Supporting the South East European Organic Network (SEEON)

The project on "Organic Farming in SEE" aims to strengthen the capacities of the South East European Organic Network (SEEON) to offer services for organic producers. The project has two main areas of intervention: a) support of organizational development, and b) introduction of self-financing services for SEEON members and organic producers.

FiBL’s mandate in the project is twofold:

1. Facilitating the organizational development of SEEON with its longstanding experience in institution building in the organic sector in Eastern Europe and knowledge of many of the actors involved. This will be done in close cooperation with an expert on institutional development. FiBL’s understanding of the cultural background and of the needs of the organic sector and market will help to guide SEEON’s development as a network representing the organic sector, driving cooperation among the organic stakeholders and promoting the sector and market development.
2. Providing technical expertise to SEEON enabling the network to provide the services necessary for further sector development. The members’ commitment for SEEON strongly depends on the benefits the member will get from it. Furthermore, SEEON will need such services to achieve financial sustainability, since the members’ organizations have little budgets and will not be able to provide a relevant financial contribution to SEEON. FiBL will help identifying such services demanded by the stakeholders and the market, respectively, and support SEEON in elaborating and offering these services.

• Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH

• Southest European Organic Network (SEEON)

• Huber Beate (Department of International Cooperation; Vice-chairwoman of the Management Board)

• Richter Toralf (Department of International Cooperation)

Projektpartner

• Value chains & Markets (Department of International Cooperation, FiBL Switzerland)