Three Years of Cooperative Development Under EU-funded ENPARD

On 8 and 9 November, stakeholders of the EU funded ENPARD Programme met at the Interagency Conference in Kutaisi to share and review their experiences in implementation of the cooperative development component of the programme. The Conference was organised by ENPARD's implementing organisation in Imereti and Racha, People in Need in cooperation with Akaki Tsereteli State University in Kutaisi and Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague.

The two-day conference was attended by seventy ENPARD's implementing partners, representatives of government and non-governmental organisations, as well as farmer groups. The participants discussed the progress in the implementation of cooperative development component of the ENPARD Programme as well as the implementation methodologies, key findings, and lessons learned by implementing partners.

One of the major conclusions made by the conference participants was that the support to cooperative system should be continued and better targeted in order to result in tangible increases in incomes of country's rural population. This focus of support should be broadened to include the strengthening of service cooperatives, improved access to capital and building quality assurance systems for agricultural products. This should be complemented by long-term investments in the strengthening of extension services of the Ministry of Agriculture as well as locally driven and inclusive rural development.

One of the key speakers of the conference Cristina Casella, Attaché, Programme Manager, European Union Delegation to Georgia stated that, "The conference was very interesting as there were a lot of meaningful content-based discussions from all the stakeholders, and in terms of conclusions, I can say that there are positive trends regarding the development of cooperatives that are documented."

Lauriane Gauny, the Country Director of People in Need, noted the importance of gathering all the practitioners who have been involved in supporting cooperatives as well the members of cooperatives. Ms Gauny underlined the positive trends, stating that, "every time PIN announces a new grant, there is much more interest on the grassroots level, there is much more preparedness and there is an increased understanding about the benefits of belonging to a cooperative."

The Conference was organised in the framework of the European Union's ENPARD programme. Implemented since 2013, the main goal of the ENPARD programme is to reduce rural poverty in Georgia through support to rural development and agriculture. Programme assistance is provided to the government and NGOs working directly with communities on the ground.

To find out more about ENPARD, please visit: WWW.ENPARD.GE www.pin.ge