PSLA Urgency

Project Presentation: “Strengthening PLSA in the Arab Countries of the Mediterranean”

The project “Strengthening PLSA in the Arab Countries of the Mediterranean” aims to identify and map the different models of Local and Solidarity Partnerships for Agroecology (PLSA) in the Arab countries around the Mediterranean basin, with the aim of sharing good practices and advocating for sustainable food systems

The project is led by URGENCI, with the support of Porticus, in partnership with Terre et Humanisme (France), Association Tunisienne de Permaculture (Tunisia), Collectif Torba (Algeria), RIAM (Morocco), Palestinian Agroecological Forum (Palestine), SOILS Permaculture Association (Lebanon), ARD (Jordan), Organic Egypt (Egypt).

The term Local and Solidarity Partnerships for Agroecology (PLSA) was coined by URGENCI members over the years to define food systems that establish direct relationships between agroecological producers and consumers, based on principles of equity and sustainability, and offer concrete alternatives to conventional modes of industrial agricultural production and mass consumption.

These partnerships are characterized by the cooperation and participation of the different stakeholders, often involving contractual commitments over more or less long periods. These partnerships are mainly defined by the values ​​that guide those who form them, so they can take different forms, due to the social, historical, geopolitical, agricultural and economic specificities of each country or region of implementation.

As part of this project, URGENCI is collaborating with local partners to collect data on PLSA in Arab Mediterranean countries through a survey and semi-directed interviews, conducted by local data collectors. The data collected during this phase will be used to produce a PLSA good practice guide, which will be available online for free in 3 languages ​​(Arabic, French, English) in summer 2025. No names of the respondents will be mentioned in the publications without their consent.