Our global food systems are at a crossroads. While intensification of agriculture has increased productivity, it has also aggravated social and environmental problems at a global, national and local scale. Agriculture is not only a cause but also a victim of these problems, especially of climate change and the loss of biodiversity or healthy ecosystems and ecosystem services (such as soil fertility and functioning water cycles). Concerns are growing about how to feed the world’s population without diminishing nature’s resources, while creating opportunities for decent work. The need for a profound transformation of our agricultural and food systems is becoming evident. In recent years, agroecology has gained significant importance in the international discourse on future-proof agri-food systems, as it offers tried-and-tested solutions to meet the three Rio Conventions – on Climate change mitigation and adaptation (UNFCCC), sustainable use and conservation of biodiversity (CBD) and combating land degradation (UNCCD).
To enable a widespread adaptation and mainstreaming of agroecological approaches in development policies and practices, GIZ has developed a set of training materials, which are openly accessible. The material is based on a modular structure and can be adapted to your learning targets and needs.
This training material provides a contemporary understanding of agroecology and related concepts. It combines theoretical and practical elements and identifies entry points for introducing agroecological approaches into development cooperation projects. Given that the choice of suitable agroecological practices is dependent on the project context, the material does not focus on specific practices but approaches agroecology from a strategic perspective. The material is based on current international knowledge (HLPE, 2019) and uses other openly available tools, such as the Agroecology Criteria Tool (Biovision 2019).
The Training material will enable you to:
- have increased your understanding of the theoretical foundations of agroecology,
- be up to date on current debates on agroecology and sustainable food systems,
- be familiar with methods and tools to reflect on the agroecological character of a project or policy
- have identified potential entry points for integrating agroecological approaches into your project or work environment,
- be prepared to confidently communicate the concept of agroecology, its challenges, benefits and potential applications to partners and other stakeholders.
Target Group of the training: This course is particularly relevant for everyone who is working in rural development, agriculture, nutrition, or food systems and who is interested in introducing agroecological approaches into their current projects. The training has a planning and strategic focus on the whole food system and does not include specific practices on farm level.
Material is available in: English, French, Spanish
The training material is published with a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike). This mean the materials are meant to be used for non-for-profit purposes. The modular structure and copyright license enable you to use and adapt the material, so it best fits your context and your learning needs.
⇒ The Training Kit consists of 4 documents:
Reader: The theoretical foundation of the training and interesting read and summary on agroecology.
Exercise book: A selection of exercises and interactive training methods for designing the training.
Case Work: An optional case work enables the participants to dive into the understanding of agroecology and try the methods and tools within a fictional case.
Guidebook for trainers: For those who want to design a training for their context, this guidebook offers some more details and info on how to use the material and how to design a context specific adaptation.
Access the training material here:
in English
- Reader – Towards sustainable food systems
- Exercisebook – Towards sustainable food systems
- Case work – Towards sustainable food systems
- Guide trainer – Towards sustainable food systems
in French
- Supports de formation – Vers des systèmes alimentaires durables
- Cashier d’exercices – Vers des systèmes alimentaires durables
- Étude sur dossier – Vers des systèmes alimentaires durables
- Guide du formateur – Vers des systèmes alimentaires durables
in Spanish
- Material de capacitación – Hacia sistemas alimentarios sostenibles
- Libro de ejercicios – Hacia sistemas alimentarios sostenibles
- Trabajo sobre casos – Hacia sistemas alimentarios sostenibles
- Guía para instructores a instructoras – Hacia sistemas alimentarios sostenibles
