16th -19th September 2024
The great Exchange at Kufunda Village, Harare
At the invitation of the Agroecology Fund, TrustAfrica represented by Dr Bethule Nyamambi and Beatrice Makwenda joined 150 Agroecology enthusiasts in Harare in Zimbabwe.
The learning exchange was held at Kufunda Village, a befitting space that resonated well with the essence of Agroecology- Kufunda, https://www.kufunda.org, which means ‘Warmth’ in Chewa language in Malawi and ‘learning’ in isiNdebele, accorded the participants a weeklong lived experience of interacting with natural resources (land, water) in a way that rebuilds the soil, efficiently using water, turning ‘waste’ into resources for plant and soil health and allowing nature to feed the people- promoting local foods and strengthening interaction of community leaders, youth, children, women in a harmonious ecosystem-in short, the learning exchange which was held under the theme “Agroecology Economies”.
The Exchange drew various stakeholders from Africa, Asia, Europe and the US (smallholder farmers, civil society, academia, knowledge managers, private sector, media, traditional leaders, indigenous people groups and funders who are collaborating collaborated with the Agroecology Fund in one form or another. The exchange was co-hosted by local country partners Pelum Zimbabwe, a network of diverse agroecological practitioners. Prior to the AEF learning exchange, longtime partner and grantee Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa held its tripartite events including the Good Seed and Food Festival, the second agroecology entrepreneurs convening and the 5th biennial AFSA convening at Kufunda Village and Harare Botanical Gardens.
The Learning Exchange Design and Outcomes
A thoughtfully curated programme with a mix of World café’s (to deepen learning on other institutions’ work); Panel discussions (moderated sessions on thematic topics on good practices and successes of scaling agroecology), interactive sessions (drawing thoughts into the Agroecology fund’s strategy); marketplace (sharing work and products) and open spaces (a participatory interactive self-organizing space).
DAY 0: Excursion to the oldest territorial market in Zimbabwe – Mbare Market and the Good Seed and Food Festival at Harare Botanical Gardens.
DAY 1: kickstarted with creating a shared learning Map aiming at exploring successes, challenges, mapping questions for the week ahead. This was an important exercise to go beyond expectations, but how to bring to life the predesigned agenda in the shared learning framework and as an accountability measure throughout the learning exchange. In connecting and setting intentions together, it became clear that achieving Agroecology economies requires a multisectoral, multistakeholder and multidimensional approaches to bring governments, private sector, civil society, development agencies and communities together- achieving collective priorities, investment choices and mindset change.
DAY 2: They say, where your treasure is, there your heart is also! Is financing targeting Agroecology? This day was dedicated to dive deep into experiences around financing and a dialogue with international funding agencies and civil society advocates about agroecology funding strategies that support scaling at the community level. A panel comprising of the International Fund for Agricultural
Development (IFAD); United Nations Development Programme-The GEF Small grants Programme; World Bank; Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa; GIZ which was moderated by Daniel Moss- The Agroecology Fund Co- Director reflected on how they are investing in Agroecology food systems with significant differences and approaches across the agencies. For some, like the World Bank, IFAD the client is Government, and funding is directed towards Government priorities. For others, like GIZ have multiple approaches -funding to Governments and to other non-state actors with committed funds to agroecology. Financing is being channeled in different ways, sometimes not categorized as agroecology funds which brings a need to track what is being funded.
The Agroecology Fund has developed a tracking tool for the 13 principles of agroecology and to measure impact. The challenges we face are political and largely need a social movement on agroecology to reshape the financing of the agroecology landscape. Drawing from agroecology practitioners’ experiences, there are calls to match funding modalities with the level of impact and whilst the Agroecology Fund provides solutions to the financing challenges, there is need to grow the Fund in multiple ways -heightened campaigns on debt relief, community philanthropy and well directed public and private sector investments. Panel: How can donors finance community-based organizations?
DAY 3: The day focused on the Agroecology Fund Strategy and presenting it for dialogue amongst those present. The Agroecology Fund is growing, now with a dedicated fund for Africa – West and East Africa to be hosted at TrustAfrica. The current AEF Strategic plan ends in 2026 and this session presented an opportunity to co-design the focus for the next plan. Some of the strategic focus areas will be.
- Communication and Visibility: Consistency in shaping the agroecology narrative and communicating impact.
- Policy Influence: Strengthen political and economic systems to enable agroecology to thrive. This will focus on food sovereignty, national and international agroecology programs and mobilize donor community to divest from industrial agriculture and invest in agroecology.
- Growing the Agroecology Fund: supporting regional funds (India, Mexico, Africa – East and West Africa with others to come on board as AEF learn more)
- Women and Youth inclusion: Supporting gender sensitive and feminist solutions, empowering and investing in youth in agroecology.
- Institutional capacity: ensure an adequate governance system, human resources, infrastructure and management tools to implement and monitor the strategic plan.
Agroecology Economies
In our engagement with farmers, the discussions often end up with questions and asks on market access -where are markets for our products? What are the marketing arrangements? What is the price? This learning exchange was centered on territorial markets and building agroecological economies with a focus on the production, consumption and trade of agroecological goods and services.
Angela Cordeiro, an agronomist and Co–Director at Agroecology Fund stressed on the importance of thinking about agroecology simply beyond production. For Agroecology to take scale (out, up and deep) there is need to think more expansively about agroecology, and for movements to create economies and tap into the significant potential for positive socioeconomic development in local communities. The power inherent to transforming structures is a significant marker of why grassroots agroecology movements hold the possibility to transform global food systems—and why Agroecology Fund centers these movements in their grantmaking.
The root of the word economy, or its meaning, is to take care of the house or to take care of your home. The economy has been kind of controlled by one way of taking care of the home and we are here to brainstorm, to exchange ideas on how we are trying to develop new ways of taking care of the home through innovative approaches such as the participatory guaranteed system, territorial markets, commercialization as well as financial mechanisms [for agroecology to thrive],”
Cordeiro said.
Language! The expressions and understating of different communities are key in how building territorial markets can be achieved. What does the word economy mean in the local language? How does the community interact with the local definition, practice, processes of the local economythat is where it begins- to harness the sovereign concepts and their meaning- transforming the skewed industrial agricultural focus input and output markets to advance agroecological economies. The public policies and investments must be reformed to support and grow these economiesit begins with policy decisions to support markets like the school feeding programs with locally and agroecologically produced foods. The consumer must be conscientized.
Funding Agroecology-Connecting with Funders
Amidst the rich exchange in line with the learning exchange programme, the Agroecology Fund staff organized two networking lunches aiming at connecting the current and potential funding partners of the Fund. This was largely a meet and greet with open calls to further engage and define collaborative arrangements going forward. The World Bank, UNDP GEF, Doen Foundation, Bio Vision Africa, GIZ, IFAD, Porticus Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Swiss Development Cooperation, Oak Foundation, and the Christensen Fund.
Of strategic importance to TrustAfrica was the introductory meetings with current and potential Agroecology Funders and managers to deepen the understanding of operationalizing the Fund and development of responsive granting mechanisms to organizations, networks and movements.
Concluding Reflections and Recommendations
The learning exchange was an insightful platform to connect with Agroecology social movements and funding partners. By bringing in those in practice and those funding the agroecological interventions, a unique feedback process was experienced with reflections to re-imagine funding modalities, granting and reporting requirements and build grassroot driven agroecological ecosystems.
- Agroecology social movements: There is a growing movement inclusive of women and youth on agroecology. This was evident from the intersectional nature of the participants struggles and activism for land rights, women and indigenous people’s rights to seed and food sovereignty, livelihoods, socio-economic and climate justice. There is opportunity to identify and work with agroecology social movements and invite them into spaces such as the social movements baraza and Social Movements, equitable development and climate justice programming in TrustAfrica. –
- Funding agroecology: The Agroecology Fund is poised to grow in both size and reach. Connecting key subthemes on food sovereignty, just transitions and regenerative agriculture will lead to a well-focused area of influence.
- Connecting local to global and global to local: the unique position that TrustAfrica has in amplifying voices, connecting struggles and influencing sustained action is the added value that TrustAfrica bring in the development space and more so now with the urgency for accelerated climate action. In trade advocacy, there is need to center on territorial markets in addition to fighting for fair and inclusive trade policies.
- Open Space Methodology: This facilitation tool was great to get over 150 people to create and manage the agenda together. Time was allocated at programme design for Open space to encourage creativity, learning and dialogue on pressing issues during the exchange. Useful tool for generating ideas and co-designing interventions. https://www.mind.org.uk/media-a/4924/open-space-method.pdf
