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We should not programme for farmers, however with farmers – this message was echoed by panelists and audio system all through FAO’s latest Regional Knowledge Exchange webinar, Exploring the role of producer organizations in the extension of social protection to rural households (15 December 2021).
The webinar was organized as a part of a collaborative challenge between FAO and the African Union Commission (AUC), to spur progressive approaches to enhance social protection coverage of casual rural staff, in help of the AUC’s Social Protection Plan for Informal Economy and Rural Workers (SPIREWORK).
The purpose of the webinar was to share rising good practices on working with producer organizations to increase social protection to cut back vulnerability, particularly contemplating the deepening financial and meals crises which are unfolding as a results of or compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic. The occasion facilitated an alternate of experiences amongst African nations, and inspired broader South-South alternate by sharing improvements from China.
“We hope this exchange on good practices will influence other African countries to work with rural organizations and adopt more innovative approaches to increasing social protection coverage for rural informal workers,” stated Yurdi Yasmi, FAO Deputy Regional Representative for Africa.
The potential of rural organizations
Rural organizations have a key role to play in increasing social protection coverage in rural areas, as their membership are sometimes among the many most weak in Africa – poverty and starvation are concentrated in rural areas, the place livelihoods, incomes, and meals safety rely closely on agriculture. Notably, 82% of the poor stay in rural areas, incomes their residing primarily in agriculture. Rural organizations can contribute in a number of methods to improving entry to social protection techniques for his or her membership, from offering a platform for info sharing, to supporting ‘last-mile’ implementation by facilitating enrollment, fee of social insurance coverage contributions, and knowledge assortment from members for enhanced proof technology on social protection.
Representatives from programmes in Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Tanzania and China introduced circumstances of producer organizations participating with their respective governments to enhance social protection supply.
Sabelo Mbokazi, Head of the Labour Employment & Migration Division underneath the Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development Department of the AUC, referred to as on the panelists and contributors to enhance efforts “…to capture timely and accurate social protection data to ensure better informed and targeted development policy.”
The case of Côte d’Ivoire highlighted how constructing capability in social protection, growing formalization of cooperative constructions, and offering a digital platform to handle cooperative actions can construct belief and confidence between cooperatives and members. This, in flip, units the stage for equipping cooperatives to facilitate entry to formal social protection, offering members with info on advantages and eligibility, supporting enrollment, and amassing routine charges for nationwide medical health insurance schemes and social safety programmes.
Towards SDG1: Ending Poverty
The Senegal case demonstrated the significance of understanding social protection wants and coverage, significantly for marginalized agricultural subsectors, akin to fisher people. Before embarking on increasing and improving adequacy of coverage, it’s needed to perceive the present state of coverage, in specific for weak teams. Mandela Adajagsa of the Ghana Federation of Forest and Farm Producers (GhaFFaP) famous the criticality of endeavor research to present proof, highlighting the necessity to higher perceive how COVID-19 has affected producers and their ensuing social protection wants, in order to make evidence-based coverage choices.
Tanzania’s Participatory Plantation Forestry Programme (PFP2) is an instance of an try to hyperlink social help programmes with additional productive help for essentially the most weak in forest communities. In observing this good follow, Godfrey Wanyama of the Farm Forestry Smallholders Producer Association of Kenya (FFSPAK) commented that we should look past the rapid social help responses and supply complete programmes to guarantee livelihoods are protected and supported as effectively.
The case of China confirmed the potential for community-based organizations to have interaction in organized financial actions, and use the earnings for the collective good of the group. The rural collective economic system offers structured casual social protection advantages to group members, whereas additionally participating instantly with native authorities to subsidize members’ contribution to nationwide social safety programmes in addition to social protection advantages from the nationwide medical health insurance programme.
As famous by Benito Eliasi, Programme Officer, Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions (SACAU), China’s case exhibits the necessity for producer organizations to have a clear understanding of social protection programme advantages and eligibility and be given clear roles and duties for the engagement of their membership in order to efficiently help in improving supply of social protection to their members.
The world community Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) supplied a video assertion calling on governments to present larger ranges of protection and social insurance coverage schemes that meet the wants of casual staff, citing a want for co-creation of programmes alongside rural organizations to guarantee they’re match for objective and meet the realities of constraints and alternatives on the bottom.
The webinar is a first step for FAO Africa in spreading good practices in participating producer organizations for improved coverage for social protection, and FAO referred to as on authorities counterparts, growth companions, and rural organizations to enhance collaboration and sharing of experiences to guarantee social protection for all, as indicated in Sustainable Development Goal 1.3.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of FAO Regional Office for Africa.