Objective and Mission
NACCFL aims at providing appropriate financial and non-financial services to all the member organizations for their institutional development and for the socio-economic development of the deprived small farmers across the country. In this perspective, the federation has fixed ambitious but realistic objectives, which can be grouped in three categories: capacity building, policy advocacy and cooperative network expansion.
Capacity Building
Competent and skilled workers are a necessity in the pursuit of better living conditions for members of cooperatives, rural poor and destitute. Our organization strongly believes that in order to help the member cooperatives improve their efficiency, autonomy and overall everyday operations, it needs to
focus on the betterment of their operational and management capacities. Therefore, NACCFL has developed a wide range of formations and trainings on business management and development of technical skills that are available to all the members. Although it is difficult to provide the exact number of the people who have been empowered by the federation, it is safe to say that people in every cooperative have received some sort of training, whether it is related to administration, management or productivity.
NACCFL also contributes to the improvement of infrastructures and facilitates access to financial services adapted to the needs of member cooperatives. Connectivity between communities is a must if we want to enhance commerce and linkage between the producers and the markets. In the past, the federation has helped local communities build suspended bridges, roads and even brought internet connections to the villages in order to contribute to the interconnection and linkage of the members. The success achieved through these experiences has re-enforced the belief that adequate infrastructures are essential to the development of rural communities.
Furthermore, the central federation directly contributes to the production of knowledge
that is subsequently transferred to its members. Also, the Board of Directors comes from the rural and agriculture based regions, which guarantees a better comprehension of the problems the cooperatives are facing. The federation seeks to overcome weaknesses, like insufficient irrigation or inappropriate management, by transferring its knowledge to the member cooperatives. On one hand, it produces procedure manuals that are published and distributed to the member cooperatives. These manuals help develop standardized procedures applicable to all cooperatives, which define certain codes of conduct to follow. On the other hand, the federation subsidies research/impact studies on agricultural activities and produces promotional materials.
By providing members with the capacity to manage their cooperative efficiently, NACCFL contributes to the empowerment of the rural poor and destitute.
Policy Advocacy:
With its capacity to represent all agro-cooperatives at the national level, NACCFL, as opposed to other organizations or federations, is in a favorable position to negotiate and advocate for the needs of the member cooperatives. The SFACLs demands and requests towards the government and banks must be addressed in their policies. The central federation wants to make sure that they are taken into consideration when policies are being formulated.
For example, NACCFL advocates strongly for the inclusion of the deprived sector loans in the government budget and for the augmentation of NRB's contribution to agro-cooperatives development. Furthermore, the consolidation of a strong linkage between banks and member cooperatives to guarantee wholesale lending is one of the sub-objectives of policy advocacy.
Cooperative Network Expansion
The primary strength of the platform is unquestionably its broad member base, which allows small farmers to gather up their voices and speak as one up to the deciding actors. This is why NACCFL decided not to impose a limit to the permitted amount of members in its ranks and, therefore, preserve its expandable status. Over the last years, the number of members has been growing significantly and has increased the weight of the federation (see figures 1 and 2).
Because NACCFL must continue in the same direction, it wishes to replicate the SFACL model to all the member cooperatives. This will contribute, in part, to establish a standardized cooperative network sharing numerous resemblances with one another, which will facilitate operations and reduce management costs. Also, the replication of the SFACL model will help knowledge and skills transfer between organizations and their members at grass-root level. Moreover, a well-developed network of similar cooperatives is bound to be more efficient than a collectivity of heteroclite organizations with different procedures.
