OLC IFOAM LA – ORGANIC LEADERSHIP COURSE

ABOUT THE OURSE

IFOAM (International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements), in partnership with IBEM, held for the first time in Brazil the Training Course of Leaders in Agroecology and Organic Production, from August 2017 to June 2018. This course has been carried out since 2012 in countries of Europe, Asia and Latin America.

the course took place in three phases: two face-to-face sessions of a week each and an 8-month distance phase with a virtual meeting (webinar) each month.

The first face-to-face phase occur in Rincão Gaia / RS, in September 2017. See the complete report here

The second phase of the course consisted of monthly webinars that ran from August 2017 to May 2018. Each virtual meeting addressed a different theme:

WEBINARS/ Content

August / 17 – Presentation of the course

October / 17 – Holistic Production Systems

November / 17 – Herbivores and ecosystem services

December / 17 – Agroforest

January / 18 – Sustainable Extractivism and Socio-biodiversity Products

February / 18 – Food systems

March / 18 – Marketing systems

April / 18 – Campaigns and communication

May18 – Counting Actual Costs

ABOUT THE THIRD PHASE: PREENCIAL MEETING

The third phase of the course took place from June 2 to 5 at Vila Yamaguischi in Jaguariúna / SP and on June 6 at Biofach / BioBrazil Fair in the city of São Paulo. The Yamaguishi Village produces horticultural, fruit, jelly, honey and organic eggs and is a training center in agroecology and organic production.

Patrícia Flores of IFOAM / AL / Peru) and Angela Escosteguy (IBEM / Brazil) were the coordinators of the Course and together with Romeu Leite, founder of Vila Yamaghishi and Marcelo Laurino of the Ministry of Agriculture facilitated the course

In addition to the theoretical activities, there were practical activities such as group dynamics, debates, leadership practices and various forms of communication.

There were also group integration activities.

There were also two technical visits to organic farms:

• At São José farm, producer of vegetables, fruits, milk and organic dairy products.
• At Fountains Farm, a Biodynamic School and productive farm with orchards, vegetable gardens, pastures, milk and poultry, woods
  and fountains.

On the 6th of June, the group visited Biofach and Biobrazil Fair, the largest organic fair in Latin America, in São Paulo city there was
an opportunity to meet face-to-face with some webinars teachers, businessmen of organic sector and members of Brazilian government
such as Luiz Carlos Demattê Filho, (Korin Agropecuária), Rogério Dias (ABA) Marcelo Laurino (Ministry of Agriculture) and Maria
Fernanda Fonseca (Pesagro).

GRADUATON CERIMONY

During the fair, there was the graduation ceremony with the participation of Brazilian organic sector authorities, such as Dr. Virginia Lira, Coordinator of Agroecology / and Dr. Marcelo Laurino from Ministry of Agriculture, Dr. Marco Pavarino from the Special Secretariat for
Family Agriculture and Agrarian Development and Dr. Romeu Leite from Vila Yamaghishi

GENERAL EVALUATION OF THE COURSE ( 11/ 14 anonymous answers)

Evaluate how much the OLC Course contributed to your development as a leader.

Do you consider your time and money well invested in this course?

Evaluate the OLC Course. 1 for bad and 10 for excellent

We thank all those who made this course possible!

Markus Arbenz – Executive Director/IFOAM
Konrad Hauptfleisch – Head of Capacity Development/ IFOAM
Bárbara Zilly – Capacity Development /FOAM
Patrícia Flores – IFOAM LA
IFOAm Head Office
Angela Escosteguy – Director/IBEM
IBEM Office
Facilitators:
Romeu Leite
Marcelo Laurino
René Piamonte
Carlos Nabinger
Felipe Pasini
Rogério Dias
Luiz Carlos Demattê Filho
Laércio Meirelles
Denise Godinho
David Gould
Participants of the Course

This post is also available in: Portuguese (Brazil)