From poverty to power - Oxfam-Québec

FROM POVERTY TO POWERto begin with. More ambitious plans, such as owning and operatingprocessing plants, often fail. Focusing on relatively high-value products,such as dried fruit or cotton, seems to work better than concentratingon staple foods. Building on small, pre-existing groups where mutualtrust is already established works better than creating large organisationsfrom scratch. Member-driven organisations last longer thantop-down ones, while keeping the group independent of political partiesand focused on its core business is essential. 65POs are not without difficulties. The costs of setting up the organisation,training members, and establishing an efficient administrationoften have to be raised from outside, either from sympathetic NGOsor the private sector. 66 Members have to invest time in group meetingsand activities on top of their daily toil in the fields. When groupsbecome larger, it takes considerable time and effort to managedecision-making in a way that respects all members’ interests.The focus on high-value cash crops frequently discriminatesagainst women, and reinforces male dominance of POs’ leadership. Italso means that POs tend not to address the needs of the poorest andmost vulnerable of small farmers, since high-value crops entail risksthat the poorest cannot afford. Women’s organisations, such as India’sSelf Employed Women’s Association or Nicaragua’s Rural Co-operativeWomen’s Federation, have stepped in, setting up women-only groupsamong milk producers, salt farmers, gum collectors, and livestock andfruit producers. 67Producer organisations frequently face violence at the hands ofthose with vested interests, be they landowners jealously guardingtheir property and privileges, or middlemen reluctant to surrendertheir control over buying or transport. Many governments are notneutral actors in pursuit of the public interest, but rather act on behalfof economically powerful elites. POs may be derailed by violence orparty politics, or stifled by red tape – typically, the complexities oflegal registration. 69 However, they are an important expression of activecitizenship, and can play a vital role in improving the effectiveness ofstate agricultural policies.138