Biographies of Speakers and Abstracts of Presentations

Crédit Mutuel - DGRV - DID - WOCCU - DRV - FAO - ACDI/VOCA - Plunkett

Hungary Dr. Paul Armbruster, International Relations Department, Deutscher Genossenschafts- und Raiffeisenverband e.V. DGRV (Germany)

Background on the speaker:
Dr. Armbuster has been head of the International Relations Department of DGRV since 1988 where he has been responsible for overseeing projects in Latin America, Asia, Africa and East and Central Europe in a variety of areas including agricultural cooperative development, financial cooperative development, cooperative training, rural development, and the promotion of small and medium enterprises. Dr. Armbruster worked with the German Volunteer Service in Latin America and has occupied a series of positions including assistant professor of Finance, researcher in international agricultural issues, consultant for the German government as well as for farmers´ associations in a number of countries.

Lithuania Ramunas Stankevicius, Director-General, Association of Lithuanian Kredito Unijos and Representative of Développement international Desjardins in Lithuania

Background on the speaker:
Mr. Stankevicius has worked as the DID representative in Lithuania for their credit union project since 1994. He has been responsible for CU development, has managed the CU computerization programme and is now director of the credit union project. Since February of this year, Mr. Stankevicius has worked as the Director-General of the Association Lietuvos kredito unijos. Mr. Stankevicius is also an active member of the working group in the Lithuanian Parliament which is preparing draft central credit union law, amendments to credit union law and amendments to Lithuanian deposit insurance law.

Overview with special reference to Romania Normunds Mizis, Programme Officer for Asia and Central And Eastern Europe, World Council of Credit Unions WOCCU

Background on the speaker:
Mr. Mizis is a Latvian national who has worked with development in the East and Central Europe, Baltic states, Central Asian Republics and Asia. He has worked with WOCCU dealing with credit union development since 1994 providing techncial support to WOCCU country programmes. Since 1997, he is also Vice-Chairman and Executive Director of the Latvian National Credit Union Association. Prior to this, Mr. Mizis worked with Peace Corps on a project dealing with Small Enterprise Development in the Baltics.

Germany (East) Dr. Volker Petersen, Deputy General Secretary, Deutscher Raiffeisen Verband DRV (Germany)

Background on the speaker:
Dr. Petersen has worked with the German Raiffeisen Federation since 1984. He initially joined DRV as assistant to the Board and then headed the "Market and Environment" Deaprtment. He has held the post of Deputy General Secretary of the DRV since 1993.

Ukraine Thomas Garnett, Vice-President of Cooperative Development, Southern States Cooperative and Board Member, ACDI/VOCA

Background on the speaker:
Mr. Garnett, US national, has been working with Southern States Cooperative in Virginia (USA) since 1968. He has held a variety of positions from local cooperative manager to his more recent international responsibilities. He held the job of Vice-President of International Sales for six years prior to becoming Vice-President of Cooperative Development one year ago. He has also held a number of Board position with the American Feed Industry Association, Cooperative Research Farms, and the International Committee of American Feed Industry Association. He presently sits on the Board of ACDI-VOCA.

Overview with special reference to Poland, Moldova and Uzbekistan John Millns B.Sc. M.Sc., Plunkett Foundation

Background on the speaker:
Mr. Millns has 10 years of professional experience in the agricultural, rural and enterprise sectors of Western, Central and Eastern Europe and the Newly Independent States. Mr Millns has managed six international programmes and has worked on projects for the European Union Phare and Tacis programmes, the British Know How Fund, the World Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.

His primary areas of work have focused upon enhancing rural incomes and employment, primarily through, supporting the development of a privatised agricultural sector, providing assistance to the promotion and establishment of producer groups and encouraging rural entrepreneurship.

Summary of the presentation:
Mr Millns will present a broad picture of agricultural privatisation throughout central and eastern Europe over the past decade. Particular reference will be made to Government reform policies and key economic indicators. Mr Millns will then compare the performance of countries moving towards a market economy and the overall effects this has had on household incomes.

Mr Millns will then concentrate upon the rural sector and in particular upon the development of producer and self help groups. Mr Millns will present key criteria for the effective development of producer groups, which are voluntarily owned and controlled by private, individual producers. He will then focus specifically on three diverse countries, Poland, Moldova and Uzbekistan, and compare the extent to which agricultural co-operation has developed and the differences in approach.

Finally Mr. Millns will summarise the key issues and lessons to be learned from the past decade and present some future development possibilities which are aimed to assist policy makers, donors and practitioners primarily interested in the development of producer groups and rural associations.

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Posted: 22 October 1999 -- Links updated: 28 October 2002