Appropriate systems and tools can improve the effectiveness of horizontal linkages

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ICT can strengthen relationships and increase the effectiveness and bargaining power of groups by giving them access to information. The Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in India provides loans to members for the purchase of cell phones, which enable them to obtain market information and confirm buyer-seller meetings. SEWA also breaks down large handicraft orders and distributes them via cell phone to individual member artisans, and uses video to disseminate technical information to illiterate members.

Professional management and a common vision among members help reduce fraudulent and opportunistic behavior, increase trust and social capital, and ensure good governance and sustainability. Despite years of government misuse of the cooperative system, the USAID Agricultural Cooperatives in Ethiopia project won producers’ trust by assisting producer groups to form unions, purchase bulk inputs and consolidate production, and by introducing innovative organizational development including professional management and training for all members. The unions eventually took on the task of advocating with government on behalf of members, resulting in the granting of authority to unions to directly export specialty coffees and import fertilizer, bypassing parastatal and other intermediaries.

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