Rights-based and Agroecological Initiatives for Sustainability and Equity in Peasant Communities (RAISE) 

 South Asia and Africa

The RAISE consortium was launched in January 2022 to support the agroecological transition and implement the rights of peasants as enshrined in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants (UNDROP) in India, Nepal, Kenya, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso and South Africa. RAISE is taking a “network-of-networks” approach with a diversity of local and international partners involved in peasant and pastoralist development and human rights work. 

 

Lead organization
  • Fastenaktion is an NGO based in Switzerland, established in 1961. It is committed to disadvantaged people in the global south, working towards a fairer world and overcoming hunger. The group relies on local knowledge and the development of effective approaches to dialogue with our partner organisations. In the spirit of helping people help themselves, Fastenaktion supports communities in organising themselves and demanding basic rights. Working with partner organisations in 14 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and with organisations in Switzerland, the NGO leads the RAISE consortium (Rights-based and Agroecological Initiatives for Sustainability and Equity in Peasant Communities) under an SDC co-funded project on human rights in food systems. 
  • DKA Austria is the development agency of the Catholic Children’s Movement in Austria and campaigs for a decent life for all, free from exploitation and poverty. DKA has been supporting people in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania for almost 60 years. Since 1953, over 400 million euros have been collected and some 500 projects are supported annually. 
  • The Commutiny Youth Collective is building vibrant ecosystems and empowering spaces to nurture the leadership potential of young people in transforming themselves and their society. It cooperates with the Farm 2 Food Foundation based in Northeast India, which provides training and tools to enable local communities to take control of their own production and development processes to build a productive, change-oriented and self-reliant society. 
  • Youth For Action strives to promote many community-led opportunities, promoting gender equality, governance, social justice and socio-economic development for women, women farmers, and their families. YFA operates the KVK in Mahabubnagar.  
  • The Social Work Institute (SWI) was established in 1987 to promote young leaders and social workers in Nepal. Their core areas include training, integrated community development and network, and advocacy. Their vision is a just and inclusive society in Nepal. In 2022, they discussed and formulated a Strategy on Agroecology with the aim to build on existing and emerging alternative agricultural practices to strengthen agroecology. 
Countries

India, Nepal, Kenya, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso and South Africa. 

Timeline

From 2022 to 2025 (Phase 1)

Funding

Budget for South Asia is USD 646 435 (CHF 550 000), co-funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) under their Programme on Human Rights in Food Systems and individual contributions by the different consortium partners

Mission

The focus of RAISE is to promote the implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP).  Accepted in 2018 by the UN General Assembly, this Declaration, however, does not have any implementing mechanism. 

RAISE’s partners focus on agroecology, right to food, right to seed, right to land, and effective participation of peasants, especially women, youth and children. 

Context

Despite gains in basic food security indicators, South Asia accounts for 37.4% of undernourished people globally (FAO 2020), with a predominantly rural population (66% in India and 80% in Nepal, FAOSTAT) and a significant rural-urban poverty gap. While food systems in South Asia are diverse and complex, informal food systems based on local production and informal markets continue to play a key role in marginalised sectors. In India, the Public Distribution System (PDS) does buy key staples from farmers and in turn distributes to the country’s poor through the states’ distribution systems. Yet, 90% of smallholder farmers, accounting for 86% of all farmers and 47% of arable land (Bisht et al 2020) in India, produce primarily for their own consumption through mixed crop-livestock systems. Moreover, many of the remote areas of India – particularly Northeast and tribal hinterlands – do not have physical access to the PDS system and rely on local produce. While the Green Revolution has consolidated, commercialised and commoditised agriculture and produced a range of disruptive effects, marginalised areas such as the Indian Northwest and the Himalayan region remain untouched by it, holding potential for organic and agroecological farming and bottom-up market linkages based on farmers’ own agency to reshape the agricultural narrative. Agroecological transformation is a key strategy to transform smallholder-based food systems towards greater resilience and sustainability while strengthening local economies and to “build back greener and more resilient” (FAO 2021).   

Food system transformation in South Asia requires inclusive approaches to marginalised population groups. Half of the women of reproductive age in India are affected by anaemia. The growth of 36% of children under five years old is stunted (FAOSTAT), largely due to poor diets in early age, poor nutrition of women before and during pregnancy, as well as poor sanitation. However, women who are empowered enjoy much greater dietary diversity (Gupta et al 2019). Poor nutrition during childhood greatly affects future life opportunities. This underscores both the key role of women’s and youth empowerment as well as agro-ecological approaches based on the empowerment of smallholder agency in order to break the perpetual cycle of marginalisation in rural communities. Indigenous food systems have long been denigrated and overwritten by the mainstream food industry, although they are now being rediscovered in light of their potential to generate positive externalities and contribute to local resilience and development. 

Furthermore, in both Nepal and India, the right to food has high legal status in the constitution. Both countries have also voted in favour of United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP)2 and have various normative frameworks in support of smallholders. Nevertheless, smallholders face a range of challenges, first and foremost contradictions between supportive programmes and programmes and policies supporting primarily the Green Revolution and industrial approaches. There are also great regional differences and geographical differences, such as differing state-level policies in India.  

Main beneficiaries

Children (12-18 years) and Young Farmers (19-30 years): South Asia 

Women Farmers: Southern Africa 

Pastoralists: East and West Africa 

Strategy

Objectives

    General Objectives: 

    • Ensure that peasants know their rights and are empowered to claim them 
    • Ensure that duty bearers are aware of peasants’ rights in order to bring forward their implementation 
    • Contribute to strengthening global frameworks on peasants’ rights through influencing United Nations mechanisms 
    • Create global awareness among potential alliance partners to further advance the rights of pesants. 

    Strategic Objectives: 

    • Promote the rights of the people to produce, distribute and consume food, and reinforce food sovereignty 
    • Strengthen climate resilient communities and farms 
    • Build the capacities of staff, partners, and communities on conceptual clarity around ecology, agroecology, and related practices 
    • Build networks and alliances, understanding that these are a critical source of power 

    Overall Goal in South Asia:  

    • Children and youth from rural communities actively participate in agroecological transformation. 

    The promotion of agroecology as a key approach to sustaining food systems is the technical focus of the project. In this time of climate and food crises, agroecology offers viable solutions through nature-based options for food production – thereby minimising the risks in the production system, allowing for the combination of nutritious food with the use of natural processes (less carbon footprint) in production, while enhancing ecosystem services. The focus is put on raising awareness and strengthening the capacities of children and youth in forging a relationship between agroecology and the realisation of peasants’ aspirations throughout the entire food system.

    Activities

    Featured principles and elements:  

    co-creation, participation, land and natural resources governance 

    Activities on co-creation, participation, land and natural resources governance (Nepal example, up to early 2024) 

    ​​​Focus on South-Asia (April 2022 – end 2023) 

      • Role playing activities and small tasks performed by children 
      • Fundamental rights (31 Fundamental rights, including land rights, food sovereignty and security, etc.) 
      • 4 fundamental duties  
      • United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)  
      • United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants (UNDROP) 
      • Establishment of community-based child clubs: 17 clubs, 328 children 
    • Co-create an Agroecology Toolkit, using participatory tools (under development) that integrate the HLPE’s 13 Principles of Agroecology: 
      • Understanding local food systems 
      • Understanding local agriculture practices  
      • Existing/traditional technologies related to agriculture and food  
      • Dietary intake 
      • Supply chain 
      • 15 youth groups/258 youths directly involved 
      • Discussions about agroecology among young people 
    • Organise Youth Conferences on Agroecology (Jamshedpur, India): 
      • Youth Conference in India held from 1–4 November 2023 to allow youth from Nepal and India to share problems and issues related to farming, form common goals, exchange knowledge, and create a movement 
      • National Youth Conference in Nepal held from 28–30 December 2023 to create a common understanding and vision on Agroecology among the youth, foster the exchange of knowledge among young people, and promote agroecology in Nepal. 
    • Create a Youth Network on Agroecology amongst South Asian partners 
    • Undertake Networking and Advocacy work for a Special Procedure on UNDROP (Consortium Level) 
    • Elaborate the Kailali Memorandum to the Kailali Municipality (Dialogue with Local Authorities): Children discussed the agriculture practices in the village, and decided to have a meeting with municipality members to hand over the memorandum. Children request Municipality support to promote organic agriculture and local food production and to discourage the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides. 
    • Undertake comparative research and discussions on UNDROP, including a comparative study on the implementation of UNDROP and a national legal framework in Nepal 
    • Organise trail farms run by young farmers on which local seeds, organic fertilisers, insect repellents, mixed cropping are used; implement a local seed exchange programme (Assam, Telangana, Karnataka, Nepal) 

    Monitoring and Evaluation Methods

    The M&E system is integrated into the overall RAISE Consortium.  

    • On the level of the Consortium, there is a mix of 39 qualitative and quantitative (cumulative and incremental) indicators across different outcomes and outputs, a selection of which the different partner organisations committed to at the beginning of the project phase. There are three qualitative global indicators, the other indicators are specific to the different outcomes and outputs of RAISE.  
    • Target values are monitored during semi-annual reporting periods and updated in a Yearly Plan of Operation.  
    • One challenge with the M&E system is the diversity of partners and perspectives, with sometimes slightly different practical interpretations of indicators.  
    • One advantage is having a homogenised and detailed system of indicators across the entire network.  

    Outcomes and Lessons Learned

    Outcomes 

    • National policy frameworks on food systems and their implementation are reviewed with the participation of agricultural labourers. 
    • The plans of communities of agricultural labourers are developed and implemented by stakeholders in local communities. 
    • The awareness and capacities of agricultural labourers regarding agroecology policy are enhanced. 
    • Stakeholders are addressed via documents and events focusing on children’s and youth perspectives on agroecology-based food systems. 
    • In the South Asia unit two joint products were produced for an international audience:   
    • Contributions to the scope of the CFS HLPE report on Building Resilient Food Systems. The consultation consisted of a questionnaire with five open-ended questions on resilience and provided good insight into how youth and young farmers look at the challenges around resilient food systems. It is quite clear from this that young people know the situation of their own communities well and have a keen eye for potential solutions and (policy) needs.
       

    Lessons Learned 

    • Awareness and capacity–building work with children and youth required more resources than expected. The process to make children and youth aware of and empowered to act on agroecological principles in a focused way takes time. The consortium planned the project during the years of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a reliance on joint online processes across different geographical, linguistic, and cultural zones. While they started with a joint online capacity–building and awareness process (i.e. the Jagrik), they soon realised that they needed to revert to a decentralised, locally driven, physical process to build trust on local perspectives before more intensively connecting the different groups across different languages, cultures and geographic locations. While this added diversity to an already complex setup, participants are now starting to see the benefits of young people becoming active in their local communities as well as on a regional level. In September 2024 we will have a joint Youth Conference with young people from all South Asian partners, which will set the stage for the further development of a joint South Asian youth network on agroecology and the concerns of agricultural labourers. 
      • “Network of networks” approach: Effective (administrative) coordination, (physical) workshops and personal meetings build common perspectives and ownership. 
      • Diversity (culture, organisation, language): Translation and inspiring moments are needed for cooperation, motivation, and solidarity. 
      • Child and youth-led processes: Social preparation, empowerment, and capacity building are important. Young participants learned to explain the 13 principles of agroecology, and trainings on agriculture, agroecology and food systems enabled peer learning among them. 
      • Various local languages: Decentralising the bottom-up approach. 
      • Shrinking space: Being mindful of (advocacy) language, building on “positive advocacy”, and respected concepts (e.g. natural farming and agroecology). 
      • Need for relevant consortium-level impact data versus local diversity of approaches: It is best to keep things meaningful and simple. While it is useful to have detailed aggregated data on the consortium level, the consortium recognises that simplification will be needed in the next phase to give justice to the local diversity of approaches and perspectives within RAISE. For example, different international RAISE partners holistically connect capacity and awareness–building work on agroecology and agricultural labourer rights with advocacy campaigns in quite different ways. In turn, when indicators are then aggregated, a certain activity may touch upon three different sets of indicators for one partner and a different set of indicators for another. Partners also included certain holistic activities under different budget lines, depending on small differences in what they assume to be at the core of each activity (e.g. capacity building, awareness, action research, or advocacy). It is quite challenging to develop a coherent, universal but also adequately simple monitoring system within a diverse global consortium. 

    Relevant links

    We, The Changemakers – A Facilitator’s Guide to Empowering Changemakers: Agroecology Modules for Adolescents and Youth.

    Published by ComMutiny – The Youth Collective and the RAISE Consortium partners in May 2024.

    Contact

    First Coordinator: Christa Suter, Fastenaktion, suter@fastenaktion.ch  

    RPU South Asia: Philipp Bück, DKA Austria, philipp.bueck@dka.at 

    RAISE is supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). 

     

    Picture credits: Youth for Action (1st picture in slider), Social Work Institute (2nd and 3rd picture in slider)