One of IFAP’s main objectives is to promote the creation and strengthening of independent farmers’ organisations throughout the world. For developing countries, particularly in the context of poverty alleviation, this mission is entrusted by IFAP to its Development Cooperation Committee (DCC), where farmers’ organisations from developing countries set and discuss their capacity-building priorities. The partners within IFAP are farmers’ organisations in both developing and industrialized countries. The program’s aim is of course to strengthen farmers’ organisations in the developing countries, while closely involving farmers’ organisations in the industrialized countries.

The IFAP Development Cooperation Committee (DCC) is a permanent forum where farmers’ organisations from developing countries set and discuss their capacity-building priorities.

Officers of the Committee 2008-2010:

President: Elisabeth Gauffin (Sweden)

Vice-President: Nduati Kariuki (Kenya) and Vardan Hambardzumyan (Armenia)

During the 1990s, IFAP became increasingly concerned about the growing number of organisations of family farmers in the developing countries that were not strong enough to participate in its activities. In response to this, IFAP launched a historic development cooperation initiative at its Millennium World Farmers’ Congress, held in Hanover, Germany in May 2000. Under this initiative, the Congress created a new membership structure that allowed into IFAP all farmers’ organisations from developing countries that met the requirements of the IFAP constitution to be substantially representative of the family farmers of their country, but which were took weak to pay full membership fees, for a nominal fee of 200 euros per year for three years. It was later decided that at the end of the three-year period, these organisations would have a further five years in which to phase into paying the full membership dues.

At the same time as the membership structure was revised, the IFAP World Farmers' Congress in Hannover in May 2000 set up a new Development Cooperation Committee to strengthen farmers’ organisations in developing countries so that they would be able to play their full role in the policy and representational work of IFAP, and better serve the farmers in their country. This Development Cooperation Committee was unique in that development NGOs linked to farmers’ organisations in industrialised countries (agri-agencies) were invited to participate as partners in the Committee. These agri-agencies were later grouped into an institutional structure called AgriCord which serves as an operational platform for coordinating development programs and projects on the ground.

As a result of this development cooperation initiative, thirty new farmers’ organisations from developing countries joined IFAP in the following two years. When the next biennial IFAP World Farmers’ Congress was held in 2002 in Cairo, Egypt, developing country delegates were in the majority for the first time.