Farmers Union of Malawi

A Tool Kit for Producers

If your job is building capacity, what kinds of things might you need in a tool kit?  Forget the hammer and pry-bar. In order to strengthen your partner organization's ability to develop programmes and maintain initiatives, you'll want simple and practical tools that help people implemented big ideas in the field. “Tools that will enable us to do and achieve what we talk about,” says Uniterra volunteer, Melissa Field.

The toolkit designed by Melissa, for the Malawi Farmer's Union, is full of useful information and made of durable material, an important consideration in the field. In a cotton carrier bag made by a tailor in Lilongwe, the toolkit contains a 14-page heavy cardstock manual that shows how to plan strategically, set and achieve objectives, build partnerships, and write proposals. A section on project cycle basics focuses on monitoring and evaluation.

 

"The content must be simple and clear, but not condescending," says Melissa. "It should be easy to digest." Leaders of national-level commodity association will take the toolkit into the field to train others, and get them involved at the local level. Gathering and using local level input would be important to create proposals for projects that truly address farmer needs, she explains.

The kit includes a plastic file folder that will help them to organize and manage the information, while keeping the paperwork dry during the rainy season. "Farmers may not have needed to look after and reference these types of documents before,” explains Melissa. “But they do know that to access resources and build partnerships, they need to have information, at their fingertips, that allows them to promote their plans to strengthen farmer organizations ".

Also included in the kit are copies of application forms for all grant and loans offered by donors in Malawi, as well as pens and computer disks. Funded by Uniterra, 100 toolkits will be distributed to Farmers' Union leaders at four regional workshops, and Melissa hopes that those who receive the kits will train others and disseminate the ideas and information to their members. "It's meant to be useful in more than just accessing resources for the commodity association," she says. "I will be happy if they use the kits to better organize their affairs overall. As they say, organized people run the world.”

The Farmer Union of Malawi is a Uniterra partner organization. Story by David Wightman, Uniterra volunteer in Malawi in 2005.