Auteur/autrice : Zhihao BAI

A European culinary initiative that crosses borders and generations

Silver Fourchette, an organization that wishes to promote a balanced and environmentally friendly diet adapted to the elderly, is organising a cross-border and intergenerational culinary meeting, thanks to the European INTERREG cooperation project.   

From April to December 2021, the project will gather seniors and children from Switzerland and France, to cook recipes and taste various meals prepared with local products from both countries. The participants will cross the border to live a fun and intercultural experience around good food. At the end of these encounters, the partner organizations will produce and diffuse a bilingual cooking dictionary. 

As a matter of fact, children and seniors are often victims of stereotypes and preconceived ideas about the way they should eat. The aim of the initiative is to think about those stereotypes with them, in a friendly manner, both theoretically and practically, and review the good eating habits to adopt as we get older, and to discuss themes such as sustainable food, food waste, the seasonality of products and the importance of local producers for a sustainable diet. 

The aim of this project is to stimulate inter-generational exchanges between French and Swiss citizens, in order to encourage the transmission of knowledge, experiences, and skills while fighting against the isolation of the elderly. Thanks to this project, the participants will: 

• have a better understanding of the link between diet and good health  
• gain knowledge on age-related nutritional needs and on how easy it is to make suitable recipes! 
• create personal bonds between cross-border seniors and between young and old people 
• know more about Swiss and French local cultures.
  

Hopefully, we will get to taste some of the delicious meals!

Planète Urgence has launched a new project in Madagascar: « DIABE » stands for Integrated Development, Planning, and Wood-Energy in French. Supported by the European Commission, DIABE aims to ensure forest preservation and economic development in Madagascar. 

The main objective of the DIABE project is to contribute to the sustainable improvement of income and food security of rural households, particularly women and children, while preserving the natural environment in the peri-urban area of Antananarivo, Madagascar. To reach its objective, Planète Urgence and partners are working on 4 main components of activities:

• Preservation of forests and biodiversity by planting wood-fueled trees and replanting old plots
• Promotion of local economic development through the establishment of coal sales points and marketing actions
• Environmental awareness through workshops and training for nurserymen and foresters
• Support for sustainable territorial management through reforestation management plans or linking actors sensitized to the production and marketing of coal.

Overall, DIABE will contribute to the sustainable food security of rural households by increasing local woodfuel resources, introducing subsistence crops as well as promoting beekeeping. The action will contribute to making forest systems more resilient to climate change. The reduction in woodfuel requirements combined with more sustainable management of plantations will reduce the pressure on natural forests.

Their increased preservation will retain their potential for carbon sequestration, adaptation, and biodiversity.

The 3,5 million euros DIABE project was launched in November 2020 with the financial support of the European Commission in 79 communes of the 9 districts of Analamanga, Itasy and Alaotra-Mangoro regions in Madagascar. DIABE is coherent with the vision of the National Plan for Sustainable Development (PND) to « build a new Madagascar, […] a world leader in the development and preservation of its immense natural capital, based on strong and inclusive growth for the equitable and sustainable development of all territories« . 

Project partners

Planète Urgence (SOS GROUP International action) is an NGO of international solidarity and development support, created in 2000.  Planète Urgence aims to strengthen people for a united and sustainable planet so that everyone can live in dignity and in complete autonomy in a preserved environment. Planète Urgence has projects in countries on the African and the Asian continent.

The Republic of Madagascar, contracting administration and project leader through the Bureau d’Appui à la Coopération Extérieure (BACE) of the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

European Union, main technical and financial partner, financing the project up to 95% in the framework of the 11th European Development Fund (EDF) of the European Commission.

Action Intercoopération Madagascar (AIM), a non-profit association under Malagasy law, created in September 2004, It ensures the direct implementation of development projects and programs in Madagascar.

Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD), a French organization for agricultural research and international cooperation for the sustainable development of tropical and Mediterranean regions.

L’association Participation à la gestion de l’environnement (PARTAGE), a non-governmental organization specializing in supporting the management of renewable natural resources by local communities.

Background information

This initiative follows on from the ASA programme (programme to support agroforestry around Antananarivo), which was notably made up of the 3 projects ARINA (led by CIRAD with PARTAGE), ADIAFO (led by AIM), and AFIBERIA (led by Planète Urgence) from 2015 to 2019. The 4 partners have joined forces for this new DIABE project with a budget of €3.68M, 95% of which is financed by the European Union (€3.5M), with 5% to be co-financed by each partner. 

The DIABE project has its own website! If you would like to know more about the project, its progress, or the different components of the project, please visit http://www.diabe.mg/.

Pulse, SOS GROUP’s star of entrepreneurship acceleration, is implementing a 3-year project focused on improving the Social and Solidarity Economy in Morocco, Tunisia, and South Africa. 

The 3-year project aims to strengthen organizations working in the ecosystem of the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) and to contribute to the sustainable development of the actions of the SSE to respond effectively to the socio-economic and environmental challenges of African countries, in particular Morocco, Tunisia and South Africa. 

With Afrique Pulse, PULSE pursues the development of social entrepreneurship in the three countries by strengthening local organizations through:

• The consolidation of educational resources
• The training of teams
• The adoption of a common management tool

And expanding programs for project leaders in providing:

• application assistance workshops
• funding support

The project launched in January 2020 intends to position the beneficiary organizations as social innovation laboratories, acting in new territories and with a wider audience and contributing to the animation of the ecosystem through an advocacy and communications strategy that promotes success stories. At last, the project will contribute to the solidity of these structures through the consolidation of the economic model of each of them and finally the establishment of impact measurement tools.

Expected results

• 5 reinforced entrepreneurship support structures (including 3 partners and 2 structures selected through a call for applications)
• 90 social entrepreneurs supported throughout the duration of the project, 50% of whom are women, within the framework of the incubation programmes set up by the three partner support structures
• At least 1,000 people sensitized and/or trained in social entrepreneurship by the end of the project

PULSE is an accelerator/ stimulator of social innovation projects. It focuses on inventing a new economy, which core values are social relationships and environmental preservation, in order to meet the huge challenges of this century, gather a global network of incubators and entrepreneurs with a presence in Tunisia, Morocco, South Africa, Senegal, the Balkans, and France.

Main donors:

• French Development Agency (Agence Française de Développement – AFD)
• La Région Sud Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur

Implementing partners:

• Lab’ess based in Tunis has been supporting Tunisian social entrepreneurs and CSOs to change scale since 2012
• Bidaya is a « Social Green Tech » incubator, created in 2015, in Casablanca.
• ORIBI Village offers support programmes on specific themes such as agri-food and sustainable tourism, Created in 2018, in Cape Town.