The Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions (SACAU) is a RFO whose membership is open to national farmers' unions/associations representing both small scale and large scale farmers voluntarily joining them in southern Africa. Currently SACAU has 16 members from 12 countries in the region.The vision of SACAU is to bring about a vibrant, prosperous and sustainable farming sector that ensures food security and contributes to economic growth in Southern Africa. Its mission is to promote and ensure strong and effective farmers' organisations in all countries in Southern Africa, and to be the main voice of farmers on regional, continental and global matters.
SACAU's Strategic Framework is based on three strategic pillars, namely:
(i) policy advocacy on regional, continental and global matters;
(ii) strengthening of the capacity of farmers' organizations
(iii) provision of agriculture-related information. Cross cutting issues such as gender, environment and HIV/AIDS are also considered as critical areas of focus in the strategy.
The birth of Réseau des Organisations Paysannes et de Producteurs de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (ROPPA) in 2000 was the culmination of a long process and an organisational effort within the farmers' movement in Western Africa. ROPPA's objective is to strengthen the capacities of African FOs to defend the interests of their members and to influence the policies linked to agriculture, rural development and food security.Despite its young age, ROPPA achieved two main results: 1) The establishment of an organisation representing Western African producers in 16 countries. Thanks to advocacy and lobbying activities implemented in favour of family farming, food sovereignty and solidary regional and international trade ROPPA, with the help of several partners, developed an offensive strategy allowing to positively influencing regional agricultural policies at all levels. 2) ROPPA's national members. Overall, in the twelve countries of the ECOWAS progress has been achieved over the past ten years in the involvement of FOs in both the preparation of national policies and in the implementation of agricultural programs.
Plateforme Sous-Régionale des Organisations Paysannes d'Afrique Centrale (PROPAC) is a sub-regional organisation founded in 2005, bringing together 10 farmers' organisations in the countries of the ECCAS region. The PROPAC has a vision of "family farming being enterprising, sustainable and modernised in order to ensure the economic, social, cultural and ecological functions for food security and sovereignty." Its purpose is to harmonise the strategies and actions of Central African NFOs to address their concerns in the development, implementation and evaluation of policies and strategies for agricultural and rural development nationally, regionally and internationally. PROPAC's intervention strategy is based on 4 pillars:
(i) support to FO's structuring and strategic planning;
(ii) institutional capacity building of FOs;
(iii) Promoting women's leadership and economic activities of FOs;
(iv) representation and defence of the interests of small producers.
East Africa Famers Federation (EAFF) is a non-political, not-for-profit, democratic, regional umbrella network of small holder family farmers of Eastern Africa. Its membership is voluntary and it currently comprises women organisations, commodity associations, co-operatives and advocacy based organisations that are apex in nature. EAFF currently has 17 member organisations in nine countries in eastern Africa – Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. EAFF members constitute a total individual membership of over 20 million active farmers.