Towards Organic Asia

The Towards Organic Asia Partners Meeting 2013 Action – research for development in agroecology in the Mekona Region: From local actions to regional cooperation will take place at the Metta’s Centre for Development Workers, Bago, Myanmar, from 18 to 22 November 2013. It includes action-research workshop (a working group on action – research), a field excursion, partners meeting and a steering committee meeting. The event is organized by the Metta Development Foundation and Towards Organic Asia programme. More information on the meeting is available here. 
 

Towards Organic Asia begins as an initiative of Vandana Shiva, a leading environmental activist, to strengthen and move forward the existing movement of agroecology in Asia. Inspired by the Bhutanese’s “100 percent Organic Country” policy and global movement of Gross National Happiness, School for Wellbeing Studies and Research started Towards Organic Asia (TOA) Programme in 2011 in collaboration with CCFD – Terre Solidaire, Thailand Green Market Network and Suan Nguen Mee Ma social enterprise.
 

Towards Organic Asia is a partner-driven network, managed by the coordinating team based at School for Wellbeing Secretariat Office in Bangkok, Thailand. The Towards Organic Asia Alliance is a strategic cooperation among Asian groups and organizations advocate for local food security and food sovereignty in the region through the promotion of organic diversified agriculture and agroecology. They aim to strengthen the organic network in Asia among diverse stakeholders, which will promote common understanding and cooperation in agroecology and social wellbeing. Towards Organic Asia will contribute to developing dynamic Asian models of agroecology for influencing policy and inspiring a wider movement within the region and beyond.
 

The School for Wellbeing Studies and Research was established, 20 August 2009, as a result of the 3rd Gross National Happiness conference organized in Nongkhai and Bangkok, Thailand, November 2007. It is an independent think-tank being shaped by an international network of dedicated academics from diverse disciplines, and by practitioners and policy makers, primarily inspired by the concept of Gross National Happiness. By common effort the School for Wellbeing offers a creative learning space for a diversity of stakeholders inducing cross-cultural studies in happiness, wellbeing and quality of life. The School for Wellbeing is building an evidence-based research-platform guided by ‘critical holism’ in order to explore alternative development paradigms. It enables (young) researchers to undertake related action-research initiatives. The focus of the school is empowering people who are engaged in a much needed integrity-shift wtowards wellbeing-driven publich policy development.

Source: facebook.com/pages/Towards-Organic-Asia-Alliance