CSO Experiences in Strengthening Rural Poor Organizations in Asia

IFAD is collaborating with the Centre on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and the Pacific (CIRDAP) and the Asian NGO Coalition for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ANGOC) in contributing towards enabling the rural poor to form strong and sustainable coalitions and federations. This publication is the second output of this collaboration. It documents the experiences of civil society organizations (CSOs) in Asia on working with the poor—developing their capacities to become self-governing sustainable institutions, scaling up organizations of the poor through coalitions, networks and federations, and building strategic partnerships. These rich experiences of CSOs were presented and discussed at the SCOPE Regional Workshop on Strengthening Rural Poor Organizations in Asia held in Bangkok in November 2005. We hope that this publication, the output of that workshop, will be useful for IFAD’s Country Programme Managers and project directors and staff of IFAD-funded projects in ensuring the sustainability of IFAD project benefits.

SCOPE stands for “Strengthening Capacities of Organizations of the Poor: Experiences in Asia”. The overall goal of SCOPE is to “enable the rural poor to form strong and sustainable coalitions and federations.” It aims to contribute to enhancing the capacity of IFAD and its partners to: (a) design and implement sustainable development actions of community-based organizations (CBOs); and (b) promote upscaling and policy linkages of CBOs through their clusters and federations. SCOPE is a project supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and is jointly implemented by the Asian NGO Coalition for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ANGOC) and the Centre on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and the Pacific (CIRDAP).

Founded in 1979, ANGOC is a regional association of national and regional networks of civil society organizations (CSOs) in Asia, actively engaged in food security, agrarian reform, sustainable agriculture, participatory governance, and rural development.