The largest ever consultation process for a new GLOBALG.A.P version is coming to an end this week. Take the last opportunity, with only a few days left, to voice your opinion. The draft General Regulations are now available at www.globalgap.org/publiccomments for you to comment on until Friday, 3 September.

See some highlights and what other people have contributed already:

* “Any producer misusing the GLOBALG.A.P claim shall be subjected to a new rule that would exclude him/her from certification for 12 months after evidence of misuse. In addition, any proven case of misuse shall be communicated to GLOBALG.A.P members.”
* “It is too complicated for adding subsequent crops, if subsequent crops are only added if compliance has been verified for that crop through a site inspection during harvest. Producers do often have more than 10 crops, sometimes they have up to 30 crops. If every subsequent crop has to be verified through a site inspection during harvest, the inspector has to perform in some cases a lot of inspections – which is too expensive in costs and time. Therefore, all the crops that are present (but not obligatory all at the harvest time) during the initial inspection should be added to the certificate without further verification. ”
* “A minimum duration for all farms is not a good tool to survey whether an inspector does his job correctly. The IPRO-system is a much better way. The duration of the inspection is also depending on how the farmer is prepared. A well prepared farmer should not be punished.”
* There are the first rewards for those that have been certified for long in the fruit and vegetable scope (for this it is the fourth version, after nearly half a million audits conducted over the past 10 years):
A reduced inspection (similar to the reduced inspection of the unannounced surveillance inspections) is proposed for those producers that have complied for 2 years in a row. However, a new version, non-conformances detected during any surveillance inspections or a change of CB will require an inspection against the full checklist

Kind regards,

Elmé Coetzer
Manager Standards Development
GLOBALG.A.P c/o FoodPLUS GmbH
HRB 35211 Koeln
Managing Director: Dr Kristian Moeller
Spichernstr. 55, 50672 Koeln, Germany
www.globalgap.org
mailto:coetzer@globalgap.org

+++ Block your calendar now for the 10th GLOBALG.A.P Conference 2010 in London! For further information see www.summit2010.org +++

Dear all,

Here are some “fresh” news right after the Asia Citizens Assembly.

The assembly went extremely well. John really thought about
everything. He put together an amazing team of 20- and 30-year-old people from all over the world. One of John’s fantastic ideas was to organize an international youth camp exactly one month before the assembly, to build three houses together with the inhabitants of a small town, and therefore help those people who were most in need. The group built, together with some builders from the town, those three houses for three mothers with large families. This life experience helped consolidate the group. Its members became friends… and then took on the task of organizing the assembly.

There were about two hundred participants. In the case of the Asian Assembly, the challenge was having delegations from various countries of the continent come and take part in it. And it was clearly fulfilled: there were groups from China, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Iran, Afghanistan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia and India. There was also a dozen delegates from different regions of those countries, and there were people from Bangalore, of course.

A rather distinct characteristic that this assembly had was that about 80% of the participants were young people between the ages of 20 and 30. This had to do, clearly, with the fact that John was a key part in the process and that his association, Global Citizens for Sustainable Development, was organizing it. Another key ingredient provided by John was the organization of a first Youth Assembly two days prior to the beginning of the Asian Assembly. Young people, then, were a step ahead in the game.

Another strong characteristic of the Asian Assembly was that almost 60% of the participants were women, mostly of whom were young women from China and South Korea. I could also see, though, that female presence was very strong in the delegations from India, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia as well. The delegation from Iran was more evenly distributed: three men and four women, two of whom were the speakers of the group.

As far as the participation of the various socio-professional groups
is concerned, the students were clearly the majority. Two other groups with an important presence were the inhabitants, thanks to the mobilization of the International Alliance of Inhabitants, and the rural organizations, thanks to the presence of groups from forest communities. There were also university participants, religiousbleaders, government officials, state organisms and a remarkablebpresence of artists.

Yet another fantastic idea coordinated by John and his team was to have the assembly rest upon what has been called “the art Caravan of the Silk Route”. So every morning we began with art presentation sessions and each night, from 6 p.m. on, we had theatre, dancing, singing, hip hop, Chinese calligraphy and many more activities. I didn’t want to interfere at first, but people’s requests were so strong and persistent that I couldn’t but have the pleasure of eventually singing “Cucurrucucú Paloma” and “Cambia Todo Cambia” together with a young guitarist. The troupe of drummers from Bangalore also shook us to our bones.

As regards the content, the key of the Assembly was working, from the very beginning, on a wide, coherent, thematic group of issues. John has already told us about the “5 E’s”: Ethics, Education, Economy, Equity, Ecology. This framework was kept till the very end. The main part of the work was carried out in groups within workshops. There were only three plenary sessions, one at the beginning and one at the end, and the third one, halfway through the Assembly, about a rather sensitive issue in the region: “religions and governance”. Most of the assembly developed within workshops of 30 to 40 participants each.

Ben Quinones – who was with us in the Paris meeting – had suggested a simple but efficient methodology: two key questions about each of the five “E’s” (Which is its vision for Asia? and Which is its mission for Asia?) set on a personal level and on a collective level. We didn’t spend much time, then, analysing the problems of the regions, but rather we tried to focus on a vision for the future, while being conscious -at the same time – of the problems (related to education, ecology, etc.) and, above all, of what each person does and will do to solve them, on a personal and collective level.

For the final plenary session and each of the workshops’ report (two people were responsible for each workshop), we came up with the idea to organize a sort of Market of Ideas and Proposals, to avoid any long, boring readings of the workshop reports. Each workshop “exhibited” what had been done during the two previous days and explained their visions and missions to the “visitors”. You felt as if you were in a real fair or market, but it was a market of ideas, shared experiences and, above all, proposals. People talked, asked questions, took down notes about the workshops and had pictures taken with the facilitators and speakers. In other words, instead of trying to find a single final synthesis report that was complete and perfect, we chose human interaction, in which each participant made an attempt to create the right vision of the Assembly’s content. That is, instead of making a thematic mapping on a PC, each participant and their group put together their own conceptual map. This Market of Ideas might be hard to explain, but it turned out to be a great initiative from the methodological viewpoint, and it allowed us to generate a more dynamic final plenary session.

I can’t deny some of the university participants’ amazement at this method. Some of them just wanted to a succession of PowerPoint
presentations during a plenary session. Ben, John and I managed to stick to our proposal, though. We told them that this was not the university, that in a citizens’ assembly the words from a leader, a community or a peasant in their native tongue were as important as those of a participant from a university. Of course, we accepted PowerPoint presentations, but only within the workshops, and they had to last 10 minutes and jumpstart the dialog. Only some of the workshops used this method and one of the most stubborn university participants eventually agreed to join in the game proposed. A Chinese university participant, who coordinated a Chinese group, actually ended up admitting that this method and assembly were one of the best lessons in her life.

Many of us noticed that the very structure of the great conference room where the plenary sessions were held had changed: at first, the chairs were distributed like in a classroom, with an, elevated podium at the front; at the end, though, several circles were formed during the Market of Ideas, until a great circle was reached at the final plenary session.

The closing session was all about the future. It was considered that there was no immediate need to set a date for a new Asian Assembly, and it was clear that the assembly was not a mere meeting, an isolated event, but it was rather a social, political and cultural process. So first it is necessary to carry out what has been said and proposed.

The future will tell us when and where the second Asian Citizens Assembly can be organized. Our final text is a ten-page synthetic compilation of the workshop reports. All the written and visual material (photos and videos) will be available online soon. The team of facilitators and speakers is going to put together a platform on the Internet, aside from the web page already launched by Global Citizens for Sustainable Development, to keep in touch and make the information circulate. All the documents, pictures and videos will be uploaded on the Assembly’s site soon and distributed through Facebook, except in China where Facebook is banned

A preliminary compilation of the pictures can be seen through this link:

http://www.asambleas-ciudadanos.net/spip.php?article437

As regards language, we used mostly English. Some of the accents turned out to be quite difficult to understand, I must add. We also had to use two other languages: Kannada, spoken by the communities around Bangalore, and Hindi. We nonetheless found, quiet spontaneously, some interpreters who helped us understand the “Asian English”. Objectively, the language was never an issue, especially because the artistic presentations and smiles around us made communication truly pleasant and profound.

Anyway, what I really wanted to tell you was the snapshot feelings
imprinted on me, the emotional state I’m in right now, which has led me to write these lines.

See you soon in Aioun and then in Iquique in the Southern Cone…

Warm regards,

Gustavo

Published in Livelihoods July 2010

Starting his development journey in MYRADA with the resettlement of refugees, Aloysius Fernandez created an alternative robust model for poverty eradication which is emulated by many development workers and organizations across the country and the world.

Fernandez has a Master of Arts from the University of Karnataka, a Special Diploma in Development Studies from the University of Oxford and a Diploma in Sociology and Research Methodology from the University of Louvain, Belgium. He started his modest journey as a development worker in 1971 during the Bangladesh War where he was running a refugee program. It is then that he discovered the poverty and the suffering of the poor which changed his life. Then he went abroad to work as a Programme Consultant to the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and on his return to India, he pledged to raise 1 million people above the poverty line. In pursuance of his mission he joined MYRADA (Mysore Resettlement And Development Agency was primarily involved in the resettlement of Tibetan refugees) as a deputy director. With his arrival a different wind started to blow in the organization. He was given a rather free hand, especially when the first executive director, Bill Davinson, moved to oversee MYRADA’s projects in Meghalaya. He became the second executive director after Bill’s death a few years later.

Aloysius Fernandez played an important role in identifying the signals emerging from the field as an alternative to working with cooperatives and leading to appropriate institution building. When a cooperative society in one of MYRADA’s projects’ broke up, he proposed its members to form a group and repay their loans to the group. These gradually evolved into Self Help Groups (SHG), and later Self-Help Affinity Groups (SAG), which are informally, organized small, homogeneous groups focusing initially on savings and credit. Around 1987, group formations have spread to all MYRADA projects. It was only at the end of the eighties or early nineties that Aloysius Fernandez felt confident enough to start talking to others about his approach.

Further, Fernandez wanted to run SHGs as a successful alternative strategy for poverty alleviation and to really influence policy, so he got NABARD into the picture. The reason why NABARD was brought in was not only because of money, but because he felt that with NABARD in the picture he would have a much broader vision and in turn influence RBI in changing its policy on micro-finance. This proved to be a strategic move. Apart from influencing the RBI to develop guidelines for Self-Help Groups, NABARD also provided MYRADA with a fund for loans to groups and furthermore paid for exposure programmes for bankers. The latter proved to be a very effective strategy. By 1990, the banks started to finance Self-Help Groups, which was a major breakthrough. Aloysius Fernandez gradually took up other development activities like empowering women and supporting children; Management of micro-watersheds; Participatory strategies in regeneration of arid lands and in forestry management; Resettlement in self-reliant communities of released bonded labourers and refugees;
District strategy for networking, capacity building and enhancing the quality and outreach of field activities; Training; Strategic support to programmes in other countries; Health; Education; Rural and urban financial services through the Sanghamitra, a rural financial services organization floated by him.

Further, he and his MYRADA went to Myanmar, where he facilitated the formation of 1000 groups, the same for Indonesia, 5000 groups in Indonesia.500 groups in East Timor and 300 groups in Iran. And many more groups in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
Fernandez has conducted training programs for Government and development banks and has formulated participation strategies and methodologies in relation to all aspects of program implementation (planning, budgeting, implementation and management) in a range of sectors but most commonly for micro-credit, micro-watershed management, and arid zone development and public health programs. Fernandez has also undertaken extensive consultancy work for the World Bank, DFID, CIDA and IFAD in a range of programs with a focus on natural resource management, rural development and micro-credit. Fernandez’s publications have covered the topics of microcredit, natural resource management and rural management systems.

Alosiyus Fernandez sits/sat as chairman and/or board member of several major NGOs including AME, PRADAN (India) and PADEK (Cambodia). He is also a member of the advisory committee of NABARD, the trustee of the Gramin Vikas Trust established by KRIBHCO and DFID and adviser to various Governmental committees in several states of India. Fernandez was the founder of several NGOs and development organizations in India, and has formulated and supported microcredit programs in Indonesia and Myanmar and has designed micro-credit programs for International Fund for Agricultural Development) IFAD in 9 Indian states.

In pursuance of his pledge to raise 1 million people above the poverty line which he not only achieved but he also created an alternative robust model for poverty eradication. In other words he created institutions of the poor i.e. SAGs/ SHGs and their federations. Following this model with slight variation states like Kerala and Andhra Pradesh has done some remarkable work in alleviating poverty. At present he is the Director of NABARD Financial Services and elected as Chairman of the Board from January 18, 2010. In recognition of his services to the poor, he was conferred with the prestigious Padmashri title by the Government of India in the year 2000.

by Ethel Cote

June 25, 2010

Today sees the launch of the first major report into Social Enterprise in Ireland. I was fortunate to be a member of the taskforce, on behalf of the Ryan Academy for Entrepreneurship,  that helped put the report together.

Social Enterprise has the potential to provide 65,000 jobs and contribute to the objective of economic  recovery, this new Report,  “Adding Value Delivering Change  - The Role of Social Enterprise in National Recovery,” states. In Europe the social enterprise sector accounts for between 4% and 7% of GDP, but in Ireland it represents just 3%, the Report, published by the Social Enterprise Task Force, an initiative of Clann Credo – the Social Investment Fund and the Dublin Employment Pact, says.

Setting a European average target of 5% of GDP would provide at least 65,000 jobs and contribute to the job creation goals set out by the Innovation Taskforce.

In addition, it is estimated that, for every one person employed through social employment, at least one other person contributes work on a voluntary basis.

The Report proposes that:

• social enterprise policy should be driven by the government department with responsibility for enterprise;
• social enterprise should be incorporated into the economic, planning and development strategies of local authorities;
• a social enterprise remit be established within existing enterprise funding mechanisms;
• the current support structures for the business sector to be enhanced, so that they are accessible and capable of providing support to social enterprise
• County & City Enterprise Boards should be the key agency providing support to social enterprise at local level
• introduce social clauses in public and local authority procurement policy and supporting social enterprises to build consortia and to tender for public contracts;
• a range of flexible finance options including equity-type instruments be set up

The Pactes Locaux are a collective of actors who mobilise on a voluntary basis around specific objectives. They have provided original input to both French and European debate, based on the experience and local success stories of meeting some of today’s key challenges. This contribution has now been duly recognised. It is an element that allows the members to propose the “learning journey” approach as a tool for learning from each other in a variety of contexts. It is a horizontal practice that helps create bridges between generations and understanding of stakes as well as developing responsible territorial actions. The meeting that was held on December 1st in Poitiers (France) ended the Lux’09 cycle. It also helped confirm that our projects resonate with other territories.

The positive evaluation of Lux’09 provides a lever for the future. The Pactes Locaux are a small, open collective. They are not party-political affiliated or members of any institutional organisation. Their recognition reaches beyond what they represent in terms of membership. They remain a small dedicated team, united by what they have learned and their willpower and responsibility – as civil society – to change the system.

The Pactes Locaux intend continuing their work on European territorial cohesion. They hope to work on themes and in areas where their members and associate partners and those interested in taking part in the future, can work together. They hope to do this by demonstrating how reality and the expertise gained from practical know-how can help to illustrate, discuss and propose new ways of organising solidarity that can have a considerable impact and help open doors to solutions to the current crisis.

8.5 million jobs have been lost in Europe since 2008. In France, 1 million people in France will lose their job-seekers allowances in 2010. Exclusion is become the rule rather than the exception. The institutions are not supporting those actors involved in hands-on work. Things are increasingly difficult.

The Pactes Locaux will not be able to succeed on their own. The question is how to preserve our individual freedom, while supporting each other and serving the interest of all?

Learning to work as partners involves a legitimate confrontation of ideas and genuinely working together.

This means being realistic and taking stock, the better to position the collective. The members of the collective have decided to:

«  Ultimately, making a pact…is a declaration of collective ability to do things…it involves organising to find solutions to needs. It is also realising that united we stand in strength when we undertake an action. Finally the Pactes Locaux are the emergence of a collective approach to work for today’s and tomorrow’s society ».

President : France Joubert: +33 670 001 467; francejoubert@wanadoo.fr

General Secretary: Martine Theveniaut: +33 468 699 288; martine.theveniaut4@orange.fr

Headquarters: 5 rue de Cadène F – 11580 Alet les Bains

Site: pactes-locaux.org

Aloe has hosted the Pactes Locaux « Democratic participation and territorial anchorage » since 2009. We plan to continue with this co-operation in 2010-11.

We jointly invite you to contribute to these activites.

The theme falls into one of the areas developed by ALOE: Alternatives and solidarity-based innovations leading to socio-economic change. It intersects one of the ALOE projects, selected under the Tender for Proposals 2009-2010. The latter includes a certain number of partners, many from Asia, in the preparatory process of the Vth Intercontinental RIPESS Meeting, scheduled to take place in Manila in 2013.

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PRESENTATION OF THE PROGRAMME FOR 2010

The project is divided in two sections:

First section: Territory and solidarity

Towards a shared framework of reference: documenting the territorial approach tothe organisation of solidarity (follow-up to the  LUX’09 Workshop 7)

This aspect is part of the International and European action plan to implement a policy based on « the proof of the pudding is in the eating »

This section ails to document experiences and « case-studies». You are invited to contribute by filling in the attached form (available in three languages)

Second section : « From Pactes Locaux to European P’Actes »,

Preparation of a launching Forum in the framework of 2010, the European year  for combating poverty and social exclusion, on November 23rd in Brussels.

Part one: Territory and solidarity

Towards a shared framework of reference: documenting the territorial approach to the organization of solidarity (follow-up to Lux’09 Workshop 7)

At international level :

April 25th 2009, the conclusions of Workshop 7 of Lux’09 were unanimous. If we are to balance or complete thematic approaches, the participants agreed that the territorial approach to local and regional initiatives should be included. This question will be placed at the top of the agenda for the 5^th meeting of Globalisation of Solidarity in Asia in 2013. The Pactes Locaux have accepted the responsibility for developing this approach with the Asian Alliance for Solidarity Economy (AA4SE) andthe preparation of the “Manila 2013” meeting.

The first step was to participate in the Asian Forum on Solidarity Economy in Tokyo, November 2009. This was prepared using a trilingual electronic forum on the ALOE website.

“The practical dimensions of sharing  experience and case studies …is the most important contribution to the Tokyo gathering. A number of these were regional or national experiences in the EU, the Philippines or based on the Korean national model. In addition the many stories from Malaysia, India, Nepal and Japan added reflections on different models and experiences. In the long run here too we must develop a framework for documentation, analysis and  lessons learnt. Learning the methodology used by the Pactes-Locaux will be useful for us for the development of the learning journey at  local level, incorporating local governance and democracy, the empowerment of local citizens, local development which is comprehensive rather than piecemeal.” Denison Jayasooria, President of the Asian Forum of Solidarity Economy.

At European level:

Lux’09 proves that other territories are interested in this mutualisation.. The Committee of the Regions has expressed their interest<http://www.cor.europa.eu/ateliers> In June 2009 they adopted the idea of “multi-level governance”, as a guideline for the framework of the European project for 2020.

This section brings together French, European and international territorial experiences and showcases “case studies”, (c.f. attached form in three languages).

HOW TO TAKE PART?

Initiating a collection process

Form attached (languages: French, English, Spanish)

Objective: Collect a first set of experience forms and begin defining a shared framework of reference to develop a policy based on “the proof of the pudding is in the eating”, coordinated at intercontinental level.

Outcomes:

-     November 2010 : Documentation of recent experiences from the preparation of 2010 the European year for  combating poverty and social exclusion: From Pactes Locaux to European P’Actes.

-     Early 2011: An evaluation and perspectivesbased on the initial experimental stage to be presented at the Asian Forum in Kuala Lumpur in 2011.

Agenda: 2010,  experimental stage

First semester 2010

A first set of experience forms that are already exist will be progressively published on the ALOE website in their original language. They are based on the mutualisation of 2007 – 2009.

a)    regional meetings to prepare Lux’09

b)    speeches from  Workshop7

c)    contributions to the preparatory internet forum prior to Tokyo

There will later be additional other experiences from different countries, continents, and on other  themes.

Second semester 2010: what framework for documentating and analysing   lessons learnt?

Once we have documented about 30 experiences,  several of which will be in English and Spanish, a first evaluation will be carried out(relevance, how to improve, next steps, etc…) according to the perspectives defined during the Asian Forum of Solidarity Economy in Tokyo, in November 2009, as well as those initiated by the RIPESS-Europe at the meetings held on March 6th at the FPH and  March 22nd-23rd in the Atelier (Paris).

First semester 2011

The outcomes of the this first phase will be used to prepare for the Kuala Lumpur meeting. Complementary information will be provided,  including through a Learning Journey at the initiative of the Malayan organizers.

DEFINITION OF “TERRITORY” ADOPTED DURING THE PREPARATORY FORUM of the Asian forum of solidarity economy (Tokyo, November 2009)

What do we mean by «territory»?

This term has different meanings dependent on languages and cultures.

For us, a territory is a geographically based  action system, where social, cultural and economic relations are organized:

·       between inhabitants that share a common heritage, a past and a future in a same area, that  they inherited and have a destiny (whether native born, of adoption, migrants or visitors);

·       between organizations with multiple features (enterprises, local authorities, state, networks, mutual aid, sectors of production, etc,)

·       between these individuals and the organizations with a specific bio-geographical environment;

·       between all these components and larger ones (macro) of smaller ones (micro).

These systems of territorial relations are necessarily open and connected to the outside. For in today’s world, interdependence has increased. Solving concrete problems such as housing, food, development, infrastructure, services, employment, use of natural resources, the allocation of resources, etc., must take into account:

Constraints and opportunities of production and distribution of globalized goods and services;

Shortcomings of current international governance in the organization of a fair, just and appropriate territorial management of natural and cultural resources «the global common goods and shared values» and the flows of all kinds that are appropriate to the diversity of different situations (ecosystems, overcrowded metropolitan areas, vulnerable territories, etc.);

Territorial governance must also create new types and forms of organization (institutional, economic, social but also cross-cutting, financial, fiscal, technical, etc…)

Section II: European P’Actes

« From Pactes Locaux to European P’Actes », Preparation of a launching Forum in the framework of  2010, the European year for combating poverty and social exclusion, on November 23rd in Brussels.

2010: Contribute to 2010, the European year  for combating poverty and social exclusion:

Objective:

-       Use the “Learning Journey” as a tool to learn for one another and contribute to the European draft proposal on territorial cohesion and multi-level governance based on selected themes and in territories that volunteer to participate.

-       Write and disseminate “The European Manifesto of Actors for Social and Territorial Cohesion”.

Concluding event

-       November 23rd, 2010 in Brussels: Launching Forum: “From Pactes Locaux to European P’Actes”, scheduled to take place at the Institut des Hautes Etudes des Communications Sociales orat The Committee of the Regions.

-       there will be a follow-up meeting to evaluate the programme and to decide on future actions.

“We should recognise this as an important signal, and contribute to building Europe. Today’s Europe is at odds with a world that is no longer totally adapted to European culture, economy or values. It is essential to take the weakest and most marginalised members of our community into account, and we wish to contribute to jointly building a Europe that is based on fraternity, and governed both economically and socially by the citizens and open to the world.

We cannot achieve this by ourselves. By extending our existing partnerships, we believe that this collective work will help all those organisations and people willing to commit to the process. We are not talking about a federation or a union…all those who take part will retain their own identity, their specificity and their legitimacy.

We hope this day will kindle a light of hope for us all.”

HOW TO PARTICIPATE ?

April – July 2010: Constitution of European Organizing Committee:

- Document examples proposed by its members

- Determine the availability of people and organisations to help prepare for the event and continuity

- Identify availability to host a Learning Journey in 2010 during the preparatory phase, or in 2011 during a European test cycle to experiment the transition from small-scale to mainstreaming and new European regulations for social/ economic/territorial cohesion

-  This phase will conclude with the creation of a European Organising Committee (EOC): it will include 8-20 volunteers, willing to help with the preparation of the Forum.

September – November 2010: Dedicated to preparation.

-  September:  One-day writing workshop to create a draft of the first version of a European Manifesto of Actors for Social and Territorial Cohesion.

- September 15th – end of October: This draft will then be circulated to improve the content and extend the number of experiences, signatories, invitations and active participation (electronic forum)

- November 23rd,  Brussels : The launching Forum will take place under the patronage of the Committee of the Regions. the outcomes will be included as part of a more widely published draft of proposals that will be sent to the relevant European authorities.