"Fortalecimiento de la capacidad de incidencia del sector rural - Reinforce the rural sector capacity to influence policies"

Local Organization : Federación nacional de Cooperativas Agropecuarias y Agroindustriales - FENACOOP

Region: Nicaragua - Central America

Content: T he project aimed at strengthening local networks, specifically FENACOOP, to increase their capacity to influence political processes. FENACOOP influenced political dynamics by making concrete proposals. Moreover the participation of FENACOOP in the National Property Forum allowed civil society and the private sector to participate in monitoring the land titling programme (PRODEP), implemented by the government with support of the World Bank.

Results: FENACOOP is an umbrella organization of cooperatives. The cooperative movement in Nicaragua suffered a crisis brought about by internal factors, lack of government support, access to credit, land insecurity, and access to market opportunities. The recent political debate in the country has been driven mostly by the negotiation on the free trade agreement with United States . The farmers' organizations, among them FENACOOP, mobilized their human and financial resources to influence this process in favour of small-scale farmers. CID, in which FENACOOP participate, is an initiative determined by three areas of concern:

(a) the establishment of an alliance with non-agriculture sectors and parliamentary representatives,

(b) approval of laws related to the impact of the Free Trade Agreement (law of cooperative, of competencies, bio-security and biodiversity, and food security) and,

(c) influencing Parliament to set out a transitional plan before endorsing the Free Trade Agreement.

The national Property Forum, which includes FENACOOP, monitored the implementation of the PRODEP, the national programme to provide security of land titles. Meetings with the Deputes of the National Assembly have been held to highlight the delay in implementing the programme. Changes to Law n.278 have been submitted to the legislative body to simplify the procedures and facilitate legal management of cooperative properties.

Lessons learned: Together with other Nicaraguan sectors, Fenacoop elaborated alternative options for the transitional phase to the Free trade Agreement. This project supports FENACOOP, strengthens its internal cooperative network and identifies weaknesses and priorities for the future.

In some cases national alliances established favouring small-scale agriculture and farmers, have not been politically strong enough. The lack of government interest on these issues has been reflected in the lack of willingness to advance the national Plan for Productive Rural Development, and its linkages with the proposed Free Trade Agreement.