devinitorg/iati-policy-markers huggingface dataset:
4*basic PGS Trainings PGS Trainings were carried out in Sao Tome and Principe in May 2018 and in Togo and Ghana in June 2018. The training in STP took place between 22 and 24 May. The trainers were Laércio Meirelles from Brazil, who contributed his rich experience with building PGS in Brazil and supporting PGS development in different countries (in Latin America and Portuguese speaking African countries), and Flávia Moura e Castro, IFOAM - Organics International Organic Policy and Guarantee Specialist. 22 participants joined the 3-day training, which included half a day of farm visits for a practical peer-review exercise. A plan to develop PGS in STP was prepared by the participants, coached by the trainers, and an initial PGS design is available. In Togo, the training took place between 5 and 7 June in Lomé. The main trainer was Lazare Yombi from Benin, a specialist who has been building PGS in Benin, Burkina Faso and Mali. Cornelia Kirchner, IFOAM - Organics International Organic Policy and Guarantee Specialist, attended as co-trainer. The PGS training in Togo was combined with a stakeholder meeting that took place on 5 June 2018. Due to the high interest in PGS (about 60 people asked to register) it was decided to split the PGS workshop into 2 parts: an initial session was carried out on 5 June afternoon and made open to all stakeholders interested. This session introduced the concept on PGS and facilitated some discussion about the reasons and motivations for PGS. More than 60 persons participated in this open session. The following 2 days (6 and 7 June) were closed and limited to 40 people who were selected based on their motivations submitted. The training in Ghana took place between 11 and 13 June with 27 participants. The trainer was Cornelia Kirchner, IFOAM - Organics International Organic Policy and Guarantee Specialist. The training included an introduction to organic agriculture, certification and the methodology related to building up PGS. PGS theory and practice was covered extensively. On 12 June a practical farm review exercise was carried out. At the end of the training the next steps were discussed and a several stakeholders voiced their interest to be involved in the future activities.
Identification of existing and new value chain actors One of the main objectives of the workshops organised in March 2018 in the four project countries was to start the process of identifying the main actors involved in the selected value chains. Following a participatory process, the participants to the workshops identified importers, exporters, processors and farmers' groups. This process is developed during the stakeholder analysis conducted within Output 1, is continued by the local communicators and will be taken over by the value chain coaches. The relevant stakeholder categories will continue to be updated in order to keep track of new or developing actors.
PGS Ghana was officially launched and the PGS Website operational in October 2020 The launch event and official operationalization of PGS Ghana were organized on 4 October 2020, where government officials and numerous stakeholders have been invited and participated in the event. In addition to the launch event, PGS Ghana is officially registered as an NGO is now looking to organize the AGM and has drafted its constitution. An Election Committee has been informed and the next elections are planned by the end of Year 4 operations.
Training VC operators This activity will be carried out during the whole implementation of the project. The VC operators will continue to be trained based on the already identified and/ or future needs, and specific requirements of their respective value chains. By the end of project year 2, our value chain coaches trained a total of 140 value chain actors.
Creation of (online) directory for every country. According to the initial planning, an online directory for the four project countries was to be set up within the IFOAM – Organics International website. After discussions with local partners and the local teams, it was decided that the websites will be set up at national level. This will also have as an aim to empower the national actors to communicate more efficiently and be in control on the information that concerns the national movements. The online directory will therefore continue to give details on the main stakeholders in the organic sector in Ghana, Burkina Faso, Sao Tome and Principe and Togo, but will be planned and maintained at the national level. This activity is currently under implementation, with the websites being already finalised in Burkina Faso, Togo and Ghana.
1.4.1. Selection and preparation of participants for regional conferences and 1.4.2. Participation to conferences The first Biofach participation of the project took place already in 2018, where both the IFOAM – Organics International booth and the African Pavilion hosted a display of products coming from the four project countries, as well as OM4D information material. During September and October 2018, a selection process was organised in order to determine the most suitable OM4D participants to the African Organic Conference in Senegal in November 2018. The participation to the conference had various objectives: to allow the project team members coming from the four countries to get an overview on the developments in the other project countries, to exchange their experience on the aspects related to the implementation of the project activities in the various national contexts, to present the project and its objectives to the other participants and to build synergies with other similar initiatives. The OM4D delegation reunited a total of 11 members coming from the 4 project countries, also accompanied by the project manager. The second BioFach participation also took place in February 2019, with products from the project countries being displayed and an internet entry on the project being set up within the BioFach website. The project team also contributed to the preparation of the West African Organic Conference 2019 in Accra in November 2019, where the local teams were reunited and had productive exchanges on the project activities.
Project Management Meetings Project management meetings are organised regularly. A three-month interval has been kept until now, with extraordinary meeting being organised in view of special events and/or activities.
Analysis of value chain with M4P approach This activity focuses on an analysis of the selected value chains in the four project countries by integrating the M4P approach and identifying and addressing key constraints that result in market failures for smallholder farmers. The focus lies on developing market systems by addressing underlying causes, rather than symptoms, of weak performance. In order to ensure the same level of understanding concerning the M4P approach among the project team, and to explore the possible directions of intervention, on 28-29 of May a M4P workshop was organised in Bonn. An external M4P specialist was hired for this occasion – Raphael Dischl, Senior Advisor Sustainable Agriculture & Food Security (Helvetas), based on his experience in applying the M4P methodology in African countries. The M4P method is currently being used by the O3 lead expert in the value chain analysis on the 4 selected VCs. The VC analysis will be available in the second project year.
1.3.1. Organisation of quarterly stakeholder meetings Quarterly stakeholder meetings have been organised in the four project countries. The lead expert of Output 1 and the local communicators placed a special accent on inclusiveness and diversity and encouraged a broad participation of all types of national stakeholders. The meetings were in general very well attended, with over 40 participants per meeting. In Ghana, the meetings offered an invaluable framework for the development of the stakeholder analysis that was produced following a participatory process that involved numerous organic actors in all regions of Ghana. The same process was then implemented in Burkina Faso, Togo and STP. The meetings also gave the project team the opportunity to present the project and its objectives, especially in relation to the National Action Plans that will start being developed in the same framework offered by the quarterly stakeholder meetings. In Sao Tome and Principe, the particular political situation and the slight delay in recruiting the local communicators didn’t allow for the periodic organisation of the stakeholder meetings. In Year 2 of the project, the stakeholders meetings will provide the framework for the discussions of the NAPs, but will also allow the local stakeholders to use the space in order to discuss their own needs and development plans. Space will also be given to Output 2 - the development of internal markets - and the O2 local advisors will be invited to regularly present the development of PGS systems in the project countries. In Burkina Faso the stakeholder meetings will be also implemented at regional and local level . The rationale behind this is that the actors in the region will be able to make their voices heard and to connect to each other at local level, while CNABio will develop its umbrella role through the inclusion of the regions.
Advocate for policies that favour market access. In Togo a proposal for a law to regulate organic agriculture was developed by one of the local organisations (Biodream) and shared with IFOAM – Organics International. The proposal was very good quality (based on the Tunisian Organic Regulation) and the policy team to decide to support the process and to provide technical assistance to improve the text and support a stakeholder consultation, which was launched in August 2018. Since this needs to be a process that has to be agreed on at national level, a committee of stakeholders in Togo will further steer the process and decide how to move forward with the proposal. The IFOAM Policy Brief on How Governments Can Support and Recognise Participatory Guarantee Systems has been revised with up-to-date information and is now available in English and Portuguese. A French version will be ready in the next quarter. This document is useful for stakeholders to advocate for public policies that support OA in general, with a focus on the role of PGS and the domestic market. The recognition of PGS as an M4P tool is progressing. For example, government reps from Ghana, Togo and STP have participated in the PGS trainings, and therefore got sensitised about the benefits of PGS. The Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP) , of which STP is a member, in collaboration with the FAO representation in Portugal, is interested in PGS as an M4P tool. The CPLP countries played a key role in the negotiations that led to the 72nd Session of the UN General Assembly approving the Decade of Family Farming (2019-2028). Through contacts in STP in the framework of OM4D, IFOAM - Organics International has been invited to participate in discussions on how to further promote PGS as a tool for market access supporting sustainable family farming in CPLP. IFOAM - Organics International is therefore currently leasing directly with CPLP and FAO Portugal to expand PGS activities and recognition more broadly. As part of the strategy commonly adopted to support and promote family farming in the member states (currently nine), governments in CPLP have taken up the commitment to review or establish an appropriate regulatory framework and to support PGS for quality assurance within the CPLP. ***Starting with May 2019, this activity focusing on EU policies was redesigned due to the new EU regulation and the changes concerning group certification. The budget was reallocated to activity 4.3.2. instead
1.2.1. Selection of participants for the OLC courses (25 participants/ country, 40% women) The first Organic Leadership Course debuted in Ghana in April 2018. A selection process of the candidates had previously started. In part, the participants were selected from a pool of candidates recommended by the local partners in Ghana. A set of criteria was established and discussed with the local partners in order to ensure that the most motivated and competent candidates were going to have the highest chances of being selected. In order to open up the course to other potential candidates outside Ghana, IFOAM - Organics International also published a call at regional level. The total number of participants was 21, with almost 30% women. The same process was adopted in the Togo and Burkina Faso OLCs, which were also completed in the second project year. A special attention has been given to the gender quota, as well as to the enforcement of objective selection criteria of the most motivated and qualified applicants.
Year 2 Narrative Report Project Report OM4D Year 2 - November 2018 - October 2019
Formulation of a 5-year National Action Plan (NAP) A National Action Plan will be developed with the stakeholders in all four project countries. Currently, different levels of development can be observed: in countries like Ghana and Burkina Faso, where there is already a national organisation in place, the first steps towards the development of a national strategy were already taken. As previously reported, Togo and STP had made less progress than the other two countries, also due to less articulated umbrella organisations that were not fully functional or not in place. Remarkable progress has been undertaken by Togo, where a first workshop took place in December 2019. The workshop reunited representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture, GIZ, and various stakeholders like the OM4D project team and the newly founded ANA-Bio - the Togolese umbrella organisation. The workshop was conducted by IFOAM-Organics International experts and defined the main strategic directions in relation to the development of the organic sector. The workshop has been followed by a series of stakeholders' meetings to further define the activities in the National Action Plan. In Burkina Faso, a working group has already been set and had its first meeting in February 2020.
Launch meeting Launch meetings of the project were organised in all four project countries: Ghana, Burkina Faso, Togo and Saõ Tomé and Principe. The objective of the launch meetings was to present the project and the project team to a wider range of stakeholders and to use the opportunity to establish and reinforce our common goals and assure support for our project. The meetings gathered together various types of national actors involved in the field of organic agriculture, from farmers to representatives of governmental institutions, to businesses, and media.
Identification of current projects that fund the development of the selected VCs Identification of current projects that fund the identified VCs is as an ongoing activity, that already started during the first missions of O3 lead experts and the workshops held in March 2018. This activity will be carried on during the entire lifetime of the project, as new developments are likely to happen in the coming years.
Design of OLC course based on the specific needs identified in 1.1.2. The first OLC course was already implemented in Ghana, with the specific needs of the sector identified during the kick-off and first stakeholders’ meeting, as well as during the stakeholders’ analysis process that took place in Ghana during the first half of 2018. The same process was applied in Togo and Burkina Faso. The approach will also be used in order to identify the stakeholders’ needs in Sao Tome and Principe, where the OLC will be implemented in 2020.
Employ 1 communicator and 1 value chain coach per country The objective of this activity is to employ one local communicator and one local value chain coach in Ghana, Burkina Faso, Togo, Sao Tome and Principe. Currently, local communicators have already been employed in all four project countries. Value chain coaches were also employed in Sao Tome, Burkina Faso and Ghana. In Togo, the value chain coach function is also fulfilled by the two communicators.
PGS Ghana coaching programme on MSD Helvetas has been contracted to undertake a 3- month coaching programme for PGS Ghana on the concept of MSD in support of PGS Ghana's strategy for financial sustainability
Communication and outreach activities PGS Ghana celebrated its official launch on Friday October 30th and for that purpose, they organised an event in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture and GIZ Ghana. PGS Ghana has also launched a new website, as part of their advocacy campaign. In the framework of PGS Ghana’s social media campaign, a video has been released, featuring renowned chefs using organic food products.
2.1.1. Identifying existing PGS initiatives in each country This activity aims at identifying various existing PGS initiatives in the 4 project countries. After delivering the initial PGS workshops and hiring the local PGS advisors, the identification of local initiatives that could be suitable for PGS started. PGS advisors visited local initiatives in the project countries and made recommendations on which of these initiatives should be further supported. The IFOAM - Organics International PGS team is currently in the process of selection of local initiatives. A set of evaluation criteria was developed, with the following types of information being assessed: production base, existing market potential, technical and administrative support, previous experience with standards and/or certification and the necessity of establishing a PGS. A total of 34 PGS initiatives was visited in the project countries, and a selection of the most promising ones was conducted. These initiatives were further developed in project year 2, and concrete steps to build the PGS and develop tools and processes will continue to be produced based on the particular situation of the different initiatives. Some of the most promising initiatives identified are CFAPE, Tropi-Techno and Biodream in Togo, ZOVFA and COSEREC in Ghana and two groups involved already in organic cooperatives in STP, together with Amparo II group, equally supported by the local NGO ADAPPA.
Communication and outreach activities The Advocacy team is currently in the process of identifying the PGS initiatives and groups of farmers whose stories will be promoted in the advocacy materials, social media campaigns, videos that have been planned within this activity. The first communication actions started in the second project year, with the WAOC 2019, when the project team used various media channels in Ghana to communicate about the event. We also shared the main messages of the conference through social media.
Akvo Flow training The Akvo Flow Training was organised in Ghana on June 1, 2018. The training was provided for the project coordinator and Inusah Issah from Agro Eco Ghana, who will supervise the Akvo Flow dash board and ensure the monitoring of questionnaires for the baseline and end line studies.
Continuation of the cooperation of OM4D with SNV Burkina Faso on VC development and training of operators. OM4D and SNV Burkina Faso signed a memorandum of understanding to continue the joint effort to develop the shea nuts value chain in Burkina Faso, in the areas of intervention of OM4D and SNV-led VC development projects. The agreement includes terms on the training of the shea VC actors that could not take place in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and travel restrictions. This agreement also ensures the sustainability of OM4D as the SNV partner project was launched in 2021 and will be implemented until 2023. The VC development impact of OM4D will last beyond the closure of the project in January 2022.
Baseline study The baseline study was finalised in all four project countries. The activity was delayed in comparison to the initial planning due to the complexity of having to address four different value chains in four different countries and to the challenges related to the selection of the most appropriate farmers’ groups. PGS groups were also included in the baseline, which contributes to the complexity of organising this activity. The baseline study is attached to our IATI reporting.
Identification of one high impact value chain and its actors per country Following a participatory process that already took place before the actual start date of the project, the following high impact value chains have been identified: in Ghana cassava, in Burkina Faso shea butter, in Togo pineapple and in Sao Tome and Principe cocoa. Workshops to further explore the needs in relation to the above-mentioned value chains, to develop a strategy and to identify the main actors were conducted in the four project countries in March 2018. However, the identification of value-chain operators in the four countries is a continuous process that will be conducted during the whole implementation period of the project, as new value chain operators may emerge and/ or develop.
Exchange visit of PGS Ghana in Kenya with Kenyan PGS actors The PGS team visited the Community for Sustainable Agriculture and Healthy Environmental Program (CSHEP).
CSHEP is a registered community-based organization that is focused on training small-scale farmers, its major goal is to induce farmers to use sustainable organic and bio-intensive gardening to improve production and earnings, become food secure, and safeguard the environment. The PGS Ghana team again was welcomed by active members of PGS groups in Kenya, also one of the hosts and the CSHEP team. The PGS Ghana team interacted with CSHEP members on their ways of operation and PGS system in their community. This organization has over 3000 organic farmers, out of these trained organic farmers only the loyal, interested, and ready to support organic market farmers are then allowed to join PGS in this community.
PGS feasibility studies Feasibility studies were carried out in Togo, Sao Tome, Ghana. For Burkina Faso no feasibility study is foreseen as PGS is already implemented successfully. In Sao Tome the study was combined with activity 2.1.4. – the basic PGS training. Information was collected from stakeholders and many aspects related to the feasibility of PGS were discussed during the training. Additional information was collected by visiting markets, shops, hotels, NGOs working with agriculture and farms. Representatives from the government held an official opening ceremony, broadcast via radio and TV. The resulting feasibility study is finalised and attached to this activity. In Togo the study was combined with activity 2.1.4. – the basic PGS training. Information was collected from stakeholders and many aspects related to the feasibility of PGS were discussed during the training. Additional information was collected by visiting markets, shops and some of the organic processing companies. A meeting with representatives from the government was also organised in order to complement the information already collected. The report is finalised and attached to this activity. In Ghana the study was combined with activity 2.1.4. - the basic PGS training. Information was collected from stakeholders and many aspects related to the feasibility of PGS were discussed during the training. Additional information was collected during the expert dialogue organised on 14 June and by visiting a farms, markets and shops. The report is finalised and attached to this activity.