Cooperative development project 653-0002 : Equatorial Guinea [with the Cooperative League of the USA]

The Cooperative League of the USA (CLUSA) and will implement the project with USAID/Cameroon. The project will establish one co-op service center (CSC) on Bioko and one in Rio Muni to provide vehicle maintenance, training, and other services to co-ops. A trucking system to transport farm inputs and produce will operate out of each CSC and be available to all of the country"s 69 co-ops; local counterparts and CSC employees will be trained in all aspects of the system. Baseline statistics on membership, services, crop production and marketing, and volume will be gathered on 12 to 15 co-ops, reported semi-annually to UDAID/C, and used in project planning. A Phase II, initiated only after a review of Phase I, by month 18, will prepare selected cooperatives to participate in a later credit component (Phase III). Techniques to increase food crop production will be demonstrated at 5 co-ops each on Bioko and in Rio Muni, and 30 co-ops will receive TA to set up management and administrative systems (20 of these administrative systems will become operational). Member education programs will be provided at 30 co-ops, following which 60 key leaders from 30 co-ops will receive management training. To enable them to provide TA to co-ops, 16 Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Rural Development extension agents will receive formal and on-the-job training. The project will enter the credit phase if funds are available and USAID/C agrees at a second (30 month) review that credit worthiness should be established at 5 or more co-ops anda credit system initiated. Credit inputs will be supplied by the Agricultural Development Project (6530001) and the Equatorial Guinea Bank for Credit and Development. The TA team will consist of a cooperative development specialist, a CSC manager, and an administrative/training assistant, plus 21 months of short-term TA for a Phase II analysis of how co-ops can improve crop productivity and reduce labor requirements. The project may be amended to include a full-time credit specialist.