"Governments should learn to change their approach to formulating policies in order to include all stakeholders" - Ndiogou Fall.

In this interview Ndiogou Fall, President of the Senegalese Federation of NGOs (Fédération des ONG du Sénégal), explains the complementary and specific roles that different development partners should play in improving the policy environment for Farmers’ Organizations.



What role should the different development organizations, governments, NGOs, United Nations agencies play in the context of rural development?

International institutions should assist countries in defining their agricultural and rural development policies but they should not take the responsibility away from governments. The countries should have the capacity to understand the problems of their agriculture and analyse their position within the international environment. Governments have the responsibility and the legitimacy to define their own agricultural policies but I think that, in the past, they did involve the stakeholders, who would then have to implement these policies. For this reason, the concerns of the population were not taken into account, and as a consequence, these policies largely failed. Governments should therefore learn to change their approach to formulating policies in order to include all actors. The role of the professional organizations is to assist governments to better determine the grassroots situation, to better asses the trends, which take shape, and to participate in the formulation of policies. In doing so, policies that are approved by and suited to each actor can be designed. The successes and failures of the policies can then be shared.

What are the origins of FONGS and what prompted FONGS to take an active role in working with small farmers and advocating on their behalf?

The roots of FONGS go back to the 1970s, when autonomous village-based associations started to emerge alongside the State-promoted cooperatives, stimulated by the drought and the food crisis. Initially organized around collective food production, the groups progressively expanded their activities beyond the village dimension and began to federate at district and regional level. In 1976, nine regional associations created a national federation. By 1990, FONGS had expanded to include 24 regionally-based associations throughout the country totalling 2031 village groups.

The implementation of structural adjustment policies led FONGS to seek a voice for small farmers in the negotiations underway. With the technical support of FAO, a grassroots level survey of the impact of national agricultural policies on small farmers was carried out in 1992, leading to a national forum in 1993 on "What future for Senegal's farmers?". The forum gave birth to a national farmers' platform, the Comité National, National Council of Rural Peoples' Dialogue and Cooperation (CNCR), which has become the undisputed spokesperson for Senegal's rural population in national, regional and international negotiations. Since the establishment of the CNCR, FONGS has focussed less of its attention on policy negotiations and more on concrete support to village associations and farm families.

What are the relationships between FAO and FONGS?

The relationship between FONGS and FAO is a shared interest in reinforcing the capacities of Farmers' Organizations. For a long time, a lot of resources were spent on training civil servants to be able to understand agricultural policies, but nothing was done at the level of the Farmers' Organizations. Now, the Farmers' Organizations are being asked to take part in the definition of policies but often they do not have the necessary skills and this poses lots of problems. The government prefer to have speakers who know what they are talking about and who know how to stimulate ideas amongst their members. The Farmers' Organizations are by nature popular organizations that get their legitimacy from the close relationships they build with their members. It is necessary to be aware that farmers work in a way that is fundamentally different to governments. If farmers and governments want to work together, they must be aware of these differences. From our point of view, FAO should help Farmers' Organizations to better organize and train themselves to work with the governments on these issues.

What do you think of the FAO Special Programme for Food Security?

FONGS has participated in FAO's Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS) in Senegal from the beginning, in Casamance and in the valley of the Senegal river. Two of FONGS' federations have been the first field-level partners of the SPFS since 1994, and FONGS has remained very closely involved in the SPFS as it has expanded over the years. FONGS has developed a participatory methodology for analysing and supporting the strategies of farm families in different agro-ecological zones of the country and a nation-wide programme of support for village-based savings and credit organizations. FONGS was also the implementing organization for a Technical Cooperation Project on capacity-building for farmers' organizations in which five technical units of FAO were involved in 1997-1999

Now, the SPFS should be effectively integrated into a national policy. For us, as a professional agricultural organisation in Senegal, it is important to capitalise on the good practices being experimented with, in this programme, and to integrate them into national policies : in the field of appropriate technologies, organization for marketing, dialogue with authorities and technicians, ...

What are your views on the World Food Summit: five years later (WFS:fyl) and FAO's future work with NGOs/CSOs, with regards to its follow-up?

One of the four priority issues emerging from the NGO/CSO Forum held in parallel with the WFS:fyl is that of supporting the livelihood strategies of rural families and promoting the kind of agricultural production and development approaches that can help them fight food insecurity and poverty. At the meeting, which took place on 1 November 2002, between the Director-General and the International NGO/CSO Planning Committee for the WFS:fyl (IPC) an agreement was reached to work together on this theme. The challenge the NGOs/CSOs are posing to FAO is to cut across technical specializations and develop inter-disciplinary responses to the global requests of farm families.

What is your relationship with Farmers' Organizations in other countries in West Africa ?

We are members of the Réseau des Organisations Paysannes et des Producteurs Agricoles de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (ROPPA - Network of Farmers' Organizations and Agricultural Producers in West Africa), which comprises of 10 West African Countries. We have had numerous exchanges with countries in which we are following the evolution of the Special Programme for Food Security. Senegal is the country where the participation of Farmers' Organizations is most advanced. In other countries such as Guinea, the participation of producers exists but is more limited.

What are your main priorities of work for 2003

We will continue to strengthen the Farmers' Organizations and to encourage their participation in the establishment of national agricultural policies. We wish to improve the communication between the different members of our network, notably through south-south exchanges in West Africa but also beyond that with other networks such as Via Campesina, the Pesticide Action Network. Accordingly, we will organize training workshops. We work with UMEOA (Union Monétaire des Etats de l'Afrique de l'Ouest - The Monetary Union of the West African States) on their regional information, training programmes and on the identification of strategic programmes. We will also monitor ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States and NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa's Development) activities on food security.