URGENCI


Since 2004, the International Network for Community Supported Agriculture (URGENCI) brings together citizens, small farmers, consumers, activists and concerned political actors at global level through an alternative economic approach called Local and Solidarity-based Partnerships between Producers and Consumers (LSP) as a way to maintain and develop family-scale organic farming and to achieve local food sovereignty for each region and each community. URGENCI promotes all forms of LSPs, all kinds of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) initiatives, as a solution to the problems associated with global intensive agricultural production and distribution.

Contact details

Function / Organisation : General Delegate of URGENCI , URGENCI

E-mail : jocelyn.parot@urgenci.net
Facebook : https://fr-fr.facebook.com/UrgenciCommunitySupportedAgricultureAroundTheWorld/
Website : https://urgenci.net
Maison de la vie associative
13400, Aubagne, France

Stakeholders

∙ Regional and national CSA networks gathered within URGENCI
∙ Small farmers involved in LSP and CSA initiatives
∙ Other NGOs involved in the promotion of agroecology and food sovereignty
∙ Research institutes such as INRA in France for joint studies
∙ Local, regional and national public authorities, main target groups of policy advocacy activities

Objectives

∙ Communicating the benefits of Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) and its vital role in the radical transformation of the food system
∙ Building nourishing personal and organizational relationships, as well as strategic alliances to develop CSA globally
∙ Supporting and empowering local, national, and continental CSA networks in all their diversity
∙ Enabling knowledge-sharing between all actors, especially farmer-to-farmer

Legal framework & Budget

URGENCI is a non-profit association, which brings together national CSA networks. Its head office is located in Aubagne (France). The salaried team consists of a General Delegate, a Coordinator and a part-time accounting manager. Some hirings are underway to face the diversification of the network missions.

Activities

URGENCI promotes experience-sharing through farmer-to-farmer and network-to-network meetings at different levels, as well as a mentoring programme, a contact directory of trainers, online tools and webinars. Thanks to the support of FAO, a pilot project of exchange of good practices is being implemented in the Mediterranean area, where CSA was underdeveloped. The network also provides a database of all its members and allies, encourages action-research on the challenges and impacts of CSA and disseminates the results. Finally, URGENCI coordinates a global advocacy process, starting from the base and resulting in policy papers, publications and other dissemination activities.

>Innovation & Outcomes

In the Mediterranean area, CSA-like initiatives have blossomed as a consequence to URGENCI’s experience-sharing activities: in Morocco with Swani Tiqa, in Croatia with a network of 15 LSPs involving 9 farms and a thousand consumers, and in Greece where fair local food initiatives are expanding. URGENCI also contributed to the strengthening of experienced CSA networks such as AMAP in France and GAS in Italy, and opened up their activities to cooperation with new initiatives.

Project budget
200 000

Main obstacles & Next steps

The proliferation of LSP and CSA initiatives is proof of the dynamism and creativity of citizens to propose a concrete alternative to food commercialisation on the world market. However, in the absence of public financial support, some networks operate in very precarious conditions at a time when missions are multiplying. URGENCI is confronted with the need to secure its economic model by increasing membership fees and diversifying funding sources.

More on :

https://urgenci.net


Project co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund