As organic agriculture grows rapidly across the region, Pacific Organic and Ethical Trade Community’s Organic Policy Toolkit has helped organic stakeholders engage in and lead positive policy developments that support small-holder organic farmers and develop the sector to improve livelihoods.
The Toolkit also supports the mainstreaming of organics into other related policies to incorporate the benefits of organics to health and the environment. Through the EU funded Building Capacity for Non-State Actors to Lead Sustainable Agriculture Policy Development project, managed by the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, POETCom has been working with communities in the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Solomon Islands and Samoa in collaboration with POETCom member organisations, organic governance structures and other non-state actors to strengthen partnerships to strengthen their participation in Pacific-wide regional policy dialogue, while also strengthening linkages and information flows to constituent groups.
Through the project and designated toolkit, the communities work in collaboration with their national governments to help achieve food and nutritional security, and to enhance livelihoods through the development and implementation of national policies supporting organic, sustainable and environmentally friendly agriculture.
Jim Pierce, POETCom Coordinator, and Ruth M Cross, In-Country Facilitator in Kiribati, recently spoke about the toolkit implementation and the subsequent sustainable agriculture policy actions to mark the finishing of the Building Capacity for Non-State Actors project. See their insights in the following video.