Programmes

Agri-ProFocus has begun to support a limited number of projects. These projects stem from a survey of proposals and project ideas that were already being considered by participating organisations.

No specific criteria have been formulated to determine whether projects are eligible for the Agri-ProFocus approach. However, the projects do have to fulfil the following basic requirements:

• The request for support must come from a producer organisation.
• Producer organisations must also be chiefly responsible for directing all stages of the project (identification, formulation, implementation and evaluation).
• The project must benefit in some way from the added value of the multi-actor approach.
• " The project must contribute to poverty alleviation and reflect the role producer organisations can and want to play in national, regional and international processes related to poverty alleviation and economic and social development.

The projects are clustered in three programme areas. Within each area, they foster the generation and exchange of knowledge on specific themes.

The programme areas are:

1. Product and service chains: activities are focused on supporting specific agricultural sectors, such as the cotton or coffee sector.
2. Organisational strengthening as part of capacity building: activities are focused on strengthening the capacities of the producer organisations themselves
3. Support processes: these include activities that improve the implementation of projects, such as development of a specific advisory practice geared towards producer organisations for which a survey of existing consultancy experiences would first have to be made. Support projects thus directly benefit producer organisations.