The Fédération Nationale pour l’Agriculture Biologique (FENAB) has been advocating for access to organic products and developing the organic sector in Senegal since 2008.
As the National Federation for Organic Agriculture in Senegal, FENAB not only lobbies for the recognition and inclusion of organic in the country’s policies but also for the development of research. It is able to do this with support from its members and partners.
With 43 farmer associations, four NGOs and over 50,000 members working as smallholder farmers, FENAB uses the membership fees it receives to further strengthen its activities in the organic sector.
It has also been able to expand its activities, for instance, training and research, thanks to collaborating with international partners in the framework of projects, for example, with; Biovision Trust Africa on the Ecological Organic Agriculture Initiative led by the African Union; Heks-Eper; and IFOAM – Organics International.
“We believe that IFOAM – Organics International’s work, such as the annual global initiative #IGrowYourFood, is essential in highlighting the work of smallholder producers.”, shares Ibrahima Seck, the coordinator at FENAB.
In fact, FENAB and IFOAM – Organics International have partnered on coordinating and implementing:
FENAB keeps an updated database of all trained participants throughout the project. It aims to use the database to create a community by connecting the trainers via a digital platform (to be developed in the future). The team hopes this will encourage the sharing and transmission of knowledge.
Ibrahima believes that the broad network enables FENAB to share information with its members and the community.