Over the last decade, the development of Organic Action Plans (OAPs) has gained momentum as a mechanism for achieving a more integrated approach to organic policy-making at the European level. However, the effectiveness and continuity of OAPs can vary significantly from country to country. Denmark is a leading example and a source of inspiration worldwide, both in the scope and innovative approach of its organic policy. Beyond its holistic set of measures, a highly transferable aspect is definitely also the intensive policy development process that especially saw the involvement of all stakeholders, including NGOs. Denmark is exemplary by strengthening the principles of organic farming and further incorporating them into everyday farming practices.
An intensive policy development process that consulted with all relevant stakeholders was key.
Holistic approach to organic policy-making, including innovative push and pull measures.
Policymakers can draw significant conclusions on the importance of long-lasting public-private partnership, participatory design and implementation of the Danish Organic Action Plan.
Ndiob's Mayor Oumar Ba speaking about the Agriculture Development Programme
Municipality of Ndiob
Ndiob’s achievements inspire others to follow its example. In particular, Ndiob’s Mayor is chairing the Network of Green Municipalities and Cities of Senegal (REVES): Some 30 mayors attended its first constitutive meeting held in Ndiob in January 2017, where they adopted a Charter of Green Municipalities and Cities of Senegal. Subsequently, REVES has developed an action plan (Declaration of Mékhé) that resulted in: 1. Capacity-building activities for mayors on agroecology and biosecurity (GMOs), e.g. two workshops were organised in 2017 with the technical support of ENDA PRONAT in the communities of Mékhé and Dramé Escale, and 2. Implementation of the agro-ecological vision of rural development in a few pilot municipalities, including that of the Mayor of Ndiob (Thiallé and Soumnane). Ndiob inspired other communities to join REVES which has become a platform for exchange of experience and methods.
REVES is a partner of the NGO ENDA PRONAT, which lends vital support, expertise and advice. Today, Ndiob municipality is networking and exchanging experiences and methods with 40 other cities and green and ecological communities in Senegal who joined of REVES inspired by Ndiob work.
Thanks to networking and setting common goals, agroecology is also better presented to stakeholders in Dakar. In 2018, the REVES co-organized with ENDA PRONAT, the National Federation of Organic Agriculture (FENAB) and the UCAD the 2nd edition of the Agroecology Days in February 2018 at the Place du Souvenir Africain in Dakar. These days were closed by the “Night of Agroecology” at the Daniel Sorano Theater, with a live broadcast of the debates at 2STV, sponsored by the Minister of Livestock and Animal Production Aminata Mbengue Ndiaye and attended by more than 1,500 people (parliamentarians, members of the Economic and Social Economic Council, researchers, civil society organizations, farmers’ organisations). In an interview the Minister of Agriculture confirmed the Government’s interest in promoting agroecology, an essential lever for sustainable development of the sector from a safety perspective.
L.A. City Departments and LAUSD set an example that has since influenced many other areas in the United States. The notable success of the Good Food Purchasing Program in 2012 led to a substantial number of requests for technical assistance from other cities and food policy councils looking to implement similar strategies. Indeed the Program has set off a nationwide movement to adopt the Program standards in localities small and large. This led to the development of the Center for Good Food Purchasing in 2015, a NGO which now owns and manages the programme, as well as its expansion across the United States. By now 27 public institutions in 14 U.S. cities are enrolled, which collectively spend nearly USD 895 million on food each year.
The Program is adaptable to specific contexts and such adaptations have been used to further advance agroecology, e.g. in Cook County. According to the Center’s staff, the Good Food Purchasing Program could be applied anywhere, including in low-income countries.
As of 2018, several other cities (San Francisco, CA; Oakland, CA; Chicago, IL; Cook County, IL) have adopted the Good Food Purchasing Program and campaigns are underway in many additional cities (Austin, TX; Chicago, IL; Cincinnati, OH; Madison, WI; Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN; New York; Washington, D.C.; and Baltimore) to push for its adoption.
The Good Food Purchasing Program has encouraged elected and governmental officials to re-examine how they can use public budgets to better serve their community. That fundamental shift in thinking will produce important positive results for years to come.
TEEBAgriFood’s Evaluation Framework and methodologies
Sustainable Food Systems
TEEB
TEEBAgriFood’s Evaluation Framework answers the question: What should we evaluate about food systems? And TEEBAgriFood’s methodologies answer the question: How should we do these evaluations? TEEBAgriFood illustrates five families of applications to compare: (a) different policy scenarios; (b) different farming typologies; (c) different food and beverage products; (d) different diets/ food plates; and (e) adjusted versus conventional national or sectoral accounts.
TEEBAgriFood gives ten examples showing how to apply this framework and methodologies for various types of evaluations. One of them is, for example, a study in New Zealand of 15 conventional and 14 organic fields that valued 12 ecosystem services and found both crops as well as other ecosystem services to be higher in the organic fields.
The TEEBAgriFood evaluation framework provides a structure and an overview of what should be included in the analysis. However, methods of valuation depend on the values to be assessed, availability of data, and the purpose of the analysis. Ideally one should be able to say with some confidence what are the externalities associated with each euro or dollar spent on a given kind of food, produced, distributed and disposed of in a given way. The application of the framework requires an interdisciplinary approach, where all relevant stakeholders, including policy-makers, businesses, and citizens, understand and identify questions that are to be answered by a valuation exercise. Therefore, stakeholder engagement across sectors is critical to the effective application of TEEBAgriFood in specific contexts and policy arenas.
