ACDI/VOCA 

Support of the farmers’ associations


In 1993 ACDI/VOCA was the first organization to promote the farmers’ associations in Macedonia. Today, according to the Director of the Macedonian Office of this American organization Mr. Mazen Fozi, there are more than 100 existing, and another 100 informal associations consider the associated operating.

ACDI/VOCA is an organization well known among the farmers and the stockbreeders in Macedonia – organization’s target group. As Mr. Fozi says, since September last year ACDI/VOCA introduced new norms in its operations – providing grants, within the new two-year project financed by the USAID.
- The farmers’ and the stockbreeders’ associations are registered by the Law on Non-Governmental Organizations and Foundations. That means that they are, in fact, associations of citizens, but they have trouble through the restructuring from structural to functional state. Our new project is directed to help the functioning of these associations – says Mr. Fazi.
The project is entitled "MAAS – Technical Assisting of Farmers’ Associations", and has a small grant component ($2,500 – $5,000). Its goal is to give the farmers’ associations a specific kind of aid – to establish services for their members, to reduce the production expenses and to obtain a better approach to the markets…
- These are, in fact, business services. We focus in our project on stockbreeding and fruit growing, but we also deal with farmers, beekeepers, and other farmers’ organizations. We threat the grant differently from the other foundations – we prefer to build a kind of business partnership between the farmers and the ACDI/VOCA. We don’t want the grants to ruin the business in any way, but to be adapted to the reality of the markets. The associations cooperate with us through the building of the business, we direct and we train them, give them technical assistance (the ratio is on each dollar of grant they receive another 4 or 5 dollars of technical assistance), and one of our staff is in the board of the specific association (as a counsellor, with no voting rights). We considered that, after such a long period of education, it is time to give them a financial aid to implement their knowledge – adds Mr. Fozi.