Organic Action Plans. Development, implementation and evaluation. A resource manual for the organic food and farming sector

Summary

In 2004, the European Action Plan for Organic Food and Farming was launched. Many European countries have also developed national Organic Action Plans to promote and support organic agriculture.
As part of the EU funded ORGAP project (“European Action Plan of Organic Food and Farming - Development of criteria and procedures for the evaluation of the EU Action Plan for Organic Agriculture”) a toolbox to evaluate and monitor the implementation of national and European Action Plans has been developed.
In order to communicate the results of this project as widely as possible, a practical manual for initiating and evaluating Organic Action Plans has been produced.
This manual has been created to inspire the people, organisations and institutions involved, or with an interest, in the organic food and farming sector to engage in the initiation, review, revision and renewal of regional, national and European Organic Action Plans.
The objectives of the manual are to provide:
• a tool for stakeholder involvement in future Action Plan development and implementation processes at EU, national and regional level
• a guide to the use of the Organic Action Plan Evaluation Toolbox (ORGAPET) developed through the project
The manual summarises the key lessons learnt from more than 10 years experience of development, implementation and evaluation of Organic Action Plans throughout Europe.
The Organic Action Plan Evaluation Toolbox (ORGAPET), which includes comprehensive
information to support the Organic Action Plan development and evaluation process is included with the manual as a CD-ROM, and is also accessible on-line at www.orgap.org/orgapet.
The ORGAP website www.orgap.org provides a further information on the project
and the European and national organic action plans.
Published by: Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), Frick, Switzerland; IFOAM EU Group, Brussels
Table of contents
Foreword 1
1 Introduction 3
1.1 About this manual 3
1.2 Organic farming – origins, definition & principles 6
1.3 Development of organic food & farming in Europe 8
1.3.1 Organic food and farming regulation in Europe 10
1.3.2 Policy support for organic food and farming in Europe 11
2 Organic Action Plans – what are they about? 16
2.1 Why Organic Action Plans? 16
2.2 European Organic Action Plan 21
2.3 Overview of national and regional Organic Action Plans 23
3 Planning and implementing Organic Action Plans 28
3.1 Policy development 28
3.2 Defining organic sector development needs and potential 31
3.3 Defining policy goals and objectives 34
3.4 Involving stakeholders 40
3.4.1 The case for stakeholder involvement 40
3.4.2 Identifying relevant stakeholders 42
3.4.3 Participatory approaches for stakeholders involvement 44
3.5 Decision making: selecting, integrating and prioritising
relevant measures 46
3.5.1 Deciding on policy instruments and action points 47
3.5.2 Priorities for action – allocating resources 50
3.6 Implementing Organic Action Plans 52
3.7 Including monitoring and evaluation of Organic Action Plans
from outset 56
3.8 Managing communication 58
3.9 Development of Action Plans in countries that joined the
EU in 2004 and later 59
4 Evaluating Organic Action Plans 61
4.1 Principles of evaluation 61
4.2 Conducting an evaluation 64
4.3 Evaluating Action Plan design and implementation 70
4.3.1 Evaluating programme design and implementation processes 70
4.3.2 Evaluating programme coherence 72
4.3.3 Evaluating stakeholder involvement 74
4.4 Evaluating Action Plan effects 78
4.4.1 Developing and using indicators for evaluation 78
4.5 Overall evaluation of Organic Action Plans – judging success 85
4.6 Evaluating Action Plans in countries that joined the EU
in 2004 and later 89
5 Organic Action Plans – the Golden Rules 91
5.1 Key elements of Organic Action Plan development 91
5.2 The Golden rules for Organic Action Plan 93
References 96
Annex Detailed synopsis of ORGAPET 100

Available Versions of this Item

• Organic Action Plans. Development, implementation and evaluation. A resource manual for the organic food and farming sector. (deposited 27 Jun 2008) [Currently Displayed]
  • Plans d’action pour l’agriculture biologique. Développement, mise en œuvre et évaluation. Un manuel de ressources pour le secteur de l’alimentation et de l’agriculture biologiques. (deposited 26 Aug 2008)