Within the framework of the ILO SAVABE project (Supporting Actors of the Vanilla for the Benefit of Children in the Sava region), a training of trainers workshop on the creation and management of cooperatives was organized in Sambava, Madagascar from 10 to 14 February 2020. It brought together 20 participants from four different business development services (BDS) providers.

This event constitutes the third in a series of capacity building activities on cooperative development in the vanilla sector in Madagascar. The first training was organized in November 2018 using the first module of My.Coop – Managing your agricultural cooperative and Think.Coop – an orientation on the cooperative business model. The second training was organized in 2019 using the first and second modules of Start.Coop – a step-by-step guide to launch a cooperative, namely identifying core members and a business idea; and researching the feasibility of a business idea.

This third training focused on the third and fourth modules of Start.Coop, namely preparing a business plan; and organizational set-up of a cooperative. Participants also visited some cooperative organizations in the field to engage with their members and to understand their common needs.

Another training will take place later in 2020 to assess the understanding and retention of the training contents and provide necessary follow up support.