LIBERIA

1. BASIC INFORMATION

Name of Organization : Farmers Union Network of Liberia
Acronym : FUN
Head Office Address : Wood Camp, Paynesville - Liberia
Mailing Address : PO Box 229, 1000 Monrovia 10
Liberia
Phone/Cell : (+231) (0) 886545786 / 0888242274
E-mail : farmersliberia@yahoo.com
Web site : funlib.org
President/Board of Governance : Mrs. Josephine George Francis
Contact person : Mr. Julius M. Bass
Designation : National Coordinator
Contact Address : Wood Camp, Paynesville- Liberia
Year of Establishment : 05 April, 2008
Place of Establishment : Monrovia, “Liberia”
Legal status : Registered February 15, 2008 as a Non-Governmental organization

2. BACKGROUND INFORMATION

A brief history of FUN:

Background

The vision of FUN was conceived by Mrs. Josephine George Francis, a passion-driven Smallholder Liberian Farmer and farmer representatives from five counties of the Republic of Liberia established the Farmers Union Network (FUN) in Monrovia on February 15 2008, to act as an umbrella or mother organization for all farmers and farmer organizations or activities in Liberia.

Their idea/endeavor was structured to be a non-profit, non-political, and membership-based organization with the below objectives:

4. GOAL AND OBJECTIVES

Goal: Improved livelihood of farmers and increased in food sovereignty in
Liberia.

Objectives:

1. To equip registered farmers and/or their groups with latest farming techniques and technologies when there is a need.

2. To ensure those farmers’ concerns and interests is promptly forwarded to national and international decision making bodies for appropriate and prompt redress.

3. To ensure that registered individual and group farmers have timely access to markets and resources (eg. farming inputs).

5. Existing projects

Project #1:
Name: Agriculture Sector Rehabilitation Project (ASRP) Extension Project

Donor: International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD)
Key Objective (s):
i. Food security through increased food production in the rural communities (ensuring production and dissemination of certified seeds (rice and cassava) peanuts, vegetables etc.
ii. Improve the productive capacity of 280 lead farmers through rehabilitation of agriculture and other basic infrastructure and promote social cohesion of vulnerable farmers in the four target counties. (Bomi, Grand Cape Mount, Montserrado and Grand Bassa)

Key Activity #1: Introduction of mechanization as pilot in Bomi
Key Activity #2: Distribution Inputs

Project #2:

Name: IT67

Donor: International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD)
Key Objective:

Key Activity #1: Support FUN’s consultative process and the mobilization of farmer’s organization.
Key Activity #2: Support FUN platforms at the decentralized level in developing led activities on specific value chain.
Key Activity #3: Support FUN’s in its Information dissemination and advocacy mission on key issues.
Key Activity #4: Support FUN in strengthening its organizational and institutional support.
Project #3:

Name: Women College

Donor: WILDAF (Fight Against Women Farmers in West Africa) a regional program:
Key Objective:

Key Activity #1: Advocacy (women farmers access to land, credit facilitates, information, technology)
Key Activity #2: Human Right education and campaign against violence on women and children
Key Activity #3: Legal Assistance

Target Population / Number of Beneficiaries: 35,000 farmers in
Montserrado, Margibi and Bong (Twenty communities)

Project #4:

Name: Support to Farmers Organizations in Africa (SFOAP)

Donor: ROPPA
Key Objective:

Key Activity #1: Provide institutional support to National platform
Key Activity #2: Provide back stopping support in the form of training,
capacity building, searching for donors and support to
regional platform.

Project #5:

Name: Forest Farm Facility (FFF) Project

Donor: Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
Key Objective: To Strengthen smallholder, women, communities and IPs
producer organisations for business/livelihoods and policy
engagement.

Key Activity #1: conduct training for Forest and Farm Enterprise Development. Strengthen smallholder, women, communities and IPs producers organization for business, livelihood while sustainably managing the Forest and Farm resources and strengthening their policy engagement.
Key Activity #2: Conduct in-country exchange visits from forest/farmer producers to forest/farm producers. Empower the farm and forest producers network and their members through capacity building and exchange visits to take concrete and informed actions for sustainable management of forest.
Key Activity #3: Increase the capacity of FUN-staff and members on different issues

7. Existing donors.

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

Target Population / Number of Beneficiaries: Forest and Farm Producers

8. Budget of year: 2015

Budget: Ninety-nine thousand, Four hundred and sixty United States Dollars ( US$99,460.00)

9. Offices of FUN

Number of Offices:

Head Office: 01
Field Offices: 15
Total Offices: 14

10. Operational Areas of FUN

Fifteen (15) Counties of Liberia
11. Type of beneficiaries

Smallholder / rural farmers and group of Farmers- youth, women, etc..
12. Staff Position of FUN
Total: 96
Male: 66
Female: 30

Senior Staff of FUN: Mr. Julius M. Bass
Position: National Coordinator,
Educational qualification: Student, Public Administration with emphasis in Public Policy, graduate program, Cuttington University College, Congo Town.
Year of experience: 18yrs experience in Public & Private Sector management
Key competencies: Negotiations; Ability to manage well; knowledgeable in human resource management

13. Membership / partnership and collaboration with other organization/agencies

FUN is member of the following networking forum, agencies and maintain collaboration with:

Ministry of Agriculture (MOA)
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
CSA Belgium
Forest Farm Facility (FFF)
European Union (EU)
Welthungerhife (WHH)
L’espoir Inc.
AgriCord

14. Bank Accounts and Signatories

Name of Bank: Guaranty Trust Bank (Liberia) Limited FARMER UNION NETWORK - LIBERIA
Address: 13th Street Sinkor, Monrovia, Liberia
Account number: 203303025210

15. VALUES FOR EXCELLENCE INCLUDE:

1. Human dignity and Gender equity

All women and men are equal. They have equal rights in the society and participate in the development activities equally.

FUN ensures participation of all poor people living in the working areas and provide special emphasis to the women participation as they are considerably in backward position.

FUN staff have equal opportunities for promotion based on their experience and qualification considering gender perspective.

FUN staff and management ensures gender equity in all aspect of the organization.

2. Honesty, Integrity, Sincerity and Transparency

All Projects/Programs personnel of FUN promotes Honesty, Integrity, Sincerity and Transparency in all activities.

Staff behavior and conduct must consider this value and remain honest, sincere and transparent.

Staff and organization never hide any information to the stakeholders

3. Cost Consciousness and sound management of resources

All Projects/Programs of FUN manage and use their resources cost effectively and in some cases cost recovery basis.

Staff of FUN remain highly concerned on best use of resources.

4. Concern for Environment

All Projects/Programs of FUN would be environmentally friend.

FUN Office premises as free from dangerous cigarette smoke.

Garbage are managed appropriately.

Staff of FUN work in a threat free and congenial environment.

5. Quality services

All Projects/Services of FUN are highly quality.

Staff of FUN are responsible for maintaining the quality of the program performance

6. Capability and Accountability

Beneficiaries of FUN possess the knowledge, understanding and capability to identify and resolve their problems. Staff of FUN shall facilitate the process.

FUN Management and Staff remain strict to their work plan and demonstrate accountability to the organization.

7. Creativity and Innovation
In all cases the creativity and innovation will be appreciated in the whole project or program cycle.

Creativity and innovative would be rewarded

Innovative and creative work would be replicated

8. Discipline

All staff, beneficiaries and counterparts respect the organizational rules and regulation

Staff shall remain committed to the policy, procedures and system of the organization.

Any violation of rules and regulations would be treated seriously and disciplinary actions would be taken accordingly.

16. Management Structure with Leadership Pattern

The Board of Governance, headed by a Chair, is the supreme authority of the Farmer Union Network which consists of fifteen (15) members. The Board of Governance brings any amendment in the organizational structure.

The Board of Governance confirms the yearly organizational activities and accounts. The Board of Governance elects members of the Board of Governance for two years period. The Executive Committee is responsible and accountable to The Board of Governance for its work and organizational management. This is the body accountable for effective smooth functioning of the organizational activities. The Board of Governance also elects the national coordinator and he/she performs the management functions and guides the staff members as assigned by the Executive Committee.

The Chief Administrator, Chief of Operations and Head for Research and Development work under the direct supervision of the National Coordinator. The Program Officer, Project Coordinator, and Head of Federations are in charge of operations and coordinate works under the supervision of Chief of Operations. The Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E), Public Relations (PR), and Human Resource Officers work under the supervision The Head for Research and Development. The Project Coordinators, and Head of Federations lead projects, and Federations in consultation with Program Officer and supervision of The Chief of Operations. In Coordination meeting the National Coordinator presides over the meeting and takes all the important decisions in a participatory manner. The Cashier and Treasurer work in consultation with the Accountant, and he/she reports to Administrator.

19. Accountability

1) The Board of Governance (BOG) is accountable to the General Assembly for its activities. As per constitution, The Secretarial is accountable to The Board of Governance for the effective management of FUN’s programs/projects as well as for the proper utilization of funds provided by the different sources.

2) The BOG always monitors the activities of the Accounts Section to ensure funds are managed properly. Before implementation of any project or plan it needs to be approved by BOG. BOG also takes decisions.

3) FUN County Federations are accountable to the Secretarial for its activities. The County Federations participate in the coordination meetings organized by the Secretarial and submit reports on a regular basis.

4) FUN is also accountable to its beneficiaries of the activities and services and the money they saved is given to the organization’s custody.

20. Organizational Transparency

FUN is transparent to the donors and is provides all types of information considering the requirement.
FUN is transparent to the participants. It is always very much open to the participants/beneficiaries.
FUN is also transparent to the Counterpart and Partners.
FUN never tries to hide any information from the stakeholders it is working with.
FUN maintains close touch with Government and provides all necessary information to the authorities at the District and National level.

21. Written Policy, procedure and Manual

The following policy and manuals exist at FUN:

Personnel Policy
Financial manual,
Strategic plan
Communication Plan

21. FUN Governance

FUN Board or Committee
1. General Assembly
2. Board of Directors
3. Secretarial / Executive Committee

Number of General Assembly Members: All registered members.
Number of the Board Members: Eight (8)
Number of Executive Committee / Secretarial: Five (5)

CONTACT US:

Farmers Union Network of Liberia (FUN) Wood Camp, Red-Light, Paynesville Montserrado County Republic of Liberia,
Phone: (+231) (0) 886545786 / 0888242274
Email:farmersliberia@yahoo.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/farmersunionnetwork
Website: www.funlib.org