History
2013-2014 – Consultation on the dissemination of agroecology in the South Mekong region
In the past decade, the French Agency for Development (AFD) has funded projects aimed at ecologically friendly agricultural intensification in Southeast Asia. Following the difficulties encountered in disseminating agroecology in the South Mekong region during these projects, AFD commissioned a feasibility study focusing on Cambodia, Laos PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and Yunnan/China. Conducted by GRET and CIRAD in 2013/2014, the study aims to understand the obstacles and challenges to large-scale adoption, as well as to gain a better understanding of existing field practices and initiatives at the national and regional level.
Conclusion of the study
After consulting many agro-ecology actors from different backgrounds, the study showed that there were a significant number of initiatives and accumulated experiences in the Mekong Region contributing to the agroecological transition, leading to the need to open up the vision of agroecology and integrate more techniques and practices into it. By perceiving agroecology as a unifying concept of a wide “agroecology movement,” the study mapped 6 schools that are contributing to this movement: Organic Farming (OA), Conservation Agriculture (CA), System of Rice Intensification (SRI), Integrated Pest Management (IPM), Integrated Farming (VAC), and Agroforestry (AF). All these initiatives had already gained relative acknowledgment and represented high capital in terms of scientific knowledge and experience.
Emergence of the network idea
The consultations also confirmed a shared interest in bridging and synergizing these initiatives in order to exchange and enrich experience, to increase the visibility of the practices, and to scale up their adoption by farmers and inclusion in public policies. These conclusions gave rise to the idea of a regional agroecology learning alliance that would emerge from existing initiatives, create a bridge between them, and add value to them.
This idea came to fruition during the ACTAE (ACcompagner la Transition Agro-Ecologique) project in May 2015, funded by AFD and coordinated in consortium by CIRAD and GRET, focusing on Lao PDR, Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam with a budget of 2.5M€. The overall objective of the project was to build durable and effective mechanisms to facilitate synergies among initiatives, by fostering knowledge production and sharing about existing experiences.
2015-2018 – Emergence of ALiSEA network
ACTAE was structured around two components. One of the components, led by GRET, aimed to promote the emergence of this new regional network, which would take the name Agroecology Learning alliance in Southeast Asia (ALiSEA) and would work in the sub-region of the Greater Mekong, as well as at the local level in 5 countries: Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar and Thailand. The goals of ALiSEA were to form a strong coalition of stakeholders to strengthen the sharing of experiences and knowledge between agroecological initiatives, and to increase the visibility and credibility of the agroecological movement among policymakers, family farmers and consumers. GRET’s objective was to achieve an established, sustainable, autonomous, and fully appropriate network by the actors of the region after a necessary period of 10 years.
ALiSEA’s work during the ACTAE project was divided into 3 main phases:
Inception Phase – May 2015 to June 2016
Building on the key findings of the feasibility study, ALiSEA initially focused on the collective identification of national priorities to understand the education and training needs of the countries. It would therefore map agroecology stakeholders while reviewing the situation in the four countries. To launch the ACTAE project, it organized national workshops in 2016 to start building a broad coalition of stakeholders, to identify national critical issues, and to draft a collective action plan. From the outset, it also developed communication materials (e-book, website, leaflet, Facebook pages) to present and introduce the objectives and activities of the ALiSEA network.
Enabling Conditions Phase – July 2016 to December 2018
Having defined needs and missions, the network then focused on setting up favourable conditions for the emergence of ALiSEA by networking agroecology initiatives, encouraging synergies among stakeholders and disseminating successful agroecology practices. To foster networking, it organized events with multi-stakeholder to shape the governance of the network and address priority issues (2017 National General Assembly, 2017 charter…), as well as thematic workshop to learn from and discuss agroecology practice. It set up channels to access information about agroecology, and implemented and supported studies and research under a participative process. In 2016, ALiSEA also launched a small grant facility to support and implement concrete initiatives that respond to needs on the ground, while involving stakeholders in developing knowledge products, sharing lesson learned and field evidence.
Capitalization Phase and way forwards – July 2018 to June 2019
At the end of the ACTAE project, ALiSEA conducted a member’s consultation to collect opinion, and set up national task force group meetings to shape the future. It also focused on documenting knowledge and experience through Small Grant case studies, the Agroecology Futures Book, video productions, and the publication of an animated film to introduce ALiSEA network. ALiSEA co-organized the Agroecology Futures Regional Forum (final ACTAE conference) in November 2018.
2019 – 2026: Expansion and structuration of the Network
In continuation of ACTAE, the idea of the ASSET (Agroecology and Safe Food System Transition) project emerged in 2019, funded by AFD, EU DesiRA, FFEM, and coordinated by GRET in strong collaboration with CIRAD, which aims to transform food and agricultural systems in Southeast Asia into more sustainable, safer and inclusive systems, through harnessing the potential of Agroecology. This project will include the ALiSEA network, and will focus on its expansion and structuring.
National structuration and strategies
In order to consider the specificities of the national political contexts and ensure proper ownership by members, the network decided to structure itself, until then only regional, also at national level. In 2021, the Board of Members (BM) of Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam were created. The members of these BMs are member institutions of the ALiSEA network, represented by appointed individuals.
In 2022, as part of the ASSET project, ALiSEA, Gret, CIRAD, IRD, and national partners notably DALaM, GDA, VAAS, organized 3 national Theory of Change (ToC) workshop in order to carry out prospecting work with its members and national stakeholders.
In parallel, ALiSEA strengthens its common vision of agroecology and reinforces the members integration, providing a common framework for action and interventions. ALiSEA also diversified its activities by participating in the policy dialogue on agriculture, raising awareness by working with local and national journalists, and developing a Knowledge Hub. Since 2020, UNI4COOP, 4 Belgian university NGO, supports the Cambodian BM, funding a very large part of these activities
Myanmar
At the same time, the coup d’Etat of February 2021 put a halt to the activity in Myanmar, and the funds allocated were retained in hopes of resuming operations if the situation improved. However, the relationship and collaboration with the government partners have been stopped, and the CSO registration law of 2022 make it dangerous and complicated for the CSO to work. ALiSEA drastically reduced these activities, decided to assign a Myanmar national consultant and conducted only remote activities to support local CSOs.
Next step
The next step is to achieve autonomy from GRET by 2028, by structuring the network at regional level, transitioning GRET into a more technical advisory role, and leaving the strategic direction to the members.
ALiSEA has recently received new funding from Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC), as part of Agroecology Promotion Programme (APP). Assuming that agroecology is broadly promoted as a pathway for food systems transformation to truly sustainable, resilient, localised and healthy food systems, the APP wants to contribute to the efforts of the countries to reach their SDGs, using agroecology as an implementation compass for improving livelihoods, and health of people and the environment.