Announcements

Canadian Resource Facility Manager to join FAO-SARD team in August 2006
Under a new agreement between FAO and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the Government of Canada will contribute the expertise of a senior policy advisor to fill the position of SARD Resource Facility Manager for a one-year period beginning in August 2006. Ms. Colleen Hyslop has been appointed to the post with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s (AAFC) Strategic Policy Branch. Her tasks will include promoting demonstrated good practices and appropriate technologies through a web-based inventory, developing communications materials, and analyzing gaps in available information and resources to promote sustainable agriculture and rural development.
Ms. Hyslop brings to the team recent experience as manager of the Risk Reduction program with the AAFC Pest Management Centre. She directs the program’s work with agricultural organizations to develop sustainable pest management strategies and foster the adoption by farmers of beneficial practices. Previously she worked with Environment Canada in areas including endangered species, environmental assessment, and wildlife conservation. Ms. Hyslop obtained a Master of Science degree in biology from the University of Calgary in 1978 and a graduate diploma in International Development & Cooperation from the University of Ottawa in 1989.

Solution Exchange Booklet on Promoting SARD through Employment Guarantee Scheme in India, released on 18 May 2006
India’s new employment guarantee scheme for disadvantaged rural workers attracted the attention of several official participants at the International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development in March. They saw it as a potentially replicable practice that could be of benefit in their countries. FAO, on behalf of the SARD Initiative, has generated a set of questions for the Indian Solution Exchange community on Food and Nutrition Security about how the scheme might be used to promote SARD. Responses have been collated by the Solution Exchange team and released in electronic and booklet forms.

For more information about the Indian Solution Exchange Initiative, go to: Solution Exchange
(Contributed by SARD INITIATIVE)

Second tranche of Norwegian funds allocated for SARD Initiative activities in 1st quarter of 2006
The Government of Norway has approved a new support package to enable FAO to strengthen its work programme on food security. Included are several components that include activities in support of the SARD Initiative, e.g., access to land, sustainable culture-based fisheries, incorporating food safety concerns in good agricultural practices and other actions to empower rural communities to achieve SARD.
(Contributed by SARD INITIATIVE)

New Documents

SARD Initiative Newsletter issue 2 now online
The second issue of the SARD Initiative Newsletter was released to electronic subscribers on 6th June 2006 and is now available online. Topics covered include:

Global/regional workshops and conferences

Joint FAO-Sustainet Workshop: From Identification to Scaling up of Good Practices, 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, the FAO SARD team 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 workshop report contains a reflection upon the methods (advantages and disadvantages) for scaling up, appropriate context and scale, costs and benefits and potential impacts. The organizers plan to work together to build a closer collaboration among their institutions on concrete ways to move forward.

For more information about the German sponsors of the joint FAO-Sustainet Up-scaling workshop, go to:
German Agency for Technical Co-operation (GTZ)and Centre of Landscape and Land Use Research (ZALF).
(Contributed by SARD INITIATIVE)

National activities and events

LATIN AMERICA: Working to document and replicate SARD good practices
In 2006, RIMISP, Centro Latinoamericano para el Desarrollo Rural was contracted by FAO to establish a network of communities and farmers’ groups engaged in activities to foster SARD. The regional non-profit organization promoted information exchange and learning on 15 locally tested good practices on natural resources management, through community exchanges among indigenous communities from six different Latin American countries.
(Contributed by SARD INITIATIVE)


VIETNAM: SEI in VIETNAM
The SARD Initiative intends to support national implementation process in Vietnam in partnership with Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) and Swedish University of Agricultural Science. The programme will facilitate and enable self organization of civil society for SARD with particular focus on up scaling of good practices.
The intended programme will be implemented in three phases; first, to identify and assess SARD good practices, second, to facilitate the introduction of impact assessment tools and third, to prepare a set of impact reports. The latter will also serve as to form the basis for national reports to the review session of the Commission for Sustainable Development (CSD) in 2009.
(Contributed by SARD INITIATIVE)

INDIA: Joint Sustainet and SARD Initiative Workshop, 8-12 May 2006, Pune
SARD Initiative and GTZ Sustainable Agriculture Information Network (Sustainet) arranged a workshop in Pune, India between 8th and 12th May 2006 to evaluate successful approaches for the scaling-up of good practices in sustainable agriculture and rural development (SARD) in India and consider next steps for promoting such practices more widely.

The participants agreed that the Initiative should support the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) 2005 to ensure that SARD good practices are taken up. There was a consensus that the best strategy to do this was to raise awareness and build the capacity of district officials and Panchayat members, so that they take up genuinely productive works, chose appropriate SARD options and ensure up-scaling of good practices in the long term. It was suggested that local NGOs involved in the implementation of previous national guarantee schemes should present successful experiences of seminars, workshops and exposure visits to sensitise local authorities and bureaucrats on ways to undertake the work.
(Contributed by SARD INITIATIVE)

FAO and UN meetings

14th Session of UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD 14), 1-12 May 2006, New York, USA
CSD-14 reviewed the following themes: energy for sustainable development, industrial development, air pollution/atmosphere and climate change. Although SARD was not the primary focus of attention at this year’s meeting of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD), the annual gathering provides a good opportunity for Major Group Focal Points for SARD to meet informally with each other and reach out to a broader base of stakeholders. This year, SARD stakeholders began discussions on the preparatory process for CSD 16 and CSD 17, when technical and policy reviews of SARD will be on the agenda.

For more information about multi-major group discussions on SARD during CSD 14 and plans to start major group preparations for the CSD 16 and CSD 17 reviews, contact the MGFP facilitator at ipsa@igc.org or the FAO-SARD team at SARD-Initiative@fao.org