Freetown — Sierra Leone is fast running towards post-conflict reconstruction and development generally. So fast that certain aspects have to be taken care of by its auxiliary partners. That was how the Rural and Private Sector Development Project (RPSDP) came in. In a bid to help the country attain its full potential, the non-governmental organisation has focused on two main objectives: agriculture and road construction in the rural parts of the country. Work started in earnest last year.

Meanwhile, the country needs the financial resources to create and provide a better access to basic facilities like good roads, pipe borne water, agricultural equipment for mechanised farming, education and health care facilities for the ordinary people. Therefore, the process would need tens of non-governmental organizations to serve as auxiliaries through which government provides basic services. There could be no better time.

However, some NGOs have failed to live up to the expectations of both the government and its international donor partners. Of the very ones that are doing well is RPSDP. It has particularly embarked on rural road reconstructions and building the capacities of farmer cooperatives. From its headquarters in the former United Nations House on Siaka Stevens Street in Freetown, the process is gradually making impacts in the provinces where its activities are concentrated.

To this end, the organisation seeks to create and increase efficiency along what it considers as 'the value chain' with priority on agricultural productivity - rice and cassava production. The aim is to enhance farmers' capacity and allow them to be the 'price maker' and not the price taker. For a start, four components would be dealt with. They include domestic marketing improvement; agricultural export promotion; support to farmer based organisations (also known as FBOs) and technology improvement, project monitoring and management, and proper policy regulation.

Also, RPSDP is working with its partners and line ministries to ensure effective and efficient implementation of almost all its activities. These bodies include the Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Food Security (MAFFS); the Sierra Leone Investment and Export Agency (SLIEPA); the Sierra Leone Agricultural Research Institute (SLARI); Njala University (NU); the Sierra Leone Standards Bureau (SLSB) and the Planning, Evaluation Monitoring and Statistics Division of the ministry of agriculture.

For farmer based organisations to better deliver services, the RPSDP observed, ensured and completed a bidding process on the rehabilitation of 440 kilometres road in all thirteen agricultural districts of the country. These roads are critical in linking those communities with one another and also make for easy transportation of produce from farmers to the markets. Most of these have been established as feeder roads that would increase farmers' income and provide the enabling environment for market interaction.

In addition to the overall process is the creation of and sustainability of FBO projects by the RPSDP, which works with local councils that help it identify agriculturally productive areas. They are also very helpful in making sure the project establish permanent market structures and storage facilities all over the country. The RPSDP identifies and provides support to well structured farmer based organisations. The project also caters for and works with approved and non-approved FBOs within project operation districts, chiefdoms and sections nationwide, targeting representative samples of at least one hundred people per district.