On this page, you will find information about the latest SARD Initiative news and events.
SARD Initiative Newsletter Issue 2
The second issue of the SARD Initiative Newsletter is now available online. If you wish to receive this newsletter and future issues by email please contact SARD-Initiative@fao.org
Good Practices: "from Identification to Scaling up" Workshop
17 May 2006. Rome, Italy. FAO, the German Agency for Technical Co-operation (GTZ) and the Centre of Landscape and Land Use Research (ZALF) organised a good practices scaling up workshop at FAO headquarters on 17 May 2006.
The GTZ funded, Sustainable Agriculture Information Network (Sustainet) in collaboration with ZALF are in the process of developing a tool for assessing the potential for scaling up of good practices. Similarly, in the field of sustainable agriculture FAO, SARD is working with Sustainet to identify and replicate local successful SARD experiences in India, Tanzania, Kenya and Bolivia.
The workshop was an opportunity to share knowledge and lessons learned, assess existing project methodologies and identify gaps and opportunities for improving final results of current activities. The outcome of the workshop is a reflection upon the methods (advantages and disadvantages) for scaling up, appropriate context and scale, costs and benefits and potential impacts as well as work to build a closer collaboration among the institutions in concrete ways forward.
The SARD Initiative and Sustainet Joint Workshop
8-14 May 2006 Raipur, India. SARD Initiative and GTZ Sustainet (Sustainable Agriculture Information Network) arranged a workshop in Raipur India between 8th and 11th May 2006 to evaluate, communicate and disseminate successful approaches for the scaling-up of good practices in sustainable agriculture and rural development (SARD) in India.
The implementation of the SARD Initiative in India, including the promotion of good practices through the newly-launched government Employment Guarantee Scheme, was discussed in a SARD Initiative meeting between 10th and 11th May. A joint workshop and field trips to good practice sites were scheduled from 12th to 14th May.
Livestock Good Practice Workshop
14-17 March, 2006. Kaijado District, Kenya. The Global Livestock Working Group, launched by SARD Initiative Major Groups at the IFSA Global Learning Opportunity conference in October 2005, is holding a four-day livestock workshop in Kaijado, Kenya. Participants from the Samburu and Kajiado pastoralist communities, the SARD Major Groups in Kenya and international guests, government, UN agencies and the donor community will work to identify good practices, to assess resources and identify elements for training needs related to livestock based sustainable livelihoods and wildlife systems, as well as raise awareness of program and policy implications. The planning committee, convened by the SARD Kenya National civil society focal point Mr. Michael Ojiambo, has planned an interactive workshop and field trips to design a multi-stakeholder collaborative action plan for a food chain approach to livestock-based livelihoods good practice in the region.. More information on this workshop can be obtained from Mr. Michael Kibue, SARD Livestock Self-Help Development Association; Business and Industry Focal Point, Kenya: sardlivestock06@yahoo.com
SARD Initiative Side-Event at ICARRD
9 March, 2006. Porto Alegre, Brazil. The SARD Initiative has facilitated a side-event at the International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ICARRD) called “From ICARRD to CSD: Lessons in Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development”. This group session allowed representatives from governments, civil society organizations, social movements, small farmer organizations and Major Group constituents to identify successes, trends, lessons, challenges, unfulfilled expectations and emerging priorities reported at ICARRD that need to be taken into account in the 10-year report on Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development to the Committee on Sustainable Development (CSD) in 2008/2009 when progress related to agriculture, rural development and food security will be assessed.
SARD Initiative implementation process begins in India
10 February, 2006. New Delhi, India. Ideas and approaches for implementing the SARD Initiative in India were the focus of a one-day brainstorming session involving a representative from the FAO SARD Initiative team, representatives from the Farmers, Indigenous Peoples, NGO, Science & Technology, and Women’s Major Groups, as well as representatives from the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements, The Energy and Resources Institute, and Sustainet. The group carried out an informal survey of key problems from the perspective of each Major Group, and discussed the importance of mainstreaming SARD in the 11th Indian National Development Plan. Two possible cross-cutting issues to address through the SARD Initiative were identified. The first is the need for a minimum wage law. The second is the challenge of protecting market access of genuine organic producers from commercial enterprises who advertise as organic without producing organically. It also became apparent during the meeting that there is a growing sense of despondency among civil society actors in India in the face of the effects of globalization. Globalization is posing an increasing challenge to development work, because under the influence of multi-national companies privatization is increasing, and the government is seen as becoming less active on matters relation to social justice.
This national implementation process will continue through 2006 with the identification of relevant Major Group organisations, and further refinement of the possible themes which could guide the SARD Initiative’s implementation in India.
