Social Farming - Operational Programs that support Social Farming in Developing Countries - Case Study Example

Social Farming - Operational Programs that support Social Farming in Developing Countries Introduction Social farming refers to the overall activities and practices that depend on or use of agricultural, rural, and common natural resources such as animals, plants, space and time around to produce social services and food in both the rural and urban areas of various economies. The concept of social farming can be viewed as a social innovation system where both rural natural resources and agricultural resources are organized in exceptional method to respond effectively to neighborhood social requirements. Social farming provides the opportunity to create relationships between farmers and their rural communities through the starting up of their arable farms as a faction of the community’s social support process. The primary purpose of social farming projects is to promote social farming as a critical option for ensuring the achievement of an advanced quality of life for various individuals who use social services and health together with farm households by enabling social enclosure and uniting farmers with their societies. Social farming can contribute significantly to promoting an improved social, economic, and environmental sustainability (Harbison, 2010). This essay is going to focus on the subject of social farming and its approach to the local communities’ poverty reduction and various methods or means that provide support or encourage social farming, especially in the developing nations. Benefits of Social Farming The different rural communities frequently contain weak social structures and services that have an adverse influence on local opportunities and occupations. Similarly, various available economic regimes in many countries are not redistributive therefore, facilitating an expanding inequality, especially in the countries that have little resources for a public utility (Kinsella et al., 2014). The first aim is to identify, support, and adopt socially creative and innovative practices that can marshal dynamically community resources to be able to respond to the crucial social needs. Social farming has been found to be very sustainable due to its encouragement efforts of nature founded solutions that mainly utilize animals, plants, and cultural lifestyles to enhance rehabilitation, social remedy and inclusion, education and various social services in the local and urbanized regions (Mcgloin & Connor, 2007). Additionally, social farming is presented as inclusive as it emphasizes on the reunion of various ad hoc groups of people who stay and work as a unit with social practitioners and household farmers on the sites of the farm. Initiatives such as the one described tackle various requirements of the less empowered individuals such as the youth, drug and alcohol addicts, people with psychiatric and practical disabilities, the elderly people, terminal, patients, and long-term unemployed people. Social farming is also a smart initiative because it ensures the organization of natural resources and structures them roughly for the development of extra economic and social value that embraces the retro innovative culture in agriculture moving from primarily food production to multipurpose farming. (SoFar Project, n.d.). Therefore, in my opinion, social farming is one of the best initiatives, which should be recognized and embraced by various institutions, international bodies, and nongovernmental organizations because it is very beneficial to its users in their different capacities through fostering practices that are flexible and that respond to various local needs. Regulatory Frameworks for Social Farming Social, agricultural activities are presented according to different rules of regulation that are specialized and community-based. They mainly influence the institution and the product of people’s activities and different methods of stakeholder relationships in the organization of projects as well as in the development and reallocation of social and economic value. The rules and regulatory procedures mainly involve the principles of subsidiary, co-production, and the civic economy process (Kinsella et al., 2014). Subsidiary includes limited government interference, which requires the state to maintain its responsibilities and strategies to encourage actively private participation while monitoring and seeking to solve difficulties that are associated with various services and social concerns. The co-production process involves co-development of services through different sources and users and the creation of social and economic values such as social inclusion and food to design both private and public products that will be sold as well as improved social inclusion for the rural society. Similarly, the civic economy process includes fresh attitudes that rely on responsibility and the capability to involve public values in developing economical processes. Similarly the trust and development of new networks such as consumer networks and development of markets that are founded on reputation (Van Elsen et al., 2014). Connecting Social Farming to Poverty Reduction Social farming can enhance poverty alleviation through focusing on the food and agriculture organization’s rural poverty reduction system that includes women’s economic empowerment, social protection, and decent rural employment (FAO, 2015). Women Economic Empowerment Women economic empowerment can be achieved through cultivating the capability to develop and thrive economically and the decisions and actions to make and act on financial resolutions. To meet women empowerment economically, the quality of substantial labor and human capital play a crucial role in ensuring its success. The unequal division of the care that is associated with work determines the amount and quality of the available labor and opportunities for development of skills, knowledge, and access to the leading workforce who are in most instances women. Women are exposed to various care services especially after childbirth that makes it hard for them to return to formal employment and therefore social farming empowers them to overcome this challenge in many ways. First is by decreasing the work burden of women that may be related to care and enhance them to be the suppliers of care services. These actions will ensure that there is extra time created for facilitating investment in revenue generating practices and activities. Thus, this very efficient and effective social practice enhances protection, promotion, and the transformation of the various human rights of women that will enable them to overcome social injustices in different instances in their lifestyles as well as promoting an equal and just society. Decent Rural Employment Social farming enhances decent rural employment by shifting focus to the special vulnerable groups in the society and provides them the opportunity to promote their skills actively and exploit their potential given the goal of broader social approval and admiration. This initiative enhances the member’s self-esteem and enables them to increase their sense of usefulness, skills, and capability. In addition, social farming providers can benefit from the access they gain from higher returns and new network base. For example, farmers beginning social, agricultural activities may automatically obtain new customers from their recipient’s friends and families as well as increasing mutual partnership, trust, rural economic development, reduction in unpaid jobs and increase in employment and social work. Social Protection Social welfare can be provided through social care because it creates an opportunity for employment for disadvantaged groups such as the poor, unskilled local women and men and even the youth. If care work is performed with needed due diligence, it can significantly contribute to poverty reduction or alleviation in a society and advance the quality and terms of various employments. The Connection between Social Farming and Entrepreneurship Social farming participants may gain from entrepreneurship skills, business skills such as education of managing finance, suitable credit opportunities, and networks as well as the technical knowledge and environmental protection initiatives such as green business. Social farming also supports women entrepreneurship, which is not given much attention in the society as well as providing support as part of the greater process of social rehabilitation and job appointment of people with disabilities. Operational Programs that support Social Farming in Developing Countries To be able to create a comprehensive network of social farming strategy high levels of interactions between all the stakeholders especially the legislators in promoting this initiative at the national and international level. This can be done through creating contact with the food and agriculture organization representatives and the rapid social farming appraisal to recognize the social farming activities nationally in the developing countries. Programs that hold investigative meetings with state stakeholders to analyze the results and monitor interest level of probable financial engagement in a countrywide campaign farming strategy should be instituted. The institutions are responsible for giving guidance and advice to households and farmers across countries to build social farming services through events and training workshops in the developing countries. Similarly, social farming can be advanced through public awareness campaigns that engage and encourage new initiatives. Therefore, the food and agricultural organization require procuring appropriate financial resources to secure the financial capability of implementing the nationwide program. This effort can target institutional funding organizations such as the European Union and various national development organizations and private agencies that are interested in the field of social farming. Conclusion Social farming is a crucial aspect in the developing and developed world. There is a need for this program to include other areas of concern such as nutrition and its ability to promote the intake of healthy and quality foods to promote a high quality of life and reduce increasing healthy concerns such as obesity. Social farming can also serve to link people's welfare with the natural surrounding by creating awareness and training on the healthy and sustainable methods of food production. It is also paramount to considerably increase people’s comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the various economic and social benefits of social farming to the participants and the greater public particularly on the savings that the social services can provide hence reducing costs related to social services. Similarly, social farming can be connected to environmental conservation hence leading to the preservation of biodiversities such as local breeds, seeds, knowledge, and landscapes. Finally, social farming initiatives are drawing the attention of various legislators and states. It has huge positive implications in diverse social segments and encourages better public spending. There are also developed connections between the economic and social sectors as visibility has been improved. Thus, social farming has the capability to create a day to day services to a multitude of people with disabilities and various families in both the developing and developed countries. Social and Solidarity Economy Introduction The social and solidarity economy describes the manufacture and production of goods and services by a wide variety of enterprises and firms that have definite social; and environmental goals and objectives, which are guided by various practices and frameworks that enhance solidarity, cooperation, ethical norms, and democratic self-administration. Social solidarity economy contains a wide field of stakeholders that include but are not limited to self-help groups, cooperatives and other types of social organizations, community-based organizations, informal economic workers unions, service oriented nongovernmental organizations, and solidarity schemes of finance. The present events experienced internationally such as climate change, food crises, consistent poverty and increasing inequalities have led to the doubting of the effectiveness of the conventional growth and development plans and strategies (Woolcock & Narayan, 2000). Therefore, international organizations should recognize the need to address sustainable developments and to take into account various considerations such as integrating the different social, economic, and environmental factors and observing how they are connected. Social and solidarity economy initiatives are paramount in addressing various economic, environmental, and social goals as well as integrating approaches that are contained in the various conventions of sustainable development. This essay demonstrates this ability to overcome the challenges of sustainable development through enhancing the social and solidarity economy in the world. Various social and solidarity economy issues of concern are discussed for example greening the different economies and society, the transition from the informal economy to the decent work and local economic development among other concerns. Transformation to Decent work from Informal Economy The social and solidarity economy forum can encourage enabling regulations and environment for social organizations and cooperatives that play a fundamental role in ensuring the objective of decent work is attained (Nelson, 2013). The forum can achieve this because in most nations co-operations form part of the most providers of employment opportunities in the world. Therefore, organizations are allied to the social and solidarity economy can promote the access to considerable sources of inputs, finance, capital, technology, markets and multidimensional support services as well as improving the capability of manufacturers to bargain for better incomes and prices (Neamtan, 2002). This can be attained through decreasing information and power amenities in the labor and product promotional markets that enhance the level and consistency of incomes. Similarly, instituting minimum capital requirements for particular forms of cooperatives can be advantageous for the various informal employees with an aim of engaging in organizational actions Local Economic Development The domestic economic growth can be achieved through the social and solidarity economy that facilitates coming up with various strategies that positively creates and improves local areas through organizing local resources, the creation of employment opportunities, communal risk management as well as retailing and reinvestment of surplus capital and resources. It can also broaden the organization of the home economy and the labor market structures as well tackling the unsatisfied local requirements with different products and services. Similarly, trust and social cohesion can be established as well as playing a significant role in democratic governance. The social and solidarity economy principles can improve the addition value mechanisms in the essential sectors of the economy where they function that social solidarity economies interests are well-suited to the local interests and capabilities to practice several goals and objectives. Greening the Society and Economy From the view of environmental protection, social and solidarity economy enterprises have an edge over conservative organizations due to the challenge of managing growth, environmental effects and creating economic movements that are both fair and green. Environmental, fuel consumerism and social costs should be integrated as part of strategies central to the organizational success and in achieving competitiveness as well as maintaining high-profit optimization goals. Environment-conscious organizations also have an advantage as they play a crucial responsibility in ensuring there is natural resource sustainable management in the utilization of conventional resources. Sustainable Cities and Human Settlements Cities and towns are the possible areas where people can access services, infrastructural amenities and various forms of employment that enable people to meet their basic requirements and realize their dreams and ambitions. However, when there is no affluence the same cities or urban areas can be very devastating due to limited distribution of amenities and resources. Therefore, the inappropriate utilization and unfair access to various communal facilities and services may make the urban areas and cities to be unsustainable. Hence, there is a need for the towns to come up with inclusive and sustainable city models of improvement. Similarly, social organizations and community enterprises can play a major responsibility in the establishment of sustainable urbanized areas and towns as well as human settlements. This is by promoting activities that encourage local culture, proximity services such as health care, training, and education, urban agriculture, access to affordable housing, renewable energy, and low carbon production processes. Security should also be a major factor in achieving the social and solidarity economy principle of sustainable cities. Women Welfare and Empowerment Women are an important group in the economy of any country. Usually, they make up the majority of many agricultural self-help and credit savings groups and enterprises. Following the current trends, women are increasingly creating their businesses and cooperatives as well as taking various duties of leadership at the national, regional, and global levels and associations. Therefore, different social and solidarity economic projects support women in handling their issues and ensuring their empowerment and well-being. Social and solidarity programs can enhance women who are poor and those facing discrimination in the labor market as well as women who face work and family-related conflicts. Additionally, women should be politically empowered and emancipated from the various social injustices they face. However, women usually face gender discrimination in communal issues such as access to education, training, assets, and leadership positions. This issue can be a hindering factor in the women’s access to the needed resources, and markets that contribute to the building, increasing, and sustenance of an organization. For example in the agricultural sector, women are many in cooperatives that deal with spices, fruits, cereals and dairy products while in contrast their requirements to own land in the society are not embraced. Food Security and Smallholder Empowerment According to the united nations food and agriculture organization, the constant difficulties of food safety, problems of nutrition and episodic food crises the unstable occupations of large tracts of land that is meant for farming as well as the demographics of rural populations some of the most prevalent problems in the current century. There is an increasing threat of future cases of food insecurity as most of the youth are shifting to urban areas and the cultural perspective in most countries, which depend on rural communities for food production. In most countries, the primary structures that enhance the capacity of rural communities to make a living are the agricultural cooperatives and societies. The organizations improve this through increasing access to storage, inputs, transport, the market, and marketing information, training, and technology. Similarly, agricultural cooperatives can facilitate the improvement of smallholder groups through diversification of production advancement in output and quality and add an extra value by manufacturing and processing of the core commodities. Cooperatives can enhance farmers to increase their negotiation power collectively for better prices as well as bargaining power through forming groups. However, to ensure future food security and improvement of smallholder groups the social and solidarity economy provides the empowerment of fair trade and substitute networks of food that link food production in the rural areas and urban customers on more favorable conditions that are associated with price and quality of products. Also, it should encourage the joint provision of food urban agriculture as well as promoting communal projects. Universal Health Coverage This relates to the recent problems that are faced in approaching global objectives of universal health coverage by resulting to substitute methods that go beyond the provision of charity. This has opened opportunities for social and solidarity agencies to collaborate in offering health services and health insurance to consumers in diverse sectors of health in the economy. Similarly, these organizations play a very significant role in expanding readily available and friendly alternatives to an enhanced network of health care in various health dimensions such as disability, aging, HIV/AIDS, mental health, prevention, and rehabilitation in developing countries. However, these organizations should not be seen as the primary stakeholder in the provision of health in place of individual government. Their purpose should be to play a supplementary role in providing healthcare services. Conclusion The responsibility of social and solidarity economies in overseeing most of the current development challenges and sustainable developments demonstrates that legislators in various states and regional bodies should give attention to different types of economic practices that are comprehensive in their positive social impact. This strategy suggests that the wider challenges facing societies such as the decrease in poverty, decent work, better approach to the social;, economic and environmental goals, gender equality and equitable development are vehemently addressed. However, many limitations can hinder these developments from advancing. For example, the social and solidarity agencies, enterprises, and organization networks mostly begin with a very unstable asset portfolio, and this significantly destabilizes their sustainability and consolidation. Additionally, the central labor principles are mostly not sustained in some of the social and solidarity agencies and organizations. For instance within some social and solidarity businesses, the considerable existence of gender balance, which is women inclusive, is not often reflected in their workforce and leadership positions. These limitations may be as a result of wider concerns and traditional views such as minimum access to education, property and land ownership, and traditional perceptions of gender responsibilities. Therefore, there is the need to identify the responsibility of social and solidarity economies organizations in sustaining developments in most economies. In addition, the socio and solidarity initiatives should promote a wider knowledge of the social and solidarity frameworks and ensure they strengthen their consolidated networks. Finally, the social and solidarity enterprises should make sure they build an enabling environment for institutions and regional bodies. References FAO. (2015). The Implications of Social Farming for Rural Poverty  Reduction. Retrieved from https://www.dropbox.com/s/qf9y9a87mjcir7l/READING%202%20FOR%20FINALD%20DVM%204150_FAO_Social-Farming-for-poverty-reduction_2015_25p%281%29.pdf?dl=0 Harbison, A. (2010). Social farming: An opportunity for Northern Ireland. Retrieved from http://www.carefarminguk.org/sites/carefarminguk.org/files/67107515-Social-Farming-An-Opportunity-for-Northern-Ireland.pdf Kinsella, J., O’Connor, D., Smyth, B., Nelson, R., Henry, P., Walsh, A., & Doherty, H. (2014). Social farming on family farms across Ireland and. Retrieved from http://www.socialfarmingacrossborders.org/images/custom/uploads/40/files/Handbook%20for%20Social%20Farming.pdf Mcgloin, A., & Connor, D. O. (2007). An overview of social farming in Ireland the state of the art SOFAR project. Retrieved from http://www.socialfarmingacrossborders.org/images/custom/uploads/40/files/4C833FCB.pdf Neamtan, N. (2002, June). The social and solidarity economy: towards an ‘alternative’globalisation. In Background paper prepared for the symposium Citizenship and Globalization: Exploring Participation and Democracy in a Global Context (pp. 14-16). Nelson, A. (2013). An impossible marriage: Solidarity economy and monetary economy. In Presentado en the UNRISD Conference on the Potential and Limits of Social and Solidarity Economy, Geneva, May (pp. 6-8). SoFar Project. Introductory  paper on  Social/Care  Far ming. Retrieved from http://sofar.unipi.it/index_file/SOFAR%20introductory_paper%20.pdf TFSSE. (2014). Social and solidarity economy and the challenge of sustainable development A position paper by the United Nations inter-agency task force on social and solidarity economy (TFSSE). 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