Interprofessions, frameworks for consultation, interprofessional committees, sector tables – so many so-called forms of “interprofessional” organisation, which have flourished in recent years in West Africa and which elicit great interest among economic actors in agricultural sectors as well as among policy makers and certain donors.
What is an interprofessional organisation (IO)? The term arises where a grouping of at least two professional trades of a sector come together to consult, to coordinate, to develop agreements, and / or conduct collective actions around one or more agriculture products. These organisations can take many forms depending upon the actors involved, their aims, and the products or territory they cover.
What is the actual situation of IOs in some countries, especially in West Africa? A first general overview of existing IOs shows that they are at the same time many and diverse. In effect, there is no standard model of IOs, but rather diverse forms of organization. These are mainly according to the historical context of the value chains in which they were put in place, the missions that have been assigned them by the actors who make them up, the role and place of the public authorities in the value chain.
In a simple manner, this note tries to bring some light on the diversity of existing IOs in West Africa.
