CLUSA Zambia Rural Group Business Program
This paper presents the case of the USAID sponsored and Cooperative League of the United States of America (CLUSA) managed rural group business program in Zambia. The program has the mission to increase the income of rural farmers through promotion of sustainable farming technologies among groups that are democratically controlled.
Initially, the program had a separate entity (Cash Management Services or CMS) for providing credit to CLUSA farmers, but later CLUSA itself began managing its credit component, since:
- Having a separate entity was perceived to be costly;
- CMS did not have the required field presence;
- Enforcing group discipline was difficult.
When CLUSA managed the credit activity itself the following synergies emerged:
- Pre-existing field force of facilitators;
- Distributor system enabling CLUSA to reach to large number of farmers.
The author presents certain lessons which emerge from the experience of CLUSA in Zambia:
- Necessity of a strong field presence;
- Necessity to build strong groups;
- Strong local management structures;
- Proper identification of needs of farmers;
- Building marketing linkages.
The paper concludes with the suggestion that the distributor system can help the livelihoods of the small farmers of Zambia.
