training material development for farmers organisations and cooperatives 2014: FACT materials will be further finetuned this year. A Training of Trainers guide will be prepared; FACT readers will be translated further in various languages; FACT 2.0 will be developed based on input from users, trainers and advisers; FACT cases will be developed based on best and worse practices; A FACT agripoolday is planned and a Summerschool where guidance to FACT trainers and FACT agripoolers is given and input received about further development of the material. 

Deepening of FACT will receive special attention in order to develop the 4 pillars further.

The leadership skill manual will be piloted in 1-2 countries and based on that finalised.

Distance learning activities will be set in motion based on a feasibility study conducted. 


2013: FACT (Farmers Advocacy Consultation Tool) (formally called PGPP) finalisation and roll out in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The FACT material consists of a reader (handbook with background information), participants workbooks (1+2) for attending the workshops, facilitators guides (1+2) supporting the facilitator in conducting the workshops. In 2013 the reader will be made available to the general public. Attention will be paid to developing a network of AgriPoolers around FACT trajectories. Hence a number of Training of Trainers will be conducted in the course of the year.

Module for leadership competences will be prepared. This module can be used seperately from the FACT traject or in combination whenever needed. The module will be tested among a number of FO's.

Other training material development may occur as and when required.


2012: My.Coop training package aims to strengthen the management of agricultural cooperatives in order to offer high quality, efficient and effective relevant services to their members. A consortium of ILO, Agriterra, WUR and KIT hsa been developing the My.coop training package. This training package will be made available on line (web based) as well as in printed form and will be free downloadable for interested parties such as cooperative colleges, platforms of producer organisations and service providers of cooperatives and producer organisations.

PGPP (Participatory Generation of Policies and Proposals) material development to be used for farmer organisations active in the field of advocacy and lobby. Piloting in 3 continents.

2014:
FACT fine tuning. At the end of the year the following results are planned to be achieved:

- trainers of trainers guide for ToT facilitators in place
- community of practice worldwide that collaborates together on advocacy and further providing input on FACT 2.0
- Reader has been translated, updated and is in use in > 10 languages
- the 4 pillars of FACT have been deepened, particularly pillar 4.
- Practical advocacy trajectory experiences with FACT or FACT-like trajectories have been translated into relevant cases which can be used in workshops or during advisory trajectories.
- FACT Agripool day on 7 April
- FACT Summerschool in September
- at least 5 FACT trainers have become FACT certified trainers
- at least 5 Dutch FACT Agripool consultants have taken part in workshops and/or advisory trajectories.

Leadership skill training manual completed and at least once piloted.

Distance learning feasibility survey conducted and follow up plan set in motion.



2013:

FACT development and roll out worldwide.
The FACT (Previous PGPP) material will be further developed. 

At the end of the year this should result into:
- published reader and showcase (both pdf and hardcopy)
- developed participants workbook 1+2 (pdf)
- developed facilitators guide 1+2 (pdf)
- ToT material developed (pdf)
- translated final version into Spanish and French and x number of other languages (depending on demand).
- x number of FACT workshops conducted (see under relevant PO project) in Latin America, Africa and Asia
- x number of FACT trajectories set in motion in Latin America, Africa and Asia.
- x number of potential FACT trajectories for other clients identified.
- mainly in the form of special services.

Leadership module development.
- module development and testing among FO's in Africa.
- draft training module available.
 

2011-2012: 
1. My coop development: Agriculture is a crucial sector for global development as “farmers feed the world”. Agriculture is also the second greatest source of employment worldwide. Historically speaking, agriculture has been key in the development paths of many countries. This package is motivated by the conviction that strong and representative agricultural organizations are indispensable for the promotion of democracy, for a better distribution of income and for the economic development of a country. Evidence shows that many countries with an important agricultural sector, such as for instance, Argentina, Ethiopia, France, India, the Netherlands, New Zealand, as well as the United States of America, also have strong agricultural cooperatives. 

However, agricultural cooperatives face numerous external and internal challenges. External challenges may be linked to markets, regulations, infrastructure or climate change. Challenges that are internal to the cooperative usually have to do with governance and management issues. Cooperatives are enterprises for which the primary aim is not making profit but responding to members’ needs and aspirations. Cooperative members own their enterprise through cooperative shares, they control their enterprise through democratic mechanisms, and, finally, they are the principal users of the cooperative services. This makes the cooperative a resilient but also a complex and challenging business model. Cooperatives may find themselves stretched between (at times conflicting) members’ interests, business opportunities and social considerations. 

This my.coop training package aims to strengthen the management of agricultural cooperatives so that they can offer high quality, efficient and effective relevant services to their members. 

A consortium of ILO, Agriterra, WUR and KIT are in the process of developing the my.coop training package. The process started in 2008. My.Coop builds on MATCOM training material which was developed in the eigthies. During the first three years, the focus of the material development was on rewriting (writer workshop), testing (workshop in Kenya), checking contents by a reading committee, graphic design and  illustrion with relevant case studies. Agriterra has contributed to this process both with human resources as with the facilitation of events (workshop, consultant fees) and writing of case studies (consultant fees). Due to the fact that the basic material did not fulfill the expected standards a team of experts from KIT, WUR and Agriterra together with ILO decided that the four modules needed intensive rewriting again. Since this was not foreseen in the original budget by ILO/CoopAfrica, Agriterra recognising the relevance of this training material, proposes to contribute (both in manpower and finances) also to the final part of the development.

Further ideas are being developed to introduce also a Training of Trainers distance learning package in due time. ILO/Turin will take the lead in the development of this distance learnign package.

General objective
The objective of the my.coop training package is to introduce the learner into major issues of managing an agricultural cooperative, including&#9679; the basics of an agricultural cooperative
&#9679; managing cooperative marketing
&#9679; managing cooperative supply services
&#9679; production support services 

Each learning module consists of several learning topics which will incorporate specific learning objectives. 

Objectives of the trainer’s toolkit
To equip participants with the knowledge and skills needed to design and facilitate interactive and experiential learning based workshops on the management of agricultural cooperatives.

To expose participants to a range of different learning methodologies to transmit subject matter expertise.

To enable an enjoyable process of learning and knowledge sharing

Remaining activities to be funded in 2011: 
- finalising writing of 4 modules (KIT and WUR)
- Quality review (piloting, final reading committee and filtering/integrating of feedback) (ILO, Agriterra and WUR/KIT)
- production process (printing, website, distribution to a.o. cooperative colleges) (ILO)

Budget My.Coop for 2011: 114,000.
- Contribution by ILO: Euro 100,000
- requested contribution from Agriterra: Euro 14,000
- Requested contribution (in kind) from WUR and KIT: to be further elaborated

2. PGPP development:
During the period 2010 a start has been made with the development of PGPP based on exoeriences in Nicaragua in the early nineties. Originally the intention was to involve IFAP in the roll out of the PGPP but this did not materialise. In 2009 Agriterra took basic steps to invest in it to develop PGPP into a handy tool for lobby and advocacy. An external consultant was hired for this. 

In 2011-2012 PGPP will be further developed. A number of pilots will be held in Africa and Latin America to test the methodology and to make adjustments to the contents of workshops and material.

Enhancing lobby capacity of farmers organisations through FACT