Canadian Resource Facility Manager joins FAO-SARD Team

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. She can be contacted at: colleen.hyslop@fao.org

Good Practices Workshop: From Identification to Scaling up

17 May 2006. 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.

Joint Sustainet and SARD Initiative Workshop on Scaling up Good Practices, Pune, India

8-11 May 2006. The GTZ Sustainable Agriculture Information Network (Sustainet), the FAO SARD team and the FAOR in India organised this workshop on 8-11 May in Pune, India 2006

The workshop evaluated successful approaches for the scaling-up of good SARD practices in India, and discussed ways in which information about these practices could be more widely disseminated.
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.

14th Session of UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD 14)

1-12 May 2006, New York. 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

Second tranche of Norwegian funds allocated for SARD Initiative Activities

April 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.

Kenya Livestock Good Practice Workshop

14-17 March 2006. The Global Livestock Working Group, launched by SARD Initiative Major Groups at the IFSA Global Learning Opportunity conference in October 2005, held a four-day livestock workshop in Kaijado, Kenya from 14-17 March, 2006. Participants from the Samburu and Kajiado pastoralist communities, the SARD Major Groups in Kenya and international guests, government, UN agencies and the donor community worked to identify good practices, assess resources and identify elements for training needs related to livestock-based sustainable livelihoods and wildlife systems, as well as raise awareness of programme and policy implications. The planning committee, convened by the SARD-Kenya national civil society focal point, Mr. Michael Ojiambo, organised 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

Exploratory talks with Government of South Africa on good practice documentation and training project .

March 2006. As part of a larger national effort to create employment opportunities and provide related training for unemployed university graduates, the Government of South Africa is considering developing a project to train 200 unemployed university graduates in methods used by the SARD Initiative to document and promote replication of good practices. A member of the FAO-SARD team met with government officials in Pretoria in mid-March to suggest practical ways in which this idea might be implemented. The response of the government is now awaited.

SARD Initiative Side-Event at ICARRD, Porto Alegre, Brazil.

9 March 2006. On 9 March, the SARD Initiative 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 and 2009 when progress related to agriculture, rural development and food security will be assessed.

Initial SARD Initiative Brainstorming Session in India .

10 February 2006. Ideas and approaches for implementing the SARD Initiative in India were the focus of a one-day brainstorming session organised by the SARD Initiative in New Delhi, INdia on 10 February 2006. The session involved a representative from the FAO SARD Initiative team, representatives from the five Major Groups, namely, Farmers, Indigenous Peoples, NGOs, Science & Technology, and Women. as well as representatives FAO, UNDP 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.

The 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.