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EUCORD’s capability to implement the program The European Cooperative for Rural Development (EUCORD), formally registered as “European Development Cooperatie”, is an independent Brussels based not-for-profit organization incorporated under Dutch co-operative law in May 2003. Benefiting on the long-term project management experience of its senior staff, EUCORD has built over the past five years it’s a strong and reliable project implementation capacity. EUCORD’s Managing Director, Dr. Knipscheer is very familiar with Nigeria having spent three years in Nigeria while working as agricultural economist at IITA. In recent years, he has forged and nurtured several partnerships with Nigerian private companies. Since 2003, EUCORD has been implementing the Smallholder Initiative in West Africa (SIWA) project funded by the Monsanto Foundation. During 2005, EUCORD completed a horticultural sector supply chain study in Mali assessing the feasibility of a green beans export supply chain to Europe (funded by the Dutch government) and in 2006 completed a Master Plan for the cassava sector in Nigeria (UNIDO funded). In collaboration with CropLife International and CropLife Nigeria EUCORD is training rural agricultural input providers in Nigeria. EUCORD is also implementing a five year sorghum value chain development program in Sierra Leone and Ghana and a five year potato development project in Guinea and Senegal, both funded by the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC) and selected private sector partners. Mission and Goals EUCORD is a co-operative and its members consist of partner NGOs that assist with the implementation of their projects. Its mission is to provide innovative technologies that improve the lives of disadvantaged rural communities, contribute to the goals of partners in the civil society, private and public sectors, and are consistent with EUCORD’s values, skills, experience, and priorities. EUCORD seeks actively to promote partnerships between civil society organizations and corporations that are investing in developing countries. Countries where EUCORD has prior and present working experience Presently EUCORD has multi-year program activities in Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Mali, Guinea and Senegal. All project activities are livelihood enhancement activities for rural communities. In each of the countries, public funding is enhanced by private sector partners co-funding. Four key projects are the West African Sorghum Supply Chain project (Ghana and Sierra Leone), the West Africa Potato Value Chain Development Project (Guinea and Senegal), the Smallholder Initiative for West Africa (Mali, Senegal and Burkina Faso), and the Nigeria CropLife Training Program. The goal of the West African Sorghum Supply Chain project (US $2.3 million; 2006-2011) is the development of a stable and high quality sorghum supply chain that will substitute for the imported grains presently imported by the beverage industry. The objective of the West Africa Potato Development Project ($2.8 million; 2007-2012) is to enhance the income of potato farmers in Guinea and Senegal the vast majority of which being women. The main purpose of the 4-year SIWA project (2003-2007; $ 382,000) is to help resource poor farmers to raise their income by using improved technologies on their farms and to establish private-sector driven service delivery systems. A major emphasis is placed on the organization of credit associations in rural communities, and the introduction of hybrid maize varieties and the relevant agricultural practices they require. The Nigeria CropLife Training Program (2007-2008; $20,000) provides training opportunities to young rural men in appropriate knapsack spraying techniques in order for them to be able to gain local employment as reliable service providers. EUCORD’s comparative advantage EUCORD is the Project Executing Agency with the responsibility for overall project implementation and monitoring, including the financial aspects for several multi-year rural development projects in West Africa, including Nigeria. EUCORD works with local NGOs in the implementation of these projects thereby strengthening the programmatic, administrative and – above all – the financial reporting capacity of these partner NGOs. EUCORD also facilitates the exchange of information as required, and takes responsibility for dissemination of project outputs to other African countries. EUCORD has a proven track record in being able to reach impoverished segments in rural communities throughout West Africa. To date, its programs have been very successful. For example, the SIWA Project has recently by nominated for the ICRISAT-managed Doreen Masler Award for outstanding contribution to rural development. |
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