions against unfair trading practices. On the other hand, there should also be deliberate national and regional efforts aimed at promoting private sector commitment for increased investments in primary agricultural production, agro-processing and trade. 3 There is also need for organized and focused FOs to indispensably play a more central role in fostering agricultural development and protecting farmers’ interests. In order to safeguard the important role of the agricultural sector in the region, farmers (both small and large scale) and agricultural business houses need strong FOs to stimulate, harmonize and rationalize public and private sector agricultural development efforts aimed at empowering the farming fraternity in the region. Active participation of FOs in agricultural development is very critical, given the current passive state of most FOs in the region, and more so that many SADC states are withdrawing support to agriculture. Notwithstanding repeated pronouncements by governments and donor agencies about the importance of popular participation, FOs in the region (especially those representing small-scale farmers) still generally have little voice in shaping national agricultural and rural development policies. FOs participation in stimulating, harmonizing and rationalizing national and agricultural development is hindered by constraining factors relating to their legitimacy, credibility and sustainability over time of such FOs. Besides the general recognition of the potential role FOs can play in fuelling agricultural development in the region, little is know if any about; (i) the current status of national and regional FOs; (ii) challenges and constraints affecting these FOs; and (iii) development needs and opportunities for FOs which may exist. Sadly to note however, that in other countries where FOs are relatively stronger, indications are that they have been viewed as opposition to Government as opposed to partners and conduits for agricultural development. It is on this premise that FANRPAN has decided to embark on this review exercise to establish the current status of FOs in the region and identify critical institutional development needs of these organizations. 3 A farmer organization is organisation made up of farmers and led by regularly elected leaders who are farmers as well. This definition distinguishes the FOs from other organisations (e.g. NGOs) working with or providing a service to farmers but is not owned by farmers. When one talks about FOs, one is talking about farmers. 35 1.1. Study Purpose FANRPAN is a stakeholder driven policy network in the SADC region that works closely with public and private sector institutions in promoting policy research, analysis on key specific strategic themes affecting food security, agriculture and natural resources. Through its partnership with CTA in the area of information and communication management, FANRPAN has benefited in experience of newsletter production, policy brief series, creation of databases, and hosting stakeholder conferences. Out of the same FANRPAN/CTA partnership, a need to strengthen farmer based organisations (i.e. commodity associations, smallholder agribusinesses, and smallholder farmer organizations) in order to; (i) reinforce the understanding of regional and international trade; (ii) support the formation of national and regional agricultural trade fora; (iii) build a shared agricultural market information system; (iv) promote regional and international agricultural trade; and (v) develop a common approach towards trade liberalisation among these FOs in SADC region has emerged. To realize the above-proposed FOs’ institutional capacity building initiatives, FANRPAN intends to operationalize the activities by working collaboratively with the existing Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions (SACAU). SACAU (formed in 1992 and whose secretariat based in Pretoria, South Africa) is a 4 regional farmer organization whose principal objects include; a) Fostering mutual cooperation among regional FOs in order to strengthen farmers’ representation and promoting the viability of agriculture; b) Providing FOs with a stronger lobbying and negotiating skills with regional, international and national bodies; and c) Provision of a forum for SADC member states’ national FOs to meet, receive information and exchange views. 5 Currently, SACAU has a total membership of seven (7) FOs drawn from Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is expected that soon Malawi through its newly formed Farmers Union of Malawi (FUM) will be admitted to membership of SACAU. To kick-start the proposed FOs’ institutional capacity building/strengthening initiatives, FANRPAN in collaboration with CTA has embarked on a review exercise on the current status of regional FOs, in order to; identify challenges and constraints faced by FOs; and come up with FOs’ capacity building/strengthening needs in the areas of training, negotiations, agricultural pricing and marketing information amongst others. The sub-sections below give the activity objectives and expected outputs in more detail. 1.2. Study Objectives 4 See Art. 2 of the SACAU Constitution 5 Art. 3 of the SACAU Constitution gives the requirements any regional FO needs to meet for it to be a Bona Fide SACAU member 36 6 As provide for in the Terms of Reference (TOR) for this activity, the overall objective of this study was to conduct a review exercise on the status of FOs in SADC in order to; i) Identify challenges and constraints faced by FOs in the region; ii) Recommend what is required in terms of training, negotiations, price and market information for FOs in the region; and iii) Train on policy advocacy by farming unions at the Namibia Workshop Day 2 Out of the outputs of the above outlined study objectives and the related activities, FANRPAN expects an overview report and policy paper on the current status of farming organizations in the region 1.3. Study Methods/Scope of Work To achieve the above stated objectives, the study involved among other things; i) Review of existing literature on FOs in the SADC region. Information sources for this study activity included; SACAU and other national FOs’ 7 key policy and project documents . ii) Key informant and stakeholder interviews involving national FO representatives from, Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa and Malawi (see appendices) 6 See annex for the Consultancy Contract and Terms of Reference 7 Key organizational and policy FO documents reviewed include; SACAU Constitution; 1998 SACAU View Points; The 2003 Farmers Union of Malawi Policy Document; SCC Conceptual Framework for the Development of Farmer Organization in Southern Africa; 37 2. Challenges and Constraints Affecting FOs in SADC Prior to assessing challenges and constraints affecting national and regional FOs in SADC, it is vital that we categorize and take inventory of existing FOs in the region. After categorizing and knowing the types of existing FOs, this chapter then assesses and outlines major challenges and constraints affecting FOs in the region. 2.1. Types of Farmer Organizations in SADC 8 Ishmael D. Sunga and Jack Raath in their review of FOs in Southern Africa identified three main categories of FOs namely; (i) General Interest Organizations; (ii) Commodity Organizations; and (iii) Cooperative Societies. General Interest Organizations operate at national and regional levels, focusing on issues pertaining to amongst others, economic and trade policies, land tenure, infrastructure, labour, and other crosscutting issues, which affect the well-being of the farmers and their enterprises. Primarily, General Interest Organizations (GIOs) are preoccupied with advocacy, lobbying and negotiations with other sector stakeholders for favourable agricultural production and operational environment. On the other hand, Commodity Organizations focus on issues concerning specific commodities’ production, processing and marketing requirements. The principal role and functions include facilitating; improved production (by assisting in the procurement of production inputs, equipment, appropriate production and processing technologies and skills); and coordinating markets and prices for the commodities. Thirdly, Cooperative Societies are by their very nature, agribusinesses created and owned by farmers. Principally, Cooperative Societies are involved in organizing the day-to-day carryings on of the farmers’ agribusiness ventures for increased incomes. In so far as SACAU membership admissibility is concerned, it is conclusive that most of the SACAU members at least for now happen to be General Interest Organizations. Implying that there is little evidence of FOs affiliated as Commodity or Cooperative societies to SACAU. 8 The Development of Farmer Organizations in Southern Africa: a proposal for SCC-ROSA conceptual framework, 2003 38 2.2. Challenges Affecting Farmer Organizations The afore-mentioned globalisation and liberalization effects on the agricultural sector at national, regional and international levels have brought about critical challenges on the survival of national and regional FOs, and also about the very essence (reasons and relevancy) for such FOs’ existence. Given the obtaining operational environment in so far as agricultural development is concerned, the major niggling challenges are about how national and regional FOs can manage to remain; i) Legitimate; ii) Credible and influential; iii) Sustainable; and iv) Relevant and responsive to the diverse members (both small-scale and commercial farmers) needs in the face of obtaining whims of globalisation and trade liberalization. The challenges above also brings into question as to whether the existing FOs’ in the region posses capabilities enough in the areas of; i) Governance; ii) Skills and practices training; iii) Human resources; iv) Lobby and advocacy skills and influence; v) Strategic alliances; and vi) Financial resources needed to competently stimulate, harmonize and rationalize public and private sector agricultural development efforts aimed at empowering the farming fraternity in the region? Given these challenges faced by FOs in the region, it is important that a thorough analysis of the constraints affecting these organizations especially in each of the areas of concern mentioned above is conducted. 2.3. Constraints Affecting Farmer Organizations As mentioned earlier, regional agricultural growth is affected by a myriad of problems (ranging from operational to production environment), and it is in response to such problems that most national FOs in the region have been founded and continue to exist. The extent to which these organizations influence the alleviation strategies of the identified and many other problems affecting the agricultural sector at national, regional, and international level varies greatly depending on a given FO’s institutional capabilities and/or strength. Indeed like any other institutions operating under the current socio-economic environment, FOs in the region face a number of constraining factors which hinder their institutional competence in stimulating, harmonizing and rationalizing agricultural and trade developments. Subsections below give an account of major constraints affecting national FOs in the region. 2.3.1. Financial Resources Lack of and/or inadequate financial resource has remained as the major constraining factor faced by almost all FOs in the region. FOs since by their nature, are voluntary 39 and non-profit making organizations, tend to lack adequate financial resources to undertake and sustain most of their prescribed traditional and additional roles and functions in the agricultural development arena. As such majority of the existing FOs depend mostly on membership subscriptions (which are normally inadequate due to the general reluctance by members to pay membership dues) for survival. This has resulted into many FOs with unsound financial base and certainly without means to perform most of their traditional roles and functions, much to the detriment of their members and the agricultural sector at large. Lack of adequate self-mobilized resources has also resulted into many FOs seeking external financial assistance. Besides such efforts seeing most FOs in SADC currently 9 receiving and sustaining their core operations (at more than 70% ) on donor/external financial assistance, this kind of institutional survival measure has with it, potential risks of diluting such recipient FOs’ legitimacy, credibility/influence and sustainability. It has been observed in many instances that external funding comes with it, some concealed motives and demands which in many instances has resulted into external influence on institutional policy and programming, quite away from the affected organizations’ principal goals and objectives. Withdrawal of such funding strategies also affects continued existence of such FOs. 2.3.2. Lobby and Advocacy: Influence Besides lobbying and advocacy being the principal traditional functions of all the existing FOs in the region, these organizations’ capacity to influence national and regional policies and trade practices has remained undesirably weak. This is as a result of the FOs’ inability in most cases to conduct relevant research needed to generate solid data and information needed for effective lobbying and advocacy. It seems for many FOs in the region that they lack scientific evidence on the apparent opportunities, challenges and conflicts between regional integration and uneven levels of agricultural production and trade efficiency among SADC member countries with which they can; make informed decisions; and lobby and/or advocate for better agricultural development policies and programmes in their respective countries. The underlying constraining factor again has been lack of financial resources to undertake such indispensably core ventures effectively. National FOs have also been unable to create strategic alliances for effective lobbying and advocacy at both national regional levels. In most SADC states, it has remained as common place to find not less than two national FOs, each operating to the exclusion of others, but all purporting to be representing/protecting the farmers’ interests. The net effect of this has been the inherent diminished national FOs’ influence at national level. 2.3.3. Human Resources Majority of FOs in the region have generally been unable to attract and retain higher caliber personnel due to limited financial resources. Besides the FOs’ requirements for highly specialized personnel, majority of these organizations fail to create and sustain such personnel structures. Conflicts of interests between the paid leadership 9 Ishmael D. Sunga et al 40 (secretariat staff) and voluntary leadership (elected farmer representatives) of a given FO, has been another factor behind high staff turnover in many FOs. For instance, the influence of the voluntary leadership on programming, resource allocation, and representation on certain platform has been source of such conflicts, which has led in some instances high staff turnover. 2.3.4. Governance and Member Mobilization Farmer organizations in SADC are also faced with leadership constraints especially in so far as leadership and management skills are concerned. Apart from Commodity Associations, General Interest Organizations and Cooperatives in many instances lack visionary leadership with adequate conceptual and analytical capacities, as well as skills, knowledge and experience needed for strategic institutional management and programming. Lack of such leadership skills is manifest in inadequate capacities by many organizations, especially general interest groups and cooperatives to generate adequate resources to sustain the operations of their organizations. On the other hand, lack of adequate appreciation of the importance and benefits of having strong and focused FOs for lobbying and advocacy at national and regional levels by majority of the farmers, especially small-scale farmers who happen to be the majority in the region, is another factor threatening the continued survival of FOs in many SADC states. For many small-scale farmers, addressing more general policy issues whose impact is not felt directly and immediately on their day-to-day production activities is obscure and not a compelling reason enough for them to organize and participate in a FO and later alone pay a meaningful membership fee. For majority of the small-scale farmers, they would rather remain only reactive to issues affecting their household food security and incomes, than joining a FO for that matter. It has also been observed that allocation of membership fees between the various structures of the FO has often been a bone of contention within farmer organizations. Furthermore, the determination of appropriate fee levels, the absence of updated data bases of members, the inability to demonstrate value for money has continued to affect negatively on FO membership mobilization. Ultimately, poor membership robs FOs of their much needed membership subscriptions and to some extent of a potential diversified membership pool from which a FO could elect and form a credible and skilled leadership. 41 3. Farmer Organizations Development Needs Having identified and analysed some of the challenges and constraints affecting farmer organizations’ operations and existence in the region, sections below look at organizational development needs of existing FOs in SADC needed to enable such organizations; operate sustainably and responsive to the current members (both small- scale and commercial farmers) and general agricultural sector needs; improve their institutional strategic planning and operations; promote effective and quality service delivery; conduct relevant research and information dissemination; command effective lobbying and advocacy. The identifying of organizational development needs is also meant to assist any future regional efforts aimed at orienting existing FOs to be in tune with SACAU’s current key developmental issues which include; strengthening the understanding of regional and international trade; supporting the formation of trade fora at regional level; building a shared market information system; promoting regional and international agricultural trade; and developing a common approach towards trade liberalisation in SADC. The identified organizational development needs are intertwined and could broadly be referred to as institutional capacity building needs. These needs fall within the general categories of skills training and development, and technical assistance. I begin by looking at farmer organizations’ technical assistance needs 3.1. FOs’ Technical Assistance Needs One of the keys to a successful agricultural and rural development strategy is having well-organised partners to work with. But effective partnerships are partnerships among equals. Without strong, representative farmer organisations, small-scale farmers are unequal players. Strengthening institutional capacity of farmer organisations is therefore the cornerstone of enhancing partnerships for reaching the rural poor and developing small-scale agriculture in the SADC where about 80% of the regional population depend on agriculture for subsistence, employment and income. Such can be achieved through targeted technical assistance. Currently, farmer organizations require technical assistance in the areas of; (i) Institutional governance structures establishment and operationalization; (ii) Membership mobilization (awareness creation); (iii) Establishment of inter- organizational collaboration (regional and international alliances); and (iv) Financial resource mobilization. 3.1.1. Organizational Structure Establishment and Governance Farmer organisations administrative and operational structures need to be strengthened so that they can be an effective force for self-help development. For farmer organizations to be in a position to influence agricultural and rural development policies in their respective countries there is need for farmer organisations, structured aptly in an effective and efficient administrative and operational manner, from grassroots, to national, regional and even international levels. 42 Technical support required in this area should include among other things, reassessment of existing FO administrative and operational structures to enable the establishment of more appropriate, effective and efficient FO administrative and operational structures. Steps towards achieving of such organizational establishment should include development of appropriate constitutions for FOs in the region as a basis for their corporate governance and institutional sustenance. To allow for the establishment of legitimate, responsive and sustainable national FOs, there is need for technical assistance to facilitate the development of constitutions among FOs which will embody and strive to institutionalise core issues relating to; i) democratic corporate governance, with such attributes like broader member participation, frequently and democratically elected leadership, defined governance and administrative powers, institutional transparency, accountability and discipline amongst others; ii) institutional key areas of business, functions and activities, services menu and channels of efficient service delivery for the various organizational members and its affiliates, and means of institutional survival; and iii) Effective and efficient administrative structures, aptly elaborating affiliates’ relationships (at national, regional and international levels) interse, and the FOs’ relationships with its general membership. Although the current constitutions of existing different FOs in the region contain provisions with part of or most of the governance and organizational structure issues, at varying degree levels of detail, there is need for review of such constitutions to make them more attuned to the current dictates. 3.1.2. Membership Mobilization There is also need to provide FOs with technical assistance aimed at membership mobilization and awareness creation. As mentioned earlier on, lack of adequate appreciation of the importance and benefits of having strong and focused FOs for lobbying and advocacy by majority of the farmers is threatening the continued existence of many small-scale farmers based organizations in the region. There is therefore need for technical assistance and awareness creation efforts aimed at; i) Demonstrating membership benefits and value associated with vibrant and sustainable FOs especially among small-scale farmers in the region; ii) Designing and establishing easy up to date data bases for members; and iii) Designing and establishment of appropriate and acceptable membership fee packages/allocation, and workable collection mechanisms; The support areas proposed above could also help in establishing elaborated and qualified membership structures, which in many FOs have remained with undistinguished membership structures. Currently, many FOs in the region are facing problems in apportioning membership status to various categories of their eligible 43 members. This in itself poses challenges when prioritising, programming, and packaging and delivering services to different mixes of an organization’s members. 3.1.3. Establishment of Regional and International FOs Collaboration In an increasingly global economy, and amidst the evolving regional integration efforts, there are many international and regional factors that affect the sustainability of the development process in agriculture, especially among small-scale farmers. Issues about, access to regional and international markets, safeguard measures against uncompetitive regional and international market behaviour (i.e. a more levelled playing field in international trade), remunerative agricultural prices amongst others, need to be taken into account, if regional agriculture especially among small-scale farmers is to develop. With such agricultural development needs in the region currently, there is a founded need for institutional capacity building assistance to enable farmer organizations in SADC; reinforce their understanding of regional and international agricultural trade dynamics; support the formation of regional agricultural trade fora; and build a shared agricultural marketing information system. This will be achieved by providing technical assistance and investment to enable existing farmer organizations foster strategic inter-organizational cooperation at both regional and international levels. For any regional alliance to succeed however, there is need for strong national organizations. Thus, any institutional capacity building aimed at achieving the above regional needs has to primarily begin with national farmers organizations. Intra-regional farmer organizations cooperation measures by the existing farmer organizations will greatly assist in tackling regional and international issues currently affecting agricultural development which individual national farmers’ organizations might not competently and influentially deal with single handed. Amalgamated FOs in the region could also manage to pool the much-needed resources required for the establishment of a shared agricultural marketing information system for instance. 3.1.4. Financial Resource Mobilization Before liberalisation of markets, governments of developing countries had a major role in directing agriculture, and farmers used to lobby them for better prices. Today, liberalization has made governments and farmers natural partners in development. In some cases, there has been a reversal of roles, with farmer organizations taking over some of the services that were previously provided by the State, e.g. marketing or extension work. Unfortunately, very few farmer organizations are able to take over these service provision roles due to limited financial resources. Currently, farmer organisations depend mainly on the goodwill from donor agencies for their sustenance due to lack of adequate self-generated financial resources. This makes farmer organisations in the region vulnerable, incompetent to carry out most of its functions and assume some new roles, and not always as strong as they should be. Farmer organizations therefore, need technical assistance to help them begin generating own financial resources and operating sustainably, e.g. bank lending could play a valuable role in assisting these organisations. 44 Investment in this kind of institutional capacity will not only strengthen the administrative and operational structures and means but, will also enable farmer organizations generate resources needed to run such services, and to assume other such responsibilities like those cited above. Furthermore, investment in building farmer organizations’ capacity to generate own-financial resources will also contribute to the promotion of democratic structures of governance. There is need for independent, self sustaining not-for-profit organizations for farmers by farmers. 3.2. Skills Development/ Training Needs Skills development/training capacity-building needs for farmer organisations in SADC are many and vary greatly depending on diverse membership needs. Farmers, especially small-scale farmers in General Interest Organizations and Cooperatives need to be trained with a broad range of skills in; (i) leadership to ensure effective administration, operation and representation; (ii) advocacy and policy formulation to primarily stimulate, harmonize and rationalize public and private sector agricultural development efforts aimed at empowering the farming fraternity in the region; (iii) agribusiness and entrepreneurship to improve agricultural productivity and profitability; and (iv) ICT to improve communication and information dissemination amongst skills and practices needs. Farmers need skills such as the ones above for them to make a successful career in agriculture by choice, rather than because there are no other options. It is therefore imperative that development efforts should focus more on people and their organizations, i.e. strengthening farmer skills and institutional competence. 3.2.1. Leadership skills Development Support To ensure effective administration, operation and representation among farmer organizations in the region, there is need for leadership skills training. For the FOs to be able to articulate themselves effectively under the current operational environment vibrant and visionary leadership is indispensable, therefore the need for providing skills development packages for the FOs leadership cannot be over emphasised. Leadership among most FOs is not democratically enshrined and stable. Vividly observed is the absence of defined relationship between the paid leadership (secretariat) and the voluntary leadership (elected leaders) and often has brought a lot wrangles in management of the FOs. This simply goes to underline absence of constitutionalism among the FOs, which demands for having a constitution which promotes democratic doctrines, well defined governance structures and respect for the constitution provisions as having the force of law, which every member is bound by it. For instance, one such FO, which was found to have such leadership crisis, was the 10 ORTAFA , where the members of the secretariat were also part of the elected leadership. In addition, there were three distinct boards of Directors claiming to have power over the Association and three factions had for more than three five times not agreed on the dates for the meeting where they were expected to resolve the impasse. Further the financial management of the organisation was being done to the exclusively the elected leadership. 10 Oliver Tambo Farmers’ Association - RSA 45 To circumfuse the pitfalls in terms of the relationship between the paid leadership and 11 elected leadership, the ZNFU as part of its 2004 program activities, was subjected it Board of Directors for training. 12 In the ZFU , elections have been delayed for nearly twelve months because of constitutional issues which were being worked on. During the discussion with some of the members and staff, it apparent there apprehension with the organisation that democratic principles were not well entrenched. It is sadly to note some FOs despite advocating presentation and unity, they seem to not to prescribe to principles of democratic governance and therefore it clear that intervention in leadership and democratic principles should be sought. 3.2.2. Advocacy and Policy Analysis Support To primarily stimulate, harmonize and rationalize public and private sector agricultural development efforts aimed at empowering the farming fraternity in the region, policy influence, which is preceded by well-researched position papers on various commodity sector industries, is a must for FOs. Lobbying and advocacy is one the core functions of FOs and underlines the traditional foundations of most of the FOs in world today. For any FO to be effective in lobbying and advocacy and continue being relevant and seen to protect the interest of its members, there is need for a strong policy analysis power engine within the structures of the organisation. In most FOs in the region, this has been one of the teething problems in that most of the FOs lack capacity to carry out analyses in various sector commodity industries and come up with position papers that answer most of the frequently asked questions by 13 members. For instance, the newly formed FUM has not no staff responsible to carryout out policy research and develop commodity sector position papers for its membership which is largely commodity constituted. The ZNFU with a membership of over 25,000, had only one staff in the Policy Research and Business Development unit certainly the output was far short the demand of service from members. With trade issues increasingly becoming important at, (1) international fora (WTO), continental (NEPAD) and regional economic groupings (COMESA, SADC, etc) this particular pillar in FOs should be enhanced so as to arm it with the necessary capacity to efficiently service its farmers. 3.2.3. Agribusiness and Entrepreneurship Support To improve agricultural productivity and profitability partnership between the agribusinesses and farmers should be fostered. The reluctance of central governments to provide adequate extension services to farmers has left farmers with no choice but to carry out the task themselves. Therefore the only sustainable and sure way of this undertaking succeeding is through strong partnership between (1) large scale and small-scale farmers, and (2) agribusinesses and farmers of whatever level through the concept of contract farming. However, to a lesser extent partnership is still also relevant between government agencies and the private sector in this case the 11 Zambia National Farmers’ Union - Zambia 12 Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union - Zimbabwe 13 Farmers Union of Malawi - Malawi 46 agribusinesses to collaborate and work together in the provision of improved skills agricultural production. However, of significance in this area is the re-orienting of the FOs on how best to be financially independent, thus a new thinking should be evolved among FOs to generate revenue from other than the traditional sources which include membership fees, donations, grants, etc. While it is appreciated that by their nature the FOs, at least in most Common law country are incorporated in such a way that it is intelligibly hard to ever contemplate that they could venture into commercial activities so as to generate revenue. However, through partnership with agribusinesses and the creation of s strong link with commodity associations, could be the best way out of the financial disabilities of FOs. Intervention therefore is sought on how best they be done. As observed during the study, some FOs such the ZNFU have already commenced on such initiatives of partnering with the private sector to provide commercial services to farmers with a subordinate view of revenue generation. 3.2.4. Information Communication Technological Support Apart from lobbying and advocacy, information and communication to members is yet another functionalities that pre-occupies the FOs and thus to improve communication and information dissemination as one of the skills packages to FOs is vital. The important of information in any organisation set up cannot be over- emphasised. The global economic trends call for farmers to have access to information and be weary of what is happening around them if they are not make informed decisions in the farming businesses. There is certainly need to have among the FOs both at national level and regional a focal point from which relevant information is generated and packaged for the membership. This entails that SACAU should position itself as an Information and Trade Desk, such as operationalization of a dynamic website which would allow individual NFOs to provide input to the website and also access information for the farmers at country level. Thus any intervention in the area of ICT should be two fronts, one at regional level (SACAU) and the other at NFOs. 47 4. Conclusions and Recommendations 3.1 Conclusion In conclusions, and in light of the foregoing it has come apparent that the role of FOs cannot be easily substituted, however their relevance to the members they represent can only be sustained if there is cognisance of the change in the operational environment and therefore serious efforts should be made to try and depart from the only historical and traditional way of the FOs functionalities (lobbying and advocacy and Information provision) to creation of business partnership with the private sector. Leadership and good governance structures are essential for the development of FOs with capacity to articulate the aspirations of farmers and thus taking the central role in driving agricultural development in the region forward. The constraints facing FOs are many but challengeable if only FOs in the region unite through their regional body SACAU, particularly in the areas of market and trade facilitation and information sharing. 3.2 Recommendation 1. The role of FOs in agricultural development cannot be substituted thus support should be continuous provided for sometime in order to nurture these organisation and make them formidable representative organisations and custodians of farmers interests in the region. 2. FOs both small and large require interventions in the area of policy advocacy and influence thus the need to increase their capacity in self governance matters and constitutionalism with a view for building sustainable leadership structures and other organisational functionalities is crucial. 3. FOs capacity to carry out well-researched position papers in relevant commodity sector industries should be strengthened. 4. There is need for increased participation of FOs in trade discussions so as to make well informed on external factors affecting their agricultural development. This could be achieved through the formation of agricultural trade for a both at national and regional levels. At regional, SACAU is appropriate to take up this functionality. 5. Partnership building and the need for the farmers and agribusinesses to work together in a formalised manner should be the focus of every FO for the sustained provision and delivery of services to members. In other words, all the players in the agricultural industry, which includes farmers, processors and input suppliers and those in the marketing and trade should be coarsened to have a consolidated position if their influence is to be significant. 6. SACAU, should be provided the capacity and take a leading role of being a information desk in market and trade matters and in the development of a workable and sustainable network to reach out the membership. 48 7. SACAU should consider admission to membership FOs which are commodity based in nature provided they posses as a national character as they are well placed in terms business entrepreneurship and these could significantly contribute financially towards meeting the operational cost of the organisation thus improving its capacity to service the membership. 8. If there is a support service a farmer both large and small requires now more than ever before, is in the area of (1) market and trade and, (2) input supply. Therefore it is only prudent that all interventions should be directly or indirectly designed in such a way that they are addressing these core challenges. 9. It is long established that the core functions of FOs is (1) lobbying and advocacy and, (2) Information and Communication, however, FANRPAN should consider support interventions in enhancing FOs’ capacity in policy research and business development, Structural Governance and fostering partnership between the FOs and the private sector. 49 Annexes Case Study: Zambia National Farmers’ Union (ZNFU) Under Construction 50 Terms of Reference 51 Organisation Contacted i) Farmers Union of Malawi ii) OR Tambo Farmers’ Association -SA iii) Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union iv) Zambia National Farmers’ Union v) National African Farmers’ Union -SA Literature visited See footnotes. 52 COMMUNICATION TOOL BOX LOW-COST COMMUNICATION TOOLS (UP TO USD1 000 per activity) TOOL LEVEL OF COST EXPERTISE REQUIRED Community outreach events LOW LOW e-mail LOW LOW Fax bulletins LOW LOW Flyers LOW LOW Letters LOW LOW Lunch/dinner meetings LOW LOW Meetings LOW LOW Memos LOW LOW Memos – email/fax LOW LOW One-on-one visits LOW LOW Teleconference calls LOW LOW Brochures MEDIUM LOW Conferences – participation & MEDIUM LOW organizing Consultation – group MEDIUM LOW Consultation – one-on-one MEDIUM LOW Consultation with Traditional leaders MEDIUM LOW Guest speaker opportunities MEDIUM LOW Human interest stories MEDIUM LOW i-mailers MEDIUM LOW Internet website MEDIUM LOW Intranet website MEDIUM LOW Issue contact sessions (telephonic) MEDIUM LOW Magazines for Agriculture MEDIUM LOW Take part in Farmer Association MEDIUM LOW meetings Take part in Farmer Meetings MEDIUM LOW Features HIGH LOW Media releases HIGH LOW Opinion pieces HIGH LOW Papers HIGH LOW Radio interviews HIGH LOW Reports HIGH LOW Television interviews HIGH LOW Trade journals HIGH LOW 53 MEDIUM-COST COMMUNICATION TOOLS (UP TO USD2 500 per activity) TOOL LEVEL OF COST EXPERTISE REQUIRED Project site visits LOW MEDIUM Awards MEDIUM MEDIUM Competitions MEDIUM MEDIUM Co-promotions MEDIUM MEDIUM Exhibitions – participants MEDIUM MEDIUM Fact-sheets MEDIUM MEDIUM Help-line MEDIUM MEDIUM Mailshots MEDIUM MEDIUM Theatre MEDIUM MEDIUM-HIGH Newsletters-external MEDIUM MEDIUM Newsletters-internal MEDIUM MEDIUM Newspapers-local MEDIUM MEDIUM Newspapers-national MEDIUM MEDIUM Pamphlets – z-fold MEDIUM MEDIUM Postcards MEDIUM MEDIUM Posters MEDIUM MEDIUM School essay competition MEDIUM MEDIUM Stakeholder visits to sites MEDIUM MEDIUM Stakeholder workshops MEDIUM MEDIUM Stickers MEDIUM MEDIUM Agriculture theatre HIGH MEDIUM CD Rom HIGH MEDIUM Media partnerships HIGH MEDIUM Opinion polls HIGH MEDIUM Press conferences HIGH MEDIUM Radio programmes HIGH MEDIUM Supplements/Surveys HIGH MEDIUM 54 HIGH-COST COMMUNICATION TOOLS (UP TO USD3 500 per activity) TOOL LEVEL OF COST EXPERTISE REQUIRED Celebratory events MEDIUM HIGH Conference – organizing MEDIUM HIGH Project site launch events MEDIUM HIGH Promotional items MEDIUM HIGH Roadshows to Legislatures MEDIUM HIGH Training opportunities MEDIUM HIGH Workshops MEDIUM HIGH Youth camps MEDIUM HIGH Advertising – Outdoor HIGH HIGH Advertising – Print HIGH HIGH Advertising – Radio HIGH HIGH Advertising – TV HIGH HIGH Annual report HIGH HIGH Business Television Broadcast HIGH HIGH Corporate video HIGH HIGH Demonstration material/models HIGH HIGH Documentary HIGH HIGH Exhibitions – organizers HIGH HIGH Gala/Fundraiser events HIGH HIGH Monitoring tools for media HIGH HIGH Monitoring tools for policy & HIGH HIGH legislation 55 56 LIST OF PARTICIPANTS Name Title Agency/IOrg ADDRESS Phone/Fax Email LESOTHO Lesotho Horticultural Lesotho Agricultural College, Mr Nketsi Vice President Association P. Bag A18, Lesotho 266 58866416 nm.sehalahala@nul.ls MALAWI P.O. Box 1947, Lilongwe, 265 1 771780 Mr Benito Odala Eliasi Executive Director FUM Malawi /8828474 cmakandawire@eomw.net P.O. Box 30716, Lilongwe 3, Mrs Leslie Holst Development Advisor NASFAM Malawi 265 1 770858 bdu@nasfam.malawi.net P.O. Box 30716, Lilongwe 3, T - 265 1 772866 Mrs Betty Chinyamunyamu NASCENT Director NASFAM Malawi F - 265 1 770858 bdu@nasfam.malawi.net NAMIBIA FANRPAN Node Box 4010, Russpanplatz, Dr Ben Fuller Coordinator NEPRU Winhoek, Namibiai T - 264 61 277500 benf@nepru.org.na SOUTH AFRICA P.O. Box 9624, Centurion 0046, Mr M. Maloa Technical Advisor NAFU South Africa 27126729308 bmaloa@absamail.co.za TANZANIA 51 Uporoto Street, Ursino Professor Haidari Amani Node Coordinator FANRPAN Tanzania Node Estates, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania 255 222 760260 amani@esrf.or.tz ZIMBABWE P.O. Box 3755, Harare, Mr Mashingaidze Vice President Zimbabwe Farmers Union Zimbabwe 263 251861 zfuhq@africaonline.co.zw Mr P. Chingwaru Information Officer Zimbabwe Farmers Union P.O. Box 3755, Harare 263 251861 zfuhq@africaonline.co.zw 57 Mr Henry Olivere President Commercial Farmers Union Commercial Union Building, Cnr 263 4 309800 dir@cfu.co.zw Adilyn & Marlborough Drive, Marlborough - Harare Mr T. Amtetsi President FACHIG P.O. Box Bindura, Zimbabwe 263 91 234 471 fachig@africaonline.co.zw SACAU P.O. Box 1709 Pretoria 0001, Dr P. Rammulta Vice President SACAU RSA 27123226980 sacau@agriinfo.co.za P.O. Box 1709 Pretoria 0001, Mr Roland Charles Chief Executive Officer SACU RSA 27123226980 sacau@agriinfo.co.za CONSULTANTS 42 Mount Pleasant Dr, Harare, Mrs Mabel Hungwe Project Consultant W.K. Kellogg National Office Zimbabwe 263 4 745461 mnhungwe@mweb.co.zw FANRPAN SECRETARIAT 12th Floor Social Security T - 263 4 792348 Dr Lindiwe Sibanda Chief Executive Officer FANRPAN Centre, J.Nyerere Ave, Harare F - 263 4 792411 lsibanda@fanrpan.org 12th Floor Social Security T - 263 4 792348 Caroline Zinyemba Administrator FANRPAN Centre, J.Nyerere Ave, Harare F - 263 4 792411 czinyemba@fanrpan.org 12th Floor Social Security T - 263 4 792348 Catherine Rutivi Programme Officer FANRPAN Centre, J.Nyerere Ave, Harare F - 263 4 792411 crutivi@fanrpan.org 12th Floor Social Security T - 263 4 792348 Chiedza Muchopa Programme Manager FANRPAN Centre, J.Nyerere Ave, Harare F - 263 4 792411 cmuchopa@fanrpan.org 58