214 Rebuilding West Africa’s food potential
in response to time-limited projects); unsuitable structures and an internal lack of good governance
limiting effectiveness; a lack of individual skills and talents necessary to properly manage themselves
and to develop partnerships, often combined with a lack of collective vision that would mobilize
members around economic goals and clearly define the services that each organization should offer
to its members. In addition, most of these organizations lack autonomy, especially at the financial
level, and do not have the capacity to mobilize resources directly from their members. This makes
them dependent on external support that comes in sparingly, in a temporary fashion, and is often
related to requirements or conditions that have nothing to do with the real and internal needs of
these organizations’ members.There are a few effective approaches and diagnostic tools that can be used to diagnose and design a
progressive path for producer organizations that leads them to a situation of autonomy and economic
efficiency within a framework of institutional sustainability. Within projects, the efforts of development
partners to assist and financially support certain organizations very often end up creating situations
of dependency in relation to external assistance. Thus, when the external financial support stops,
organizations often tend to fall into a passive phase resulting in the inability to continue to operate
independently.A new methodology called GAIN (Governance, Autonomy, Integration, Needs based) by FAO to
provide an effective assessment tool for initiating endogenous structural changes within a producer
organization (Elbehri et al. 2013).^2 Using a participatory and iterative approach, GAIN combines an
internal assessment of the organization with an analysis of its immediate environment in order to
initiate a gradual process of economic self-empowerment. This takes the OP on the path of more
reliably supporting its members’ economic needs and playing a more active role in the local economy.The GAIN methodology was designed to address three interrelated concerns:- Finding an effective approach to enable small farmers, be they men or women, to become better
integrated in the market and reap the ensuing benefits; - Formulating within the All-ACP project in West Africa modalities that can develop staple food value
chains through capacity building of inter-professions and member umbrella organizations, including
producer organizations; - Drawing on lessons learned from the exemplary organization SEWA in India as catalytic agent to
induce an effective institutional change in African organizations.
This chapter describes the GAIN methodology, review its application in three West African countries,
with a detailed description of the Burkina Faso case study (with Tien-Tieetaa Union). The chapter
concludes with an assessment of GAIN effectiveness and potential additional fields for its application.- Description of the GAIN methodology
The GAIN methodology is based on three main components:
1). Internal assessment of the organization and its immediate environment
2). Development of a strategic action plan by the members of the organization
3). Monitoring and implementation of the action plan by the PO(^2) See FAO report (2013): “GAIN Methodology: Diagnosis and Diagnosis and Design of Change Processes within
Producer Organizations” by Elbehri Aziz, Maria Lee , Carina Hirsch, and Marwan Benali.