News & Insights

Over the last few years, various authors have come to the conclusion that development cooperation is not doing what we expect it to do. All over the world poverty looks as incurable as ever and Western aid has even led to a number of well-documented perversities. How did we get to this? And does it make any sense to continue providing aid? Vredeseilanden tries to provide some answers and also gives its view about the future road for development cooperation.

“Both high and low food prices result in winners and losers”, says professor Johan Swinnen in an article that was published in the scientific journal Science. He is of the opinion that development-aid organizations aren’t consistent. When food prices are low, they argue the fate of the farmers, when food prices are high, they argue the fate of the poor city dwellers who cannot buy food anymore. What is Vredeseilanden’s view on this? A few comments…

The International Supply Management Conference end of December 2011 in Amsterdam hosted about 1.200 participants; almost all of them buyers/purchasers from a variety of companies, private and public, CPO as they are called, Chief Procurement Officer, an executive responsible for supply management, a three letter word, just as the CMO (chief marketing officer) and the CEO (chief executive officer or the general manager).

After three days of the International Rice Workshop in Solo, on the island of Java in Indonesia, enegy remains high among participants. On Monday they have exchanged the situation of family farming and its engagement in rice chains in their respective regions, the nature and characteristics of these rice chains and the institutional environment in which these are situated.

Vredeseilanden/VECO started a rice programme in Benin in 2002 to boost the capacities of farmers and their organisations to produce high quality rice. The central goal is to increase farmers' incomes through improved cultivation and access to modern, dynamic markets.The programme has resulted in significant outcomes, including local self-sufficiency for households in the Collines, a 50% increase in per hectare productivity, professionalized farmers’ organisations that have developed the ability to export.

On Friday 14th of October Vredeseilanden and the University of Leuven organised a 'farmer effect' workshop on how different value chain actors within agricultural and food chains take initiatives towards sustainability on economic, social, cultural and ecological level and how farmers and their organizations respond to these initiatives.

VECO’s experience working in Sulawesi in partnership with the global cocoa trader Armajaro illustrates how partnering with the private sector can optimize our impact, improve smallholder farmers' livelihoods, and increase the likely sustainability of farmers' gains. A case study of NGO-private sector cooperation on Sulawesi island, Indonesia.