The COOPNET project
NETWORKING AND TRAINING RURAL WOMEN'S COOPERATIVES TO BUILD MARKETING CAPACITIES

Duration of the project
October 2005 to September 2006

Partner
Capable Partners Program (CAP)

Beneficiaries
25 rural women cooperatives

Background
The RMF worked with rural women's cooperatives through the RWIGAT project from October 2004 to September 2005. Each cooperative prepared "mouneh" and produced conserved using traditional Lebanese methods (jams, preserves, honey, pickles, rose water, labneh in olive oil, etc.) which were sold on the local market. RWIGAT has helped to empower rural women giving them a source of independent income.

The RMF noted that a key element that is lacking in the efforts of rural women's cooperatives is a mechanism for the exchange of ideas, experiences, and information among the different cooperatives. If the cooperatives were better linked, it could lead to collaboration in areas of mutual benefit and expansion of their current activities, mainly the areas of sales and marketing.

The trainings that RWIGAT offered focused on food production, there was no networking development or business management trainings. The CoopNet project aims to help develop the capacity within the group of cooperatives to capitalize their market niche, more effectively manage their businesses, and benefit from crucial economies of scale.

Most rural women lack the professional communication skills, accounting skills, and sales mentality to successfully sell their products. Therefore, to ensure the sustainability of rural women's cooperatives' sales engine once the RMF steps aside, it is necessary for them to receive training in the above mentioned skills in addition to creating a network of cooperatives in order to organize and cooperate for the marketing and sales of their items.

Objectives
The goal of the project is to provide organizational development for and create a network of 25 rural women's cooperatives to address their marketing and sales needs. The goal consists of two components, each of which has its own objectives, defined below:

Organizational Development: Build the capacity of 25 rural women's cooperatives in business communication, marketing, group management and accounting.

Networking: Creation of a network of rural women's cooperatives for collaboration and the exchange of information that would expand their marketing and sales capacities.

Activities

within the Networking component:
Representatives from each cooperative attend bimonthly meetings. They discuss the issues pertaining to the marketing and sales needs, such as the current pricing practices, stock location, selling location, hiring salespeople, creating a calendar of events, ect. The conclusions agreed upon in these discussions form the basis of the Memorandum of Understanding of the network.

The meetings are led by an RMF facilitator, and at the end of the project the network will be able to function independently. The capacity building trainings in the organizational development component are preparing the transition for full independence.

within the Organizational Development component:
The workshops and trainings serve to build the capacity of the cooperatives and offer the skills necessary to independently manage the network and marketing and sales needs. They include:

Personalized accounting trainings
Group management trainings
Business communication skills workshops
Advanced marketing training workshops
Computer database trainings
HACCP trainings (Hygiene standards and best practices of production of their items)

(click on the individual trainings for more information)