Producer groups benefit from capacity development training in Grenada
Grenada, Monday 23 April 2018 -The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) collaborated with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to strengthen the governance and management of three producer groups in Grenada through their participation in Workshop Sessions.
Both organisations are convinced that involving all the members of an organisation in the same Workshop will help in team building and improve their overall functioning as a group that will better enable them to engage stakeholders and customers.
The overall objective of the Workshops was to strengthen the Governance arrangements within each of the organisations to improve communication, efficiency and effectiveness among their members. Based on participants feedback from previous workshops conducted by IICA and FAO and assessments conducted by IICA using an Organisational Capacity Assessment Tool (OCAT), specific areas of capacity building interventions were identified for each of the groups.
This information was used to guide the training sessions on how much governance was needed for each of the groups. Too much governance will be too expensive for small non-profit organisations; whereas, too little could lead to violations of their bylaws. The workshops were tailor-made for each of the groups to take them to the next level of governance. The North East Farmers Organisation improved its capacity during the participatory development of its By- Laws; the St Patrick’s Goat Farmers Association improved its understanding of the role of the executives; and the St Andrew’s Small Ruminant Farmers Association improved its capacity with respect to financial accountability.
A total of 30 producers, which consisted of three producer groups, benefitted from the capacity building activities aimed at improving the internal structures and management of their organisations. Effective producer groups can contribute to food and nutrition security, a key area identified during the stakeholders’ consultation on IICA’s 2018-2022 Medium Term Plan.
Derek Charles, National Specialist at IICA, encouraged the groups to apply the guiding principles and put their values into practice for improving the groups’ governance to the benefit of all members. Gregory Delsol, FAO Focal Point and Planning Officer in the Ministry of Agriculture reiterated the Ministry of Agriculture’s continuing support to producer groups, and welcomed the initiative by IICA and FAO in strengthening the governance of such groups.
More information:
Derek Charles, IICA National Specialist in Grenada