CIRAD and AVSF jointly commit to sustainable rural development in the global South

CIRAD and Agronomes & Vétérinaires Sans Frontières (AVSF) wish to strengthen their collaboration in order to carry out projects with a participatory approach that address the needs and challenges of rural communities in the global South. The focus will be on the food security, environmental and health challenges facing socio-economic actors, in particular in family farming, research, training and the public authorities. To achieve this, CIRAD and AVSF will build on the complementarity of their operations, their expertise, their partnership networks in the global South, and the outcomes of their cooperation.

This agreement sets out the objectives of the global partnership between AVSF and CIRAD. The goal is to facilitate exchanges of knowledge, methodologies and tools, and joint research on priority innovation issues. The agreement also aims to foster: collaborations between consortiums involved in action research and expertise, and the search for funding; the impact of joint actions through their appropriate scaling (territories, sectors); the joint construction and dissemination of training modules; the development of advocacy and efforts to influence public action; and the exchange of knowledge between farmers.

“In recent years, teams from AVSF and CIRAD have expanded their collaboration around the sustainability of agricultural and livestock sectors, innovation in agroecology and the implementation of the One Health concept”, says Elisabeth Claverie de Saint Martin, CEO of CIRAD. “I am delighted to be part of this rich and productive partnership for the benefit of our partners in the global South”.

Frédéric Apollin, Director of AVSF, continues: “A growing number of action research programmes have begun. They reflect our shared desire to enhance our ability to work together in order to help our partners in the global South to address the major challenges of the ecological, economic and social transitions”.

Finally, this framework agreement is also in line with the strengthened ties between AVSF and CIRAD at the Jardin d’Agronomie Tropicale (Garden of Tropical Agronomy) site in Paris, in the context of the Cité du Développement Durable association (City of Sustainable Development), of which both organisations are members.