September 2005

Organizations of the Poor

Conditions for Success

E. Crowley,
S. Baas,
P. Termine,
J. Rouse,
P. Pozarny
and G. Dionne

Rural Institutions and Participation Service
FAO Rural Development Division

Prepared for the "International Conference on Membership-based Organizations of the Poor: Theory, Experience, and Policy" organized by Cornell University (New York, USA), Women in Informal Employment Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO), and the Self-employed Women's Association (SEWA), held in Ahmedabad, India, 17–21 January 2005

Organizations can enable the poor to improve their well-being, access information, resources, skills and knowledge, organize for collective action, redress economic, political and social disparities, and compel the attention of those in power to their needs. “Organizations of the Poor: Conditions for Success”, a paper by Eve Crowley and Stephan Bass, among others, draws on the field experiences of FAO staff working with rural institutions in developing countries and provides an overview of some of the factors that contribute to the success of membership-based organizations of the poor (MBOPs). After distinguishing a number of types of organizations of the poor, the paper outlines some of the internal and external factors that influence the genesis, vulnerabilities, success and survival, as well as the characteristics of those unusual organizations of the poor that have succeeded in scaling up, expanding and diversifying their constituencies and effecting more fundamental political, social and economic changes over time.

Based largely on the field experiences of FAO staff working with rural institutions in developing countries and project documents produced by UN agencies, this paper provides an overview of some of the factors that contribute to the success of membership based organizations of the poor (MBOPs).

MBOPs are defined as organizations which poor members control and partially or fully finance. A range of MBOP types are distinguished along a continuum, ranging from self-organizations to externally supported organizations of the poor, and characterized by differences in scale, autonomy-dependence dynamics, and focus. Some hybrid organizations successfully combine the strengths of both self-organizations and externally supported organizations of the poor, enabling them to scale up, expand and diversify their constituency and effect more fundamental political, social and economic changes. These types are important for understanding the genesis, vulnerabilities, success, and survival of MBOPs.

MBOPs are considered successful when they achieve their members’ objectives, retain or expand their membership, stimulate members to maintain or increase their equity stake, and bring about some improvement in their well being.

Many MBOPs are not composed exclusively of the poor, although the majority of their members are poor. Maintaining a critical mass of poor members, devising mechanisms for targeting poor households, and some level of occupational homogeneity are important for maintaining a pro-poor focus, but the value of mixed skills or mixed gender within MBOP membership varies. Similarly, the optimal organizational structure, size, and leadership type varies by the context and is a function of MBOP objectives. Maintaining members’ equity stake in the organization, ensuring that leaders are considered legitimate by members, and making certain that rules are not only clearly understood but evolve over time, appear to be consistently important for successful MBOPs. Members also need to derive returns from participation, and these usually take the form of improved livelihoods, capacity building and empowerment to run their own organization, access to productive or financial capital, or increased influence, negotiation power, and links to other organizations.

The paper argues that given the diversity of MBOPs and the socio-economic, agro-ecological and policy contexts in which they are found, no blueprint combination of characteristics and good practices can guarantee their success or failure. The paper concludes by summarizing the conditions that have given rise to organizations of the poor, internal factors that make for successful MBOPs, and factors that affect the ability of MBOPs to influence others and to scale up.

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