Inter-professional associations are state-recognized

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

organizations that group together participants from all stages of the same

agricultural Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled peopl ...

commodity In economics, a commodity is an economic good, usually a resource, that has full or substantial fungibility: that is, the market treats instances of the good as equivalent or nearly so with no regard to who produced them. The price of a co ...

chain ( in French), with the objectives of elaborating policies, guaranteeing equity among the members, facilitating the improvement of the performance of the chain and defending the interests of the members. There are around sixty such associations in France and several in

Francophone French became an international language in the Middle Ages, when the power of the Kingdom of France made it the second international language, alongside Latin. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the l ...

countries of Africa. A particular feature of inter-professional associations is that the membership is made up of associations that represent the individual chain professions. This is in contrast, for example, to commodity associations in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

, where membership is largely of individuals and companies. Many developing countries have few or no associations that cover an entire commodity chain and there would appear scope for the development of such organizations to promote improved liaison with governments.

Inter-professional associations in developing countries

In developing countries, inter-professional associations are becoming an increasingly important form of participatory development. Factors influencing the importance of these associations in the development of the agro-food sector include: * A clear definition of the mandate of the association; * The level of resources at its disposal; * The skills of its management and directors; * The level of support and commitment from members towards the association. The main functions of an association are to define, represent, defend and promote the interests of its members. Inter-professional associations are much more prevalent in Latin America than in other developing regions, although French and Canadian government support has led to development of such associations in

Francophone Africa African French (french: français africain) is the generic name of the varieties of the French language spoken by an estimated 141 million people in Africa in 2018, spread across 34 countries and territories.29 full members of the Organisa ...

, based on the models from those two countries.Duteurtre, G. 2007. Panorama des organisations interprofessionnelles dans le monde. PACD, Sénégal.
/ref> In Asia, the concept is even rarer. A notable exception is

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making ...

, where the government has encouraged the development of inter-professional organizations to help structure those sectors whose products have export potential, such as tea, coffee, and fruit.

References

{{Business organizations Trade associations Types of organization