08zn-5263 - Support to third world farm leader's role in IFAP
Background and context of the present application is, that for the first time in IFAP’s history, a Farmer leader from a developing country was elected President of the Federation at last World Farmers’ Congress which was held this year in Warsaw, Poland. Besides his work of defending farmers interest worldwide and promoting a farmer centered model of development, Mr. Ajay Vashee from Zambia National Farmers’ Union (ZNFU) in Zambia, is also the President of a regional farmers’ organization called the Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions (SACAU) and now the newly elected President of IFAP. As an African leader, no doubt Mr. Vashee will further promote and inspire others to become IFAP members particularly from developing countries invariably making IFAP a truly world farmers’ body. He will also work for persuading donor agencies to support the federation and its members, especially through the Farmer Fighting Poverty (FFP) program managed by Agricord. However, a sure limitation for a developing country farmer leader to become an IFAP president relates with the costs involved in the President’s work. It is an established rule in IFAP that the President’s costs for his presidency (e.g. travel costs, international telecom) are covered by his mother organization, in this case, the ZNFU. The case is that this is the first time in which a developing country organization needs to address this issue. And the fact is that this is not possible to be covered by a normal developing country organization and particularly not by the Zambia National Farmers’ Union. The objective of the present proposal is to make it possible for the Zambia National Farmers’ Union to support Mr. Ajay Vashee as the first African President of IFAP, to exude and discharge high level competencies which will lead to him performing an outstanding presidency, and inevitably beneficial to IFAP in general, its developing countries members and the FFP program in particular.