Traineeships in Lao PDR – Vientiane province. Study of actor network governance mechanisms and promotion of agroecology

Traineeships in Lao PDR – Vientiane province. Study of actor network governance mechanisms and promotion of agroecology in the Mekong sub-region

GRET is an international solidarity organization that aims to improve the most vulnerable populations’ living conditions and promote social justice, while conserving the environment. Founded in 1976, GRET is now present in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Its areas of expertise are manifold: natural resources, local essential services, cities and housing, professional integration and employment, nutrition and health, food systems, land governance, inclusive economics and finance.

Its actions – generated by longstanding, sustainable presence in its countries of operation – are based on an approach involving co-construction with communities and on the creation of lasting connections with a vast network of partners representing civil societies, public authorities, local economic stakeholders and the world of research. By sharing its experiences and knowledge, GRET also contributes to changing development policies and practices.

GRET promotes gender equality and democratic participation in its work and internal operations. The association is also particularly committed to preserving biodiversity and combating climate change.

GRET has a thematic organization around which our strategies and actions are forged.  Within the ALER, Alimentation et Economie Rurale (Food and Rural Economy) department, the Food Systems and Sustainable Agriculture thematic team works more specifically on the economic and social development of family farming and agricultural and food chains.

Context

The Agroecology Learning alliance in South East Asia (ALiSEA) is supported and coordinated at national and regional level by GRET (www.gret.org). ALiSEA’s goal is to enable local and regional agroecology stakeholders to leverage one another’s expertise to produce evidence-based studies and share them broadly to support a regional transition towards agroecology. It has 3 folded objectives:

• Strengthening knowledge and experience sharing among agroecological initiatives and actors
• Increasing visibility and credibility of agroecological movement towards policy makers and consumers.
• Scaling up the development and adoption of agroecological practice among farmers.

ALiSEA Network gathers to date over 180 members from different backgrounds and approaches to Agroecology. It is quite unique by its diversity of stakeholders (CSOs and NGOs, Farmer organizations, Research & Academia, Private Sector, Government), its broad geographical focus (Greater Mekong Sub-Region), and its attractiveness. ALiSEA works at local and regional alike, and currently counts four countries: Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam.

ALiSEA is a regional platform that currently benefits from and is part of a wider program, Agroecology and Safe Food System Transitions (ASSET) project (2020-2025), funded by the French Agency for Development (AFD), the European Union (EU), and the French Facility for Global Environment (FFEM), coordinated by GRET in close collaboration with CIRAD.

In 2021, the ALiSEA National Boards were set up in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam with a mandate to establish the ALiSEA network as a central influencer in promoting agroecology within the Mekong region, represent the multi-stakeholders’ members, ensure collective decision-making, support the inclusive structuring of the network, build a shared vision among members, and develop and facilitate an action plan. Using a bottom-up approach, several scenarios have been developed with members on potential governance arrangements.

ALiSEA is currently an informal network. The question of the registration and institutionalization will, therefore, need to be addressed and decided with the members. Further thought and search are needed to define the most appropriate set up to gain recognition from the governments, maintain reliable management of various sources of funding while remaining a network supporting agroecological innovations, being inclusive, agile, and participatory in the design of the action plan.

The documentation and dissemination of experiences made with agroecology, the promotion of agroecological principles, as well as the fostering of exchange and collaboration among diverse stakeholders are key requirements to drive transformation. ALiSEA, with support from the ASSET project, is transforming its current website into a knowledge hub (KH) to enhance the visibility of the network and its ability to drive transformation. The expected output is a digital platform that includes a library, a map interface featuring knowledge products, agroecology practices and champions, and a datahub.

Objectives and duties of the internship

The objectives of the internship are to carry out a study on the governance mechanisms of networks and to boost the content creation on agroecology for the multimedia tools of the network (website, knowledge hub).

The main tasks will be as follows:

• Conduct study to explore and assess the governance set up of other existing networks to provide recommendations and lessons for ALiSEA such as Agroecology Coalition, Land Information Working Group in Laos, NGO Network Forum in Cambodia etc.
• Conduct a literature review of agroecology approach, practices and initiatives in the Mekong sub-region (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam) to feed the online library of a knowledge platform (identify relevant documents to cover diversity of interventions, around 200, and fill in a summary reference form);
• Support the team in setting up an agroecology news watch for the Mekong-region;
• Develop content on the ALiSEA network and agroecology for the website (under improvement) and communication tools in English;
• Support the team in formalizing knowledge products from the 2022 small grants facility;
• Contribute to organize online webinars to foster knowledge and experience sharing on various agroecology-related topics (production, market access, youth etc.) among diversity of stakeholders (farmers’ organizations, NGOs, researchers etc.) and prepare summary notes to report on the discussions and conclusions.

Gret publishes all its job and internship offers on its website: https://gret.org/rejoindre-le-gret/

To apply, please refer exclusively to the job offer on GRET’s website.

Applying is free of charge. Any request for a financial contribution constitutes fraud. Please do not respond to any such requests.

Gret never uses personal data entry forms. Requests to fill in such forms could be an attempt to phish for your personal data.

Only selected candidates will be contacted – Please do not call.

For more information about Gret : www.gret.org

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