The second strategic priority of the revised FSTP strategy for the period 2011-2013 is aimed at "strengthening governance approaches for food security".

Food security governance is the process of decision-making as well as the process by which decisions are  implemented with the objective to improve food security in its various dimensions. It is also the process by which competing priorities and interests of different groups can be reconciled.

This call for proposal will address the sub-priority "participation for governance", focussing on its fourth expected result: "producers' organisations and their regional/continental platforms and civil society are  participating more effectively in decision-making processes related to food security1". In accordance to the overall FSTP strategy of "improving food security in favour of the poorest and most vulnerable", and the EU objective of advancing the Right to Food2, this action will foster stronger participation in food security governance of key food security stakeholders belonging to some of the mostvulnerable groups, thus calling for a bottom-up approach which will contribute to reducing the risk of these groups being marginalised socially, politically, and economically. A call for proposals is therefore the most adequate modality for this action in order to remain demand-driven and allow a flexible response to the different capacity levels of the potential applicants to the call.

1.2 OBJECTIVES OF THE PROGRAMME AND PRIORITY ISSUES FOR 2011

The global objective of this Call for Proposals is to increase the participation of key stakeholders in developing countries to decision-making processes related to food security and nutrition.

The specific objective of this Call for Proposals is to strengthen the capacities of specific groups (farmers',pastoralists’, fishermen’ organisations) to reinforce their participation in policy-making, having an impact on food security and nutrition.

The call for proposals is divided into two lots according to the following results:

Result 1 (Lot 1): Capacities of organisations of farmers, of pastoralists, of fishermen and of aquaculture farmers are reinforced in order for them to network and to engage in effective dialogue with public authorities and development partners.

Result 2 (Lot 2): Networks (or platforms) of organisations of farmers, of pastoralists, of fishermen and of aquaculture farmers at regional, continental or global level are set up or reinforced in order to activelyparticipate in decision making processes related to food security and nutrition.

Priorities:

Priority 1: Supporting the poor, vulnerable and marginalised.

The Call for Proposal will support in priority the rural poor and vulnerable. When referring to farmers for instance, priority will be given to organisations regrouping or clearly representing or addressing the interests of small-scale farmers. The same reasoning applies for fishermen and also for pastoralists. Priority will be given to organisations representing or addressing the interests of marginalised populations, suffering from limited participation in food security governance.

Priority 2: Looking for territorial coherence and regional dimension

The actions must have supra-national coverage. The call for proposal will support in priority the projects that clearly justify the territorial coherence or the regional dimension of their proposal.

The relevance of the proposed action with the need of the (group of) countries and its coherence and complementarity with the priorities of the European Commission and its cooperation programmes/projects in the selected (groups of) countries will be strongly valued (see evaluation criteria number 1.2).Added values:

Will be considered as added value any proposal:

Farmers’, pastoralists’ and fishermen’s organisations can be supported both separately and together in orderto provide ample space for the specific needs of each group.

Both existing networks and new networks of farmers', pastoralists' and fishermen's organisations will be supported at multi-country, (sub-) continental and global level.

Whenever possible the support will be direct, through the organisations themselves but the call for proposal will also accept indirect support through non-governmental organisations, public sector operators, local authorities, international organisations. When the support is indirect, special attention will be given to the past experiences of the applicants with the respective key group and to the participation of the key group in the elaboration of the proposal and the degree of participation in the implementation modalities.

The definition of each of the three key groups must be understood in a wide sense: for "farmers" for instance, the definition of the rural workers3 as presented by the International Labour Organisation is relevant. The  same applies for the other two categories and, in particular, for fishermen, meaning that the call for proposals could support marine or fresh water fishermen and – as the FAO glossary recalls – fishery refers to capture of wild fish but also raising of fish through aquaculture.

If necessary, a part of the allocation can finance services to develop capacities as well as concrete support activities, provided these play a critical role for producers' (farmers, pastoralists, fishermen) organizations in strengthening their ability or in gaining practical experiences useful when engaging in policy dialogues. This is common to the two lots but will be particularly important for the Lot 1 as it will improve advocacy and networking capacities of relatively less structured organisations.