Many ACP countries are caught in a vicious cycle of declining income and investment, stagnating competitiveness and persistent poverty as a result of their dependence on a limited number of agricultural commodities. Attempts to increase the levels of productivity and competitiveness of these commodities have faced numerous obstacles. However, past interventions have tended to focus on alleviating too limited a number of these obstacles, thus reducing their effectiveness.

Such observations indicate that future support to commodity producers needs to be more comprehensive and better integrated into broader national and regional efforts for agriculture and rural development. Support needs to consider national, regional and international market developments and assist the sectors to continuously adjust to these. Efforts are needed to improve national and regional input and output markets for both traditional commodities and diversification products, whilst tools and approaches to mitigating the high level of producer vulnerability need to be developed and made accessible. Participatory development and implementation of commodity strategies is a key vehicle in approaching these issues holistically.

Activities and outputs

The programme activities are structured around four outcomes: Improve capacity of national commodity chain stakeholders to develop, adapt and lead commodity strategies and implementation plans Improve access to and use of markets, production factors and services Develop and enhance access to market-based instruments to reduce producers’ income vulnerability Capitalize upon the complementarities and synergies of international organizations, EU and ACP actors in the area of agricultural commodities.

Overall, the 45 million programme funded by The European Commission draws on the capabilities and experience of five International Organisations (IOs): Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC), the International Trade Centre (ITC), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the World Bank. the International Trade Centre, UNCTAD and the World Bank. Together they cooperate to deliver activities deemed necessary in strengthening stakeholder capacity to develop and implement sustainable commodity strategies that improve farmers’ productivity and rural livelihoods and reduce income vulnerability. See more about the overall programme on www.euacpcommodities.eu

In FAO, three divisions work together to insure a 360˚ implementation the programme to assure long term sustainable development for the elimination of hunger. The three divisions are the Trade and Markets Division (EST), the Rural Infrastructure and Agro-Industries Division (AGS) and the Plant Production and Protection Division (AGP).

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