Advocacy for government support to Sustainable Agriculture and Farmer Led Enterprises

General

PROJECT DESCRIPTION 2014: The region of South and South East Asia is a densily populated area where small scale farmers have to make a living on very small plots, which are often not owned by themselves. Their position in the value chain is limited due to the fact that the market is ruled by big companies, while national governments and regional government bodies do not yet have policies which give small scale farmers a favourable position in the value chain or in better access to government resources for agriculture development. AFA plans to use the International Year of Family Farming to influence, through its members, the national governments to spend more funds on programmes for youth farmers in agriculture. The FACT approach is used to achieve better impact on these national governments. AFA is a member of many regional and international fora. It uses this position to influence the agenda of important stakeholders like ASEAN and SAARC to improve the position of small scale farmers in the market chain. 2013: AFA will continue to strengthen its policy advocacy, knowledge management and capacity building role within the Asia region. It will respond to the opportunities given by the current policy environment context at all levels: international, regional and national. With regard to Policy Advocacy, the project will maximize the opportunities given by the IYFF and GAFSP processes. In line with this, AFA will draw inspiration/guidance from the FACT tools. Youth will get specific attention in the International Year of Family Farming. 2. With regard to Knowledge Management, New or relevant knowledge may include successful and unsuccessful on-the–ground initiatives (advocacy, livelihood, marketing, enterprise development, traditional practices,coping strategies). These can be packaged and shared as various knowledge products such as case studies, video presentations, manuals, etc. 3. Strengthen its base support by involving and collaborating potential members as well as other farmers’ organizations involved in MTCP and GAFSP processes at the national and regional levels. It will strengthen the capacity of its members in policy advocacy, knowledge management, network building, and organizational expansion at national and regional levels in the course of its advocacy activities 4. Strengthen partnerships with NGOs, and academe/agriculture-related institutions at national levels by involving them in the various national and regional activities to be organized by AFA. 2011-2012: In this project, AFA will strengthen its Advocacy role within the Asia region by: (1) collecting and analyzing the voices – situation, initiatives and proposals - of small scale women and men farmers at the national level through guided national consultations; (2) consolidating and transforming these voices into concrete policy proposals at the regional level through AFA-organized regional consultations; and, (3) presenting these consolidated voices and concrete policy proposals in regional and international consultations, fora and negotiations organized by regional/international intergovernmental bodies and NGOs. Project objectives 2014: The region of South and South East Asia is a densily populated area where small scale farmers have to make a living on very small plots, which are often not owned by them. Their position in the value chain is limited due to the fact that the market is ruled by big companies, while national governments and regional government bodies do not yet have policies which give small scale farmers a favourable position in the value chain or in better access to government resources for agriculture development. AFA tries to improve the position of these small scale farmers mainly through their active engagement in various regional and global bodies. AFA, established in 2002 and supported since 2003 by Agriterra, is expanding its membership beyond South and South East Asia to include also Northern Asian members from Mongolia and Kyrgistan (besides already existing farmer organisations from Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. The expansion is a result of AFA's involvement in GAFSP (Global action for Food Security Programme) financed by IFAD/EU and MTCP-2 (Medium term Cooperative Programme 2) also partly financed by IFAD/EU funds. The above indicated position and the fact that 2014 is the International Year of Family Farming (IYFF), will be used by AFA in 2014 to influence the following: 1) engaging key intergovernmental bodies, like FAO, ASEAN and SAARC in the Medium Term Cooperative Programme 2 (MTCP-2) financed by EU/IFAD a.o; 2) pushing more value down the chain through AFA's involvement in the GAFSP (Global Action for Food security Programma) steering committee; 3) actively participating in the 'voluntary guidelines on responsible agriculture investment (RAI) through its membership of Civil Society Mechanism (CSM) and Committee of World Food Security (CFS); 4) Intensify lobby/campaiging towards ASEAN ministers of agriculture and forestry on policies related to investment in small-holder agriculture and the creation of institutionalised mechanism for small scale farmers participation in agriculture governance in the region; 5). developing and promoting AFA's youth agenda in IYFF processes both at national and regional level. For the latter FACT will be used as approach to increase the national government support to youth in agriculture. In 2014 AFA will increase its membership to 13 countries with 17 Farmers Organisations. Besides that the following capacity related objectives are foreseen: - Through active participation in various international fora AFA members will gain exposure and experience which enhances their claim making position. - Follow up of the evaluation of AFA-Agriterra partnership by making AFA more responsive to the needs of its members. Main activities in 2014: - national implementation of AFA FACT on youth work plan - workshop: building the youth farmers agenda for AFA - second FACT workshop and training of trainers - popularising the VGGT (voluntary guidelines on responsive governance) making comparative analysis between existing land laws and VGGT - GAFSP advocacy for financing small agro-enterprises by farmers - participation in regional and international conferences of a.o. multilateral agencies - governance: working groups on AFA future, EXECOM meetings and 6th AFA general assembly, visit to members, member to member cooperation. - knowledge management: website maintanance, knowledge sharing sessions on agri-enterprise and manual development, sharing sessionon AFA IYFF priority agenda, issue paper on IYFF and youth, IYFF poster. Key indicators related to objectives: - increased awareness on importance of IYFF and VGGT among national members of AFA and how to maximise it in their continuing advocacy/dialogue with their governments - on attracting youth to agriculture: national members have identified key issues of young farmers, have drafted a policy proposal to address priority issues of young farmers, made a lobby mapping/stakeholder analysis and hold policy dialogues with concerned agencies to propose the policy proposal. At regional level a youth programme has been developed and new GAFSP guidelines on access to financing by small scale and medium agri-enterprises are favorable to farmers. - on strengthening AFA members participation and contribution to advocacy and operations of AFA: mechanism for involving youth in AFA governance, mechanism for more participation and involvement of members in AFA's overall financial and operational aspects, roadmap to strategic planning process steps for 2016-2020 strategic plan. - on knowledge products: produced 2 papers on family farming and youth issues, consolidated at regional level; AFA website maintained; manual on assessing FO enterprises developed. In order to verify these indicators the following are used: project reports, news clippings, perception survey among stakeholders, evaluation forms, documentation of activities, minutes of meetings, concept notes, policy papers, count of website visitors, articles in website, number of tweets etc. Project direct outreach: 383 (40% women). Indirect outreach: 17,344: members of 14 FO's in 11 countries, visitors of website (330/week), users/readers of IYFF issue papers and posters. Total consolidated budget for 2014 is US$ 448,151. request to Agriterra is US$ 300,286 (Euro 228,217) Project Objectives 2013: - To strengthen the commitment, solidarity and capacities of family farmers and their national and regional organizations to promote family farming and push for policies and programs that will support family farming agriculture, in partnership with other multi-stakeholders of IYFF. Each country can focus on 2-3 priority advocacy agenda from the five covered policy agenda: a) Recognition of family farmers, esp. women and young farmers; b) Land rights; c) Investments for sustainable agroecological approaches by family farmers; d) Increased market power of farmers; e) Meaningful participation of FF in agri-related decision-making processes; and, f) Attracting the youth to agriculture and agri-related activities. 3. Expected Results: a) Enhanced capacities of FOs to generate and promote policies and programs in favor of family farming agriculture and the above-mentioned six advocacy agenda, with the following indicators: • 13 AFA member FOs and 2 partner FOs, as a result of implementing the regional FACT plan, are able to upgrade their skills in consulting members, generating data through participatory processes, writing SMART proposals and analysing stakeholders’ interest in a specific policy proposal. The policy proposals will target specific national government agencies at the national level, and the regional inter-governmental agencies (FAO, IFAD, ASEAN, and SAARC) at the regional levels. • AFA’s proposal to create the ASEAN Farmers’ Advocacy Council as institutionalized mechanism for dialogue between small-scale farmers and ASEAN Ministers of Agriculture and Fisheries (AMAF), is recognized and acted upon by AMAF. b) Well-registered/documented initiatives of AFA members on their advocacy for specific policy issues, including lessons they learned in their advocacy work, with the following indicators: • FACT reports by 9 FOs who have undergone FACT workshops and submitted FACT national action plans • FACT reports by 13 AFA member FOs who have participated in the AFA regional FACT plan c) AFA at national and regional levels is key player and mover in a broad platform of CSOs working for a meaningful celebration of IYFF, with the following indicators: • National IYFF committees are set up and AFA members in 6 MTCP2 countries (Indonesia, Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam, Nepal, Bangladesh) are active members • AFA members in 6 MTCP2 countries are able to get support from other FOs in promoting IYFF d) Progress in the advocacy of the policy proposals being pushed at national and regional levels, as indicated by: • The proposal has moved several steps from the moment it was articulated to decision makers project activities 2013: Component 1: advocacy a. National-level sessions on IYFF, VG/RAI b. FACT Workshops c. Implementation of FACT action plans at country and regional level d. Lobby with ASEAN on the creation of the ASEAN Farmers Advisory Council. e. Desk Research on Family Farming Agriculture at the national, sub-regional (ASEAN, SAARC) and regional (Asia) level f. Issue Paper on Asia IYFF campaign g. Participation in consultations and negotiations with government decision making bodies h. Regional Workshop on Building Self Reliant Communities Component 2: knowlegde management a. Website Maintenance b. Knowledge Sharing Workshop on Farmers’ Market Power c. Translation and Printing of Asia IYFF poster d. Issue Paper on Farmers Market Power e. Generic Powerpoint Templates on IYFF, VG/RAI f. Development o f Monitoring Tool for FACT implementation g. Development of a FACT Community of Practice H. Video Production Component 3: Governance a. Execom Meetings b. AFA IYFF plan c. Upgrading of MYOB software d. Farmer–friendly finance reports e. Networking and Resource Mobilization f. Effective and Efficient Project Coordination and Management g. Mid –review of AFA strat plan 2011-2015 h. Gender and age-sensitive activities i. Evaluation of AFA-Agriterra Cooperation the Past Ten Years PROJECT ACTIVITIES 2011-2012 1. ADVOCACY A. In-country Consultations – From August till November 2011, three-day in-country consultations will be conducted in at least eight countries (AFA member countries Indonesia, Cambodia, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand; MTCP covered country Laos and GAFSP covered countries Bangladesh and Nepal) guided by a reference template/design. These consultations will involve key national leaders of the farmers’ organizations belonging to AFA and MTCP/GAFSP participants, partner NGOs, private sector, academic institutions; and can number from 15-30 participants, 40% of which should be women. Steps will be taken to synchronize these consultations with MTCP/GAFSP consultations to save costs and time. MTCP countries include Indonesia, Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos, while GAFSP countries include Bangladesh, Nepal, and Mongolia. For year 2011, the consultations will cover the focus issues on land rights, food price volatility and climate financing. Also an analysis of the organice rice industry in the four countries. For year 2012 Industry analysis of other focused crops in each covered country (to be identified during AFA meeting before end of 2011). The main objective of each industry analysis is to identify issues and concerns that hinder farmers' participation in the supply/value chain and to recommend concrete policies and programmes to help them be more involved in it. The consultations will be documented and cases for further documentation will be identified. B. Regional Consultation – A regional consultation, once every six months, will be conducted to consolidate the national situation and responses to the focus issues, and outline policy recommendations that can be addressed to the national and inter-governmental bodies. Experts from partner NGO's and academics will be invited to aid participants in the analysis of issues. For 2011, the regional consultation will result in describing the recommendations of AFA to inter-governmental bodies on the issues of food price volatility, climate financing and land rights. For 2012, a regional consultation on the industry analysis of the covered crops will be the main theme, to be conducted in the first semester of the year. Another theme for 2012’s second semester will be identified at the early part of 2012. The theme will be based on AFA leaders’ reading of the emerging issues and debates on smallholder agriculture and opportunities for investments in agriculture. C.. Elaboration of Policy proposals -Results of consultations will be transformed into concrete policy recommendations/proposals that have a better chance to be appreciated and approved by concerned inter-governmental bodies and national government agencies. Policy papers and statements are drafted with support from partner NGO's and academic community and incorporate relevant research findings. D. Participation in Consultations and Negotiations organized by inter-governmental bodies - Efforts will be made for AFA members to have more space to articulate the policy proposals resulting from its national and regional consultations. In meetings in Asia AFA will send at least three delegates where decisions will be made on the focused issues. This includes farmer leaders. In this way their confidence and skills can be built, and their understanding on international issues and processes deepened, their knowledge on good practices increased to be adopted at the national level. For year 2011, we will target representation during the meetings of the Committee on Food Security (Italy, October), UNFCCC (South Africa, December) and ASEAN summit (Indonesia, October/November). 2. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMenT Documentation of Selected FO Initiatives – During the national consultations, AFA will have a list of the initiatives of farmers on the focused issues. Based on certain criteria (e.g. possible replication, good case for policy recommendation) AFA will select some cases to be further studied. All documentation and knowledge products shall be done through participatory assessment where all involved stakeholders/support organizations participate to capture both quantitative and qualitative results and simultaneously analyze to identify areas for further improvements. To ensure proper documentation, tie-up with academic or research institution shall be explored by AFA to achieve scientific report capturing both quantitative and qualitative results/outcome of the pilot test. Results shall be utilized in advocacy work for decision-making process: whether to continue incubating (another cycle), to replicate or scale-up, to stop, or to further innovate, using the criteria of viability and competitiveness. The results shall also be published as case studies and policy papers to lobby support for replication/upscaling of successful initiatives to other areas. Influence national and inter-governmental international decision making bodies on common agriculture issues affecting small scale male and female farmers