Nous Sommes la Solution
Scaling Up the Transition to Agroecology
The Milestone
Nous Sommes la Solution (NSS) is a member of the Dynamique de la Transition Agro-écologique au Sénégal (DyTAES), which was set up in 2019 to facilitate a dialogue with the government of Senegal with the objective of developing a national agroecological transition policy. In early 2020, DyTAES gave the Senegalese Minister of the Environment and Sustainable Development a report that makes a set of policy recommendations for the country’s agroecological transition.
Why This Matters
For 50 years, industrial agriculture, land grabs, structural adjustment programs, and free trade agreements have undermined the ability of nations in the Global South to produce their own food. Dependent on the volatile international market for food and on corporations for expensive seed and chemical inputs, Africa’s food systems have been among the hardest hit by the world food crisis. Despite the contribution of African women to the agricultural sector, women have limited access to education, training, land, and other productive resources. More recently the rise of ultra processed foods is impacting the health and wellbeing of local populations, evidenced by the rise in non-communicable diseases. Poor health is directly related to poor diet and nutrition, which can be prevented through the transformation of the food system. Such a transformation would additionally support climate mitigation through the absorption of carbon.
Movement Action
NSS is a rural women’s movement for food sovereignty in West Africa. Founded in 2011 as a campaign against industrial agriculture and the Green Revolution, NSS uplifts and grows the leadership of rural women working towards African solutions for food sovereignty. Since its founding, NSS has become a movement made up of over 500 rural women’s associations and over 180,000 members from Burkina Faso, Senegal, Ghana, The Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire. Their work stems from the assertion that the chronic problems of hunger and landlessness will continue to exist in Africa unless industrial agriculture is replaced with peasant, regenerative, and sustainable agroecological practices, which centralizes smallholder farmers, farmer-managed seed systems, and the community.
How They Are Doing It
Build Up Women’s Leadership: NSS is dedicated to empowering and fostering the leadership of rural women in their pursuit of African solutions for food sovereignty and localized food systems. NSS has successfully created one of West Africa’s only women-led agroecology platforms that is supporting women with knowledge and tools to save seeds, offering learning exchanges on agroecological techniques including the production of biofertilisers and bioprotectors, and producing healthy food for their communities. NSS’s members are also working to spread awareness within communities of the importance of locally sourced diets that are produced ecologically.
Establishing Model Farms: NSS has created “model farms,” which serve as demonstration centers where members can learn agroecological practices, form groups and learn to collectively own and manage land and production equipment, and that host community fairs and retail stores for members’ produce.
Supporting Local Food Economies and Diets: NSS does this through in-depth training workshops for women, community forums to discuss the importance of local diets, and teaching cooking techniques and agroecology principles. They promote their work through community radio broadcasts to ensure that their messages have extensive reach.
Restoring Indigenous Rice Varieties: NSS has collaborated with universities and public research centers to restore Indigenous varieties of rice, a staple food in West Africa.
Advocacy At All Levels: As a complement to the national strategy that DyTAES is advancing, DyTAES member groups have set up Dynamique de la Transition Agro-Ecologique Local (DyTAEL) to promote agroecology in communities throughout Senegal, and to do targeted advocacy with communal and municipal officials. NSS is actively participating in setting up DyTAELs in six agroecological zones in Senegal.
Thousand Currents Partnership
Thousand Currents has supported NSS to continue to evolve as a continental movement, working both at the grassroots level to drive transformation toward agroecological practice among women farmers, while also driving national policy through advocacy and political engagement. Since our partnership began in 2019, we have watched NSS expand to include over 500 rural women’s associations from Burkina Faso, Senegal, Ghana, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Guinea, and Côte d’Ivoire. Throughout their expansion, NSS has remained focused and steadfast in working to push, support, and facilitate agroecological transformation of Africa’s food systems.
All Case Studies
Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara
Bufete para Pueblos Indígenas
Kenyan Peasants League
Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra
Southern Peasants Federation of Thailand
Thousand Currents Partnership Model