Following-up the Mediterranean Strategy for Sustainable Development’s chapter (MSSD) on “sustainable agricultural and rural development”   Mandate and objectives

Plan Bleu, a Regional Activity Centre of the Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP) has been assigned by the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention to follow-up the Mediterranean Strategy for Sustainable Development (MSSD), adopted in November 2005 where Agriculture and Rural Development is one of the priority field of action.

For this reason, Plan Bleu is bound to document and disseminate a set of priority and complementary indicators to follow up the MSSD, to conduct in-depth analyses, to identify good practices and to carry out its activities with volunteer countries, the EU authorities and regional and initiatives partnerships in this field.

The overall objectives aim at:

• Building up a body of information, which would facilitate the follow-up and the implementation of the MSSD in the field of “agriculture and rural development”,
• Speeding up the definition of strategies and the implementation of sustainable rural development policies by showing their benefits (in economic, environmental and social terms),
• Pointing out obstacles and identify existing levers (or potential ones) in national and local policies as well as at the international cooperation scale in order to progress toward the objectives of the MSSD,
• Monitoring the changes of the region and of the countries in terms of the MSSD’s objectives and orientations,
• Gathering and enhancing information at three levels: regional, national, local.

The specific objectives consist in:

• Setting up a review of the progress achieved based on:
  • documentation on MSSD’s follow-up indicators,
  • regional studies placing the whole Mediterranean region regarding the objectives of the MSSD on the one hand and in comparison to the rest of the world on the other hand,
  • analyses of the definition and implementation of sustainable rural development policies and programmes in some countries, together with concrete examples of good practices (case studies),
  • analyses of the international cooperation as regards sustainable rural development.
• Enabling a regional share of experiences thank to:
  • The organization of a workshop aimed at discussing and finalising a regional report introducing rural development policies, programmes or local actions implemented at different scales: regional studies/analyses, national reports, case studies;
  • The participation to a regional seminar aimed at presenting and enhancing the regional report once it comes out.
• Formulating some recommendations about the progress to be made so as to achieve the strategic objectives within the countries and on a regional level.

Activities

They have been conducted since 2006 in partnership with CIHEAM (Centre International des Hautes Etudes Agronomiques Méditerranéennes / International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies), and with the financial support from the French Ministry of Agriculture. These activities consist in.

• Mobilizing a group of experts in order to:
  • Define a list of complementary indicators to follow-up the MSSD in the field of “agriculture and rural development” - December 2006;
  • Define priority themes for regional studies - December 2006;
  • Work out the specifications for the reports national experts are entrusted with and make up a list of countries - May 2007;
  • Monitor the unfolding of national and regional studies and ensure their conformity to the specifications;
  • Set up the global executive calendar for 2007-2009;
    
    
• Working on priority/complementary indicators:
  • Methodological sheets for the priority indicators - May 2006
  • Methodological sheets for the complementary indicators – July 2007
    
    
• Implementing National studies

AL	Etude		Annexe
DZ	Etude	Study	Annexe	Résumé	Summary
EG	Etude	Study	Annexe	Résumé	Summary
ES	Etude	Study	Annexe	Résumé	Summary
FR	Etude		Annexe	Résumé	Summary
GR	Etude	Study	Annexe
IT		Study	Annexe		Summary
MA	Etude		Annexe	Résumé
RS		Study	Annexe		Summary
TN	Etude	Study		Résumé
TR		Study

• Conducting regional analyses

Territorial approaches in the Mediterranean rural development policies:

• Terms of reference
• Résultats et conclusions de l'étude
• Etude documentaire

Agriculture and climate change (Maghreb) :

• Terms of reference
• Completed Study
• Summary of the study

Rangelands collective management (Mashrek/Maghreb) :

• Terms of reference
• Completed Study

Economic cost of desertification :

• Terms of reference
• Completed Study
• Summary of the study
  
  
• Regional workshop - Bari (IT) 8-10 May 2008

About participants from FAO, the World Bank, UNDP, EEA, AFD, la FIPA..., took part in the International Workshop "Sustainable agricultural and rural development in the Mediterranean" jointly organized by Plan Bleu, ICAMAS and  IAM (Bari), from 8th to 10th, May, 2008, in the premises of IAM Bari (IT). The works were based on the results issuing from 10 national studies and 4 regional ones, performed in the framework of a partnership between Plan Bleu and ICAMAS and in the context of the Mediterranean Strategy for Sustainable Development’s follow-up and the publication of Mediterra 2009.

The discussions were very informative and fertile, and confirmed the relevancy of a Mediterranean reflection on these matters and the interest to reposition the agriculture and rural development issues at the top of the political agenda. Likewise, the participants highlighted the need to better define the realities of the Mediterranean agricultural and rural world by examining the incomplete and often fragmented nature of the available data and information.

They called for a larger effort in terms of research in connection with the various thematic issues linked with the agriculture and rural development by putting the said topics into a more general problematic concerning territories development as a whole. The implementation of population’s to the working out of territory projects has been considered as an essential step

More information...

• Publication of Mediterra 2009: “Rethinking rural development in the Mediterranean”

All of these studies have been published in "Mediterra 2009", prepared by CIHEAM and Blue Plan jointly. This publication consists of a set of regional analyses and syntheses linked to MSSD's objectives, on the evolution and coherence of national and Euro-Mediterranean strategies and policies for rural development. This publication includes indicators, good practices examples and recommendations for decision-makers.

This report is available in five languages at the Presses de Sciences Po editions.

All of these studies and the Bari Workshop’s concluding works are also available in MAP Technical Report Series of the Mediterranean Action Plan.

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