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Farmers’ organisations and other civil society organisations have become essential to good governance in agriculture and rural development. They also contribute substantial resources to this sector and Platform members are working to consolidate this trend.
The European Commission has announced funding for an initiative led by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) to help ensure that rural CSOs get a hearing at the  Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, scheduled for September 2008 in Accra, Ghana. The FAO will provide logistic support. The event in Accra will be the first high-level meeting of governments and donors to assess progress towards harmonisation and alignment since the 2005 High-Level Forum (HLF) and the  Paris Declaration.
The European Commission, FAO and CIDA are members of the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development.
“CSOs are now recognised as vital to any sustainable development effort”, says Mushtaq Ahmed, policy advisor at CIDA and the CSO project leader. “Whether farmers’ associations, women’s cooperatives, NGOs in development or advocacy groups, they’re crucial to agriculture and rural development. Not least because of their huge contribution of resources to supporting farmers, they deserve a voice in the aid effectiveness debate. Our aim is to give CSOs working in agriculture and rural development a place on the HLF agenda.”
The Platform is to support CIDA’s consultative effort in 12 countries: Morocco, Egypt, Burkina Faso, Mozambique, Ghana, Mali, Nicaragua, Peru, Cambodia, Vietnam, Nepal and Bangladesh. The Network of Farmers’ and Agricultural Producers’ Organisations of West Africa (ROPPA) will facilitate consultations in Ghana and Mali. This work will be summarized in “good-practice” papers for presentation and discussion at the International Forum on Civil Society & Aid Effectiveness in Ottawa, Canada, February 3-6, 2008, to be hosted by the Canadian Council for International Cooperation.
Recommendations from all relevant sectors on CSO empowerment and inclusion will then be drawn up by the Advisory Group on Civil Society and Aid Effectiveness for presentation to the OECD DAC Working Party on Aid Effectiveness and Donor Practices (WP-EFF). Please see as well our Platform studies section.
For more information: Mushtaq Ahmed, CIDA (
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