Promotion of Farmers’ Rights through awareness raising and capacity building materials

Since 2015, the Development Fund together with its partner, Centre for Environmental Policy and Advocacy (CEPA), have been involved in promoting the realization of Farmers’ Rights and ensuring that the Government of Malawi’s policies support agrobiodiversity conservation and management. The main objective is to increase awareness of and contribute to the realization of Farmers’ Rights through publication and dissemination of capacity building materials for the realization of Farmer’s Rights in Malawi. The publication aims to provide tools to inform and create awareness amongst farming communities, relevant stakeholders and decision-makers; and to provide relevant information that can guide them in the development of protocols, community instruments, policies, legal and administrative measures ensuring the recognition and implementation of Farmers’ Rights. The partners have influenced the development of the new seed policy and legislation for Malawi to ensure that they support farmer seed systems that are critical for the realization of Farmers’ Rights. A central lesson learned is the importance of involving community members in the development of capacity building material as they contribute with reality checks on the local context.