Agro-Perma-Lab Foundation is a member and co-creator in the Europe and Central Asia Community of Practice on Agroecology. Between October 2022 and September 2023 we will be supporting the development of an online platform as part of the inter-regional project “Sharing knowledge fro stronger Agroecology Movement in ECA” co-funded by Agroecology Fund: Collaboratives and RITA: Co-Financing.
Why Bilim?
The primary aim of the platform is to facilitate the sharing of knowledge amongst small-scale food producers’ organisations and their Agroecology schools of the Caucasus, the Balkans, Central Asia and other countries of the region (here below called the “community”). Bilim means Knowledge in Turkish and some other Central Asian languages.
What are the strengths?
Bilim is the first interregional and multiligual digital platform focused entirely on Agroecology, bridging the gap between traditional knowledge and technological tools for sharing knowledge and experiences amongst a network of organizations (“Community of practice on Agroecology”) active in Europe and the Central Asia region. This Community of practice has been facilitated by Schola Campesina Aps.
1- It is a tool built for a community, owned by a community, to share useful knowledge for the community.
2- It is a safe place for small-scale farmers -specifically women and youth- to communicate, share knowledge and experiences, and to promote co-learning.
3- It is a multi-language tool able to connect small-scale food producers organizations in over 10 countries.
4- It is an interactive forum and chat to exchange contents and ideas on the different dimensions of Agroecology (11 Pillars of the Nyéléni Declaration on Agroecology).
5- It is an open source tool developed through the support of an international community of developers (Discourse) that will be able to perform the upgrade and maintenance of the tools in the long term.
The ECA Agroecology network supports coordinated advocacy work for agroecology, the implementation of UNDROP and the pursuit of food sovereignty. Built on 11 Pillars of the Nyéléni Declaration on Agroecology.
BILIM promotes co-learning, horizontal knowledge sharing and political capacity building at the national and regional level to solve local problems effected by the agro-industrial food model and to foster change towards a fairer society.
“Our vision is to rebuild, defend, energise, exchange and transfer peasant farming knowledge from generation to generation. This knowledge is the heritage of food producers, and also of their communities and like-minded academics – all on an equal footing“ – Schola Campesina
Thanks to financial support from RITA Programme (Co-Financing) Agro-Perma-Lab will support the development of BILIM in three areas:
1) strengthening of pedagogical tools for Agroecology Schools;
2) strengthening documenting of ongoing agroecological education in audio-visual forms;
3) strengthening mainstreaming of ECA agroecology globally through three newsletter campaigns
This work will be done specifically with partner organisations from the following countries: Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan.
