This page aggregates materials and outcomes from the workshop on January 7th at the ORFC 2021 titled, “Financing Agroecology: From Tweaking to Transformation…!” led by Nina Moeller and Colin Anderson from CAWR. Follow this page to find more general information about our research and the wider body of research on “financing Agroecology“.
See also related content on SubsistenceMatters.
Connect with us on social media: Twitter: @agroecologynow and Facebook. Feel free to follow up with Nina and Colin at: colin.anderson@coventry.ac.uk and nina.moeller@coventry.ac.uk
Follow Up: Slides and Participant Take-aways from Financing Agroecology
Slides
Nina’s presentation focused on the research analyzing the quantity of funding flows to agroecology, showcasing how little funding actually goes to agroecology.
Colin’s presentation focused on their research on the quality, methodologies, approaches and issues for the actual delivery of funding for transformative agroecology.
Comments and “take aways” from Participants
We asked participants to discuss our ideas in break-out groups and then to share their ideas through an online platform called Mentimeter.
We first asked participants to share their ideas, thoughts, questions from their breakout group discussions. Here are the responses.
We then asked them to respond to the question: What is to be done? Next steps, action plans, long term strategies. Here are the responses to this question.
The animation is one of the outputs of an on-going collaboration between CIDSE and CAWR’s AgroecologyNow! group.
It is widely recognised that a radical transformation of food and agriculture systems is urgently needed in order to address converging social, economic, health and ecological crises. The potential of agroecology to transform food systems and render them more resilient, sustainable and inclusive is increasingly recognised and backed by a growing body of scientific evidence.
However, as research has demonstrated, only a marginal proportion of public funding is dedicated to agroecology. In order to improve the financing of agroecology, CIDSE and the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR) of Coventry University conducted research on how the formats and channels of financing offered to agroecological projects can support the development of a just food system. See also this policy briefing (which was co-funded by the European Union).
See also this related presentation and panel discussion:
PROGRAMME:
Introduction by Michel Pimbert, Professor and Director of the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University [slides]
Presentation of the results and policy recommendations of the new CIDSE-CAWR research and policy briefing on how we can “make money move for agroecology” by Colin Anderson (Coventry University) and Suzy Serneels (Broederlijk Delen) [slides]
Panel discussion: Alberta Guerra, Senior Policy Analyst, ActionAid International Victor Suárez, Undersecretary for Food and Competitiveness of the Ministry of Agriculture of Mexico Leonard Mizzi, Head of Unit – DG DEVCO, European Commission Ricardo Navarro, Friend of the Earth El Salvador
Workshop facilitated by Nina Moeller (Coventry University)
Conclusion by Gisele Henriques, Sustainable Technical Lead, CAFOD
From SubsistenceMatters.net: The need for radical transformation of food and agriculture systems has been thoroughly documented, widely accepted and embraced rhetorically by organisations at all scales, but its potential remains untapped: the political will to actually funding agroecology is missing. In March 2018, Nina Moeller and Michel Pimbert wrote:
“…Our recently published research shows that very little overseas aid is directed at agroecological research and development. Since January 1 2010, no funds at all have been directed at or been committed to projects with the main focus on development or promotion of agroecological practices.
It is true that minor funds have been directed at projects which promote resource efficiency in farming. But this is a very basic agroecological principle. Based on the most generous interpretation of available figures, our study shows for the first time that aid for agroecological projects is less than 5% of aid given for agricultural purposes and less than 0.5% of the total UK aid budget. By largely supporting industrial agriculture, UK aid priorities contribute very little to the transition towards global socio-ecological sustainability…”.
Funding agroecology is necessary and as a movement we will keep holding organisations accountable and push them to put their money where their mouth is. This is my latest contribution, a report commissioned by CIDSE, which is a study that “focuses on EU Official Development Assistance (ODA) funds channelled from 2016 to 2018 through the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP). At the same time the study also focusses on the Green Climate Fund (GCF) portfolio, from its creation until December 2019”.