FACT Preparatory Training Workshop in Ghana

11-05-2023 12:00:36
From 25 through 28 April, Agriterra Ghana conducted a four-day FACT preparatory training workshop for four organisations

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The participants were the World Cocoa Farmers Organization, Asetenapa Cocoa Cooperative Marketing and Society, Ofoase Cocoa Cooperative Marketing and Society, and Kokoo Pa Farmers Association. The main objective of the training was to train the board and management on how the FACT methodology can be used in developing SMART proposals to be presented to decision-makers to address the lobbying and advocacy issues in the organisation.
Other objectives were to develop an action plan for achieving results, and to identify potential strategies that can be used in addressing the lobby issues affecting its members.

The World Cocoa Farmers Organization (WCFO) is an apex body whose ambition is to defend the interests of cocoa farmers by serving the member organisations through lobbying and advocacy and providing advisory services to these members. Asetenapa Cocoa Cooperative Marketing and Society (ASET), Ofoase Cocoa Cooperative Marketing and Society (OCCO), and Kokoo Pa Farmers Association (KPFA) are cocoa primary cooperatives that are also interested in addressing the needs of their members through lobbying and advocacy. The FACT approach is a way of generating proposals and position statements based on consultations with the members of a farmers’ organisation and the advice of experts. It is essentially a way for farmers’ organisations to gather and voice the needs of their members based on facts and figures to their negotiation partners, for them to provide solutions for the farmer organisation. It ensures that any proposal and position statement that the organisation prepares to take root in the reality and needs of its members.

The participants were taken through the FACT approach, the three phases of the FACT trajectory, the four major pillars of the FACT approach, and the systematic way of using this FACT methodology. At the end of the four-day training workshop, Agriterra’s Cooperative Advisors trained 27 board members and managers of these organisations. Out of these 27 members 3 were women, 8 were youth, and 16 were men.
Agripool expert Ivan Asiimwe from Uganda Cooperative Alliance (UCA), joined online to share his experience on how the FACT methodology has enabled the organisation to receive solutions from the negotiation partners to address lobbying and advocacy issues in their organisation. The participants were motivated by what they’ve learned in this training and suggested more ways to use the FACT methodology to achieve results for the lobby issues affecting their members. The participants commented on how the training has been impactful and developed potential strategies in their action plan to implement the lobby activities following the FACT pillars.

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