Cover_Rebuilding West Africas Food Potential

Chapter 7. GAIN methodology to enhance producer organizations’ capacity for market integration 241

Table 11. Key economic activities of the studied producer organizations

Umbrella

organizations Noun CIG Groups

National Union

« Women in Action » Ten-Tiétaa Union

Country Cameroun Mali Burkina Faso

Main Agricultural

Products

Maize, cassava, rice,

vegetables and coffee

Millet, sorghum, cowpeas,

rice, vegetables (tomato,

onions)

Maize, sorghum, ground-

nuts, millet, rice and cowpea,

cotton, vegetables

Agricultural potential High, good agro-climatic

conditions

High along the river,

lower in the North

Land degradation,

water scarcity

Main non-field products Livestock Grain processing,

cloth dyeing, fishing

Livestock (pork, etc.),

small scale trading

4.2 Governance and decision-making modalities

The three GAIN workshops highlighted the importance of individual members’ commitment to ensure
that their organization’s operations be effective. If all workshop participants claim that “unity is
strength”, it remains true that responsibilities are often in the hands of a few individuals. Structuring
organizations effectively requires building awareness for all members regarding their individual and
collective roles and responsibilities and training in leadership and team spirit building.

The Ten-Tiétaa Union of Burkina Faso was the most structured and has the strongest governance of the
three organizations that were analyzed. It is structured around different levels of decision-making and
information sharing to facilitate implementing services tailored to the needs of its members, particularly in
terms of training and access to credit, especially for women. In contrast, the Noun Departement Producers
Union in Cameroon has no strong formal structure and is almost informal. Leadership is centralized and the
relationships between different groups are not very clear. This is why member participants took advantage of
the GAIN assessment workshop to develop a more formal structure, namely a formal cooperative. In Mali,
although “Women in Action” Cooperative Union is formally and legally registered, it does not seem to truly
function, apart from the president and founder’s initiatives and dynamism; members have complete trust and
admire her for her ability and strong personality. During the GAIN assessment workshop, this waiting to have
an organization that has existed for two years really work gave participants additional motivation to address
its future governance and make it a major focus of the new vision.

Beyond the type of structure, the effectiveness of an organization lies in its ability to put its members, men
and women, at the centre of its concerns by giving them the means to claim ownership of the organization
to which they belong and empower themselves. The three organizations highlighted the existence of local
know-how but how this knowledge may be better used within organizations and between members
remains to be defined. The Ten Tiétaa Union has focused on strengthening the technical capacity of
its members by strategically having some trainers become specialized to then disseminate knowledge.
Nevertheless, this strategy takes little account of marketing skills. In contrast, in the case of Cameroon, the
choice of the CIG structure has given greater attention to developing business activities, negotiation skills
and bundled sales. In Mali, training is organized on an ad hoc basis on technical issues (micro-gardening)
depending on financial opportunities or technical partnership offers.
In all three cases, the GAIN methodology helped highlight how important it is to strengthen technical,
financial and “management” capabilities of members of an organization. Combining these aspects is
essential to strengthen the empowerment of individual members and to ensure that the organization may
fully play its role as a service provider.