| One of the most important and most overlooked development assets is the capacity of poor people to mobilize and organize for collective action. Membership-based organizations and networks of poor people have emerged in many places in response to the common needs of specific groups: rural producers, home-based workers, slum dwellers, indigenous people, and landless workers, among others. Poor people's exclusion from decision making at the local, national, and global levels, especially in the face of rapid changes brought about by globalization, gives impetus to the formation of these organizations and to their efforts to make their voices heard. When successful, such groups have been able to effectively represent their members in local and even national forums. Some have then reached out to similar groups in other countries, recognizing both the power of numbers and the commonality of problems poor people face.
This note begins with a description of the World Bank's experience with rural producers organizations (RPOs). It then describes some successes and good practices of these and other poor people's organizations in three major areas:
- Development of processing, marketing, and alternative employment;
- Management of collective goods;
- Networking and coalition building for influencing decision making.
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