Strengthening of membership development and  advocacy capacity of the South Sudanese Agricultural Producers Union The South Sudan Agricultural Producers Union (SSAPU) has been created in 2011 and operates at national level. At state, county and district (payam) level there is no presence of any umbrella organisations worth mentioning. At village (boma) level, a great variety of local groups exists, often with support from NGO’s.  Although the farmers’ movement is progressing, there are a certain number of serious constraints that hamper their development. There is a low educational level of farmers and farming as a business is a totally new concept for them. As it can be expected internal governance practices within farmers’ organisations are still very weak. Services to (informal members) are not well defined yet. There is a clear need for support on the different levels.
The proposed Agriterra strategy consists of the following two main elements: 
a.	Supporting the national farmers’ organisation in its role (policy development, lobby and advocacy) and in the structuring and membership development of the farmers’ movement towards local level.  
b.	Supporting the grassroots’ level in an upwards dynamic towards the top. The support will focus on the payam level, as the first level after the boma level, on which farmers need to be organised. For a start this will be implemented through SSAPU, as there are no local farmers organisations with which Agriterra can have direct collaboration for the moment. It is important to start with existing dynamic groups of semi-commercial farmers.

Vision: The vision of SSAPU is to have prosperous and self-reliant South Sudan communities 

Mission:
-	To be a voice, lobby, dialogue, and advocate for SSAPU farmers and built their capacities. 
-	To be a well organised, coordinated and motivated union, efficiently managed serving SSAPU and farmers. 
-	To produce enough food crops for the eradication of poverty.
-	To promote of self-reliance and contribute to the economic development of the Republic of South Sudan. 
-	To increase organizational capacity of SSAPU and membership at all levels.

General objective: To increase farmers’ income through good organisation, effective lobby and improved agricultural production, processing and marketing of SSAPU members

Specific objectives of the present Action Plan 2013 – 2014 are to:
1.	Create an conducive and enabling environment for economic activities by  the members;
2.	Increase farmers’ income from agriculture through capacity building in collective entrepreneurship and bottom-up organisation of members
3.	Construct the organisation at different levels, establish the national secretariat office and the grassroots’ entrepreneurship team, promote good leadership and governance
4.	Improve communication with members, develop and mobilise membership and promote linking & networking

The following activities are proposed:

Policy, Lobby and advocacy 
o	Define policy and lobby agenda. Policy issues include;&#61607;	CAADP implementation;
&#61607;	Agricultural tax: agric inputs exempt from law, but not implementation;
&#61607;	Feeder roads in the rural areas;
&#61607;	Access to finance;
o	Using evidence to prepare policy positions;
o	Building alliances with other organizations including South Sudan Business Forum (lobby platform) and churches;
o	Training of SSAPU leaders on lobby and advocacy - how to generate policy proposals, how to prepare policy positions, how to lobby, how to follow up, etc;.
o	Training on how to prepare policy proposals using the FACT methodology. Also engagement at the state level;
o	Understanding the policy-processes at different levels - how are policies prepared and implemented; 

Organizational strengthening of SSAPU 
o	Hiring three national SSAPU (3) key staff - Coordinator; Finance officer and Administration officer. Proposed roles of each staff:&#61607;	Coordinator (m/f): Acting as Chief Executive Officer; overall management of SSAPU; liaise closely with the SSAPU board; implementation of SSAPU action plan for 2013; lead the process for formulation of the SSAPU strategic plan; fund-raising for SSAPU; developing partnerships with other organizations
&#61607;	Finance officer (m/f): financial management of the SSAPU secretariat; expenditures; developing the SSAPU accounting manual; coordinating the financial audit;
&#61607;	Administration officer m/f): administration of the secretariat; office administration and management; office communication - receptionist; managing and updating SSAPU member registry;
o	Recruitment of staff: developing a job description, placing an advert in the media (South Sudan, Kenya and Uganda if possible), interview costs;
o	Setting up SSAPU secretariat: purchase of basic equipment - computer, printer, telephone lines, furniture, stationery etc. Renting office space (may explore possibility of obtaining space within Ministry of Agriculture).
o	Financial Management capacity building program: A set of activities to strengthen the financial management of SSAPU. Activities include training finance officer on financial management (record keeping), financial reporting, preparing for audits, formulating the accounting manual; awareness on financial literacy;
o	Development of simplified manuals of procedures: develop manuals include human resource manual and accounting manual. Basic manuals to be developed towards the end of the year, after the staff have been hired.
o	Leadership training: on good governance, ethics and financial management (reading accounts statements, audit reports etc);
o	Recruitment staff for grassroots’ entrepreneurship program:
&#61692;	1 National Outreach Officer, member of the national coordination team
&#61692;	4 Field Facilitators for each of the 4 selected counties
&#61692;	Training the field staff in participatory and entrepreneurial approaches
&#61692;	SSAPU introduction and monitoring visits to the 4 selected counties

Membership development and communication
o	Setting up membership registry: design of membership registry using excel or access format¬; inputting information in registry 
o	Clear definition of membership by the leadership: who are the members, how to segment the members, and (for the companies) what is the clear linkage with farmers, how to e.g. ensure that farmers own the companies; how to ensure ownership by the members. Borrow examples from UNFFE; Agriterra support to SSAPU members.
o	Review of membership fees for the different segments of the membership. this will be done by the board as soon as possible 
o	Convening board meetings to validate the action plan for 2013. 
o	Developing a top-down, bottom-up and horizontal communication strategy: what are the information needs of the SSAPU members (different categories and levels); what content is needed by the SSAPU members; who are the target beneficiaries; 
o	Developing radio programs at different administrative levels: mobilization through the radio stations;
o	Local membership development through capacity building on rights and obligations, democratic principles, good governance practices of members and groups.

Enhanced farmers’ participation in the new devolved governance structure in Kenya for improved budgetary allocation to agricultural development