The Agroecology Learning alliance in South East Asia (ALiSEA)

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: 1) Strengthening knowledge and experience sharing among agroecological initiatives and actors; 2) Increasing visibility and credibility of agroecological movement towards policy makers and consumers; 3) Scaling up the development and adoption of agroecological practice among farmers.

ALiSEA is a regional platform that emerged during the ACTAE project Towards an agroecological transition in South East Asia (2015-2019 founded by AFD and coordinated by CIRAD). Currently, the ALiSEA Network 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.

ALiSEA Network gathers to date over 150 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 level alike, and currently counts four countries: Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam. The website includes an interactive map with initiatives on agroecology, and an online library.

ALiSEA network aims to answer the need for a knowledge exchange and to share the wealth of experience from different regions. Through fostering a wide dissemination and understanding of the principles of agroecology, it aims to facilitate their concrete incorporation in the practices of farmers and companies, and in public policy.

Its positioning is quite specific as it promotes a broad understanding of agroecology concepts. ALiSEA helped to create a safe space for stakeholders to engage and learn from each other in regards to agroecological transition. Furthermore, ALiSEA network contributed to raise the visibility of agroecology at national and regional levels through growing media support and diverse means of communication.

Since 2017, as an active member of ALiSEA, CISDOMA has promoted the adoption and replication of Agroecological practices through the Institute’s development projects. Various practices have been promoted such as monitoring activities and minimize the use of toxic pesticides, using bio-products as alternative for chemical pesticides, sloping agricultural land technology, organic rice cultivation, integrated farming models, processing and reuse of agricultural by-products…

In addition, CISDOMA is also a pioneer in promoting the application of Simulation games to improve the analytical and decision-making capacity for farmers in agroecological transformation. This is the solution to tackle the bottleneck in the application of ecological production methods, which is the awareness of farmers.

In April 2021, CISDOMA was selected as ALiSEA’s National Board Member for Knowledge Management in Vietnam. In this role, CISDOMA is charge of strategic formulation of the Network’s action plan at the national level in the Network’s Knowledge Management related activities, such as identifying initiatives, documenting good practices on transformation of Agro-ecological and food systems, promoting documentation and information sharing among Network members as well as externally. In addition, CISDOMA also contributes significantly to AliSEA’s operational results by actively participating in supporting activities (training courses., local, national and regional consultation workshops., monthly meeting) related to imply the process of assessing “ Theory of change” of the project as well as thematic discussions on Organic Agiricultre and policy diologue.

Cooperation development group (CDG)

Cooperation Development Group (CDG) was formed by the mutual understanding and cooperation between CRD, RDSC, RTCCD, and TEW. CDG’s activities are facilitated by State-run agencies with support from domestic and foreign partners. The group has organized many activities to enhance the capacity of member organizations in the fields of rural development and poverty reduction. CDG promotes bilateral and multilateral cooperation between its members. It also endorses collaboration with national and international partners to cement its position in the development sector, contributing to the development of CSOs in Vietnam.

CDG was formed based on the principles of voluntariness, equality, consensus, unity, and mutual benefit among member organizations. It established an open mechanism that allows for easy admittance of new members which are organizations working in the fields of poverty reduction and social development.

Since its foundation, Cooperation Development Group has recruited 17 member organizations engaging in research and community development activities in the sectors of health, education, gender, environment, rural development, and community capacity building.

For more detailed information, please visit the group’s Website at http://www.cdg.org.vn; Email: htptvn@hn.vnn.vn ; Tel: 043.5121754.

Civil Society Inclusion in Food Security and Poverty Elimination Network (CIFPEN)

Civil Society Inclusion in Food Security and Poverty Elimination Network (CIFPEN) was initiated by the Consultative Institute for Socio-Economic Development of Rural and Mountainous Areas (CISDOMA) with support from CARE International, ActionAid in Vietnam, and local CSOs in May 2005.

CIFPEN’s activities are aligned with the following thematic areas:
1. Environment – Natural Resources and Rural Poverty Reduction;
2. Gender – Family – Health and Social Welfare;
3. Human Resource Training and Development; and
4. Agricultural, Forestry and Fishery Extension, and Community Development.

Since its foundation, CIFPEN Network has attracted the participation of over 40 organizations based on the principles of voluntariness, equality, consensus, unity and mutual benefit among member organizations.

For further information, visit the network’s Website at: http://www.cifpen.org; Email: cifpen@gmail.com; Tel: 043.7930380

Forest Land Coalition (FORLAND)

Forest Land Coalition (FORLAND) connects organizations and individuals working in the forestry sector in Vietnam. The coalition was established in 2012 as an advocacy effort to strengthen management and development of forest resources, and to improve the lives of people whose livelihoods depend on forest land via policy development and improvement.

Currently, FORLAND consists of 08 core members, including:
1. Centre for Rural Development in Central Vietnam (CRD);
2. Consultative and Research Center on Natural Resource Management (CORENARM);
3. Centre for Social Research and Development (CSRD);
4. Center for Indigenous Knowledge Research and Development (CIRD);
5. People and Nature Reconciliation (PanNature);
6. Rural Development and Poverty Reduction Fund (RDPR);
7. Centre for Research and Consultancy on Natural Resources Conservation and Sustainable Development (CRCSD); and
8. Consultative Institute for Socio-Economic Development of Rural and Mountainous Areas (CISDOMA).

FORLAND has been contributing to communicating pressing conflicts between State-run farms & afforestation yards and local communities to policy makers via mass media.

More information about FORLAND can be found at https://forlandvn.wordpress.com/

Land Alliance (LANDA)

Land Alliance (LANDA) was established in 2013 to connect Vietnamese Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), State agencies, press agencies, universities, research institutions, and private sector. LANDA consists of 19 volunteering NGOs and politico-social organizations. The alliance aims at improving Vietnamese citizens’ participation in effective land resource management and use, and at minimizing adverse impacts of land use activities on the environment and society.

To ensure its organizational unity and compliance with the Vietnamese laws, LANDA was formed based on the following principles:
• Consensus;
• Democracy;
• Equality;
• Voluntariness; and
• Respect and commitment.

For more information about LANDA, please contact the alliance at landa.communication@gmail.com.