The FAO organized a regional workshop on strengthening national capacities of producer organizations (POs) in the Near East and North Africa (NENA) Region in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture in Lebanon on October 30 and 31.
The regional project aims to support the strengthening of POs through inclusive policies and programmes that reflect the needs of small-scale family farmers and contribute to their empowerment. It focuses on three countries in the NENA; Lebanon, Oman and Sudan with the objective to provide a basis for the formulation of a programme and national plans of action for developing capacities to strengthen POs and to improve their performance and their linkages with markets. The project is implemented under the umbrella of the RNE Regional Initiative on Small-scale Family Farming, within the framework of Strategic Programme 3 “Reducing Rural Poverty”.
The workshop was attended by a number of producer organizations and cooperatives and representatives from government and international agencies. Speaking at the opening, Mr. Alfredo Impiglia, Delivery Manager of the Small-scale Family Farming Initiative in the NENA Region said, “Producers’ organizations and cooperatives have a history of alleviating poverty. The cooperative model has proved to be resilient in times of crisis. This is because cooperatives can provide employment opportunities, security, protection, voice and representation when effectively organized and sufficiently empowered.”
The workshop provided the International Cooperative Alliance Asia-Pacific the opportunity to know more about POs and co-operatives in the region. Similar to the rest of Asia, agriculture is still the mainstay livelihood of people and there is need to update laws, facilitate support, develop producer-consumer linkage, and engage public. We hope to engage more with the FAO and co-operatives in the region.
