Use of civil society organisations to raise the voice of the poor in agricultural policy

Paper produced by the Agriculture and Natural Resources Team of the UK Department for International Development (DFID) in collaboration with Anthony Bebbington, Institute for Development Policy and Management, University of Manchester and John Thompson, International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), London. September 2004

This working paper examines how civil society organisations (CSOs) - particularly those representing poor and marginalised rural people - can inform and influence the processes of agricultural policy formulation and implementation. We summarise the role of different interest groups in shaping ‘pro-poor' agricultural development and explain how poor people can gain ‘voice' to express their views and shape policy processes in a meaningful way.

Efforts are made to clarify the meaning of ‘civil society' and two common approaches to conceptualising the role of civil society in development are compared and contrasted. A typology is then introduced to provide a framework for understanding the common institutional forms and functions adopted by these CSOs in the agricultural sector.

Available for download at http://dfid-agriculture-consultation.nri.org/summaries/wp14.pdf