Advocacy training programme for the European Community-Supported Agriculture movement Erasmus Project

Project Title

Advocacy training programme for the European Community-Supported Agriculture movement

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Rural development and urbanisation; Civic engagement / responsible citizenship; Reaching the policy level/dialogue with decision makers

Project Summary

Public policies play a determinant role in shaping the future of agricultural and food systems; they can underwrite legal frameworks to mobilise societal resources in support of sustainable food systems based on small-scale food producers, agroecology, right to food and nutrition, food justice and solidarity. These outcomes are however far from assured. This makes clear that public policies are tools, not ends in and of themselves. Without proper meaningful engagement of civil society organizations to exercise their rights in the design, implementation and oversight of policies that affect them – in other words, make their voices heard – public policies will be unable to confront the challenges facing food and agriculture in the 21st century.

Urgenci, as the international network of national CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture) platforms, provides support, education and training on international and regional levels to its members on a range of issues pertaining to sustainable food systems. Within this context, “Voices for CSA” is a short initial project part of a longer-term movement-building effort for the CSA networks to develop and reinforce their capacity to engage in bottom-up advocacy processes across continents and policy levels. The voices project is a first step embedded in a larger plan, with a specific geographical scope EU-focused and ambitions set around education rather than policy-change (exchange of good practices to help develop and structure an education program).

The project aimed at structuring and developing a capacity building program and tools for CSA networks in order to reinforce their capacity for bottom-up advocacy processes both at national and EU levels. It revolved around three main axes: to build a collective understanding of advocacy processes for the CSA movement; to increase its capacity to collectively positions or organise advocacy campaigns and; to develop clear internal processes around advocacy efforts within the network.

The training program was rooted in the participatory learning approach and structured around 4 trainings, covering the 3 main themes. The first training offered an overview and first-hand experience of the global governance mechanisms related to food and agriculture in order to build the understanding of how advocacy processes take place. The second training focused on strengthening skills within the context of a network governance, to address the dimension of internal decision-making process for positioning. The third and fourth trainings centred on experience-sharing and building knowledge related to collectively organise advocacy campaigns. They anchored themselves within the EU context – namely, EU institutions and UN institutions for European level.

Over 70 participants, mostly CSA members, joined these trainings, and received the honorific certification title of “CSA Advocates”. They gained skills in relation with: developing basic understanding of relevant food-related institutional structures, frameworks and actors at EU and UN level; sharing resources and knowledge on ongoing and existing relevant bottom-up advocacy process led by CSAs; enhancing skills to select and analyse an advocacy theme; providing technical knowledge on how to identify and build result-oriented alliance and networks; conducting basic strategizing and building common vision and; increasing people confidence in their skills and possibilities.

The project resulted in successfully building a collective understanding of advocacy process for the CSA movement. This was validated through the collective production of a Guidelines for CSA Advocates guide available in 8 languages. Partners and participating organisations gained skills enabling their capacity to follow relevant public policy-making initiatives at national, EU and global levels. Participating organisations have been able to already use the knowledge gained in furthering their advocacy activities at the national level. It also sparkled involvement in advocacy initiatives at the EU and international level. This uptake was further achieved by and thanks to the development of clear internal processes for the CSA movement around advocacy, which enabled the articulation of joint common position around policy making and advocacy processes.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 107188 Eur

Project Coordinator

RESEAU INTERNATIONAL URGENCI & Country: FR

Project Partners

• Asociatia pentru Sustinerea Agriculturii Taranesti
• MOUVEMENT INTER-REGIONAL DES AMAP
• ECOLOGISTAS EN ACCION
• SOLIDARISCHE LANDWIRTSCHAFT EV
• Associazione Fairwatch
• Le Réseau des Groupes d’Achat Solidaires de l’Agriculture Paysanne asbl
• AGROOIKOPOLIS ELLINIKO DIKTIO AGROOIKOLOGIAS DIATROFIKIS KYRIARXIAS KAI PROSVASIS STI GH