The Community of Practice in Research and Training in Andean Agroecological Systems (CdP-IFSA Andes) is an open space for meeting and collective work, comprised of research teams from universities, technological institutes, research centers, NGOs, and indigenous and peasant organizations and communities linked to the Research and Training Program in Andean Agroecological Systems. This program is the result of an alliance between CLACSO and the McKnight Foundation's Collaborative Crop Research Program. It was established in Tarija at the Program's International Seminar in October 2024.

The Community of Practice aims to strengthen and generate networks for the exchange of knowledge and experiences regarding Andean agroecological systems. It seeks to bolster the local agroecological transition and the collective actors driving it, building a path that recognizes the diversity and plurality of our identities and the struggles that shape our territories, towards food sovereignty and socio-environmental justice.

From this perspective, the Community of Practice seeks to:

– Cultivar un sentido de comunidad enmarcado en una agroecología comprometida, espiritual, ética, crítica y política.

– To strengthen the voices of the collective subjects with whom the different projects act and, in particular, of peasant, indigenous and migrant women.

– To build a shared conceptualization of the Andean world, current trends and transformations of agri-food systems.

– To exchange experiences, learnings and methodologies between the various projects.

– Strengthen local practices and knowledge in connection with global processes.

– Fortalecer los procesos formativos en agroecología impulsados por los Institutos y Universidades de la región andina.

– To promote Participatory Action Research in rural, indigenous universities and technological institutes.

– To contribute to the development of policies that favor the consolidation of agroecology and indigenous and peasant agriculture.

The Community of Practice is organized around some shared thematic axes in which interested people from different teams participate and which has facilitators who facilitate and promote spaces for exchange, discussion, reflection and collective debate.

Key areas of focus include:

1) Training processes in agroecology.

2) Agroecology and spirituality in the Andean world in the face of the climate and civilizational crisis.

3) Research on agroecological transition, alternative local economies and food sovereignty.

4) Political agroecology, territoriality construction and alternative governance systems.

5) Agrobiodiversity and peasant seeds.

6) Bioculturality and management of Andean agroecosystems.

Contacts: [email protected]