CaFAN to host Strategic Planning Workshop

The Caribbean Farmers Network (CaFAN) will be hosting its Strategic Planning Workshop at the Grenada Grand Beach Resort from October 15-18, 2007. The workshop will focus on CaFAN’s priorities, strategic orientations and operational guidelines defined for the period 2008-2010.{{more}} It is targeted for CaFAN Members and Stakeholders at the National, Regional and International Levels who will be in attendance at the workshop. The workshop will also focus on developing an action plan that will deal with Natural Disasters.

CaFAN, which is a network of Farmers Associations involving twelve (12) Caribbean countries, seeks to enhance the marketing, management, communication and advocacy capabilities of Caribbean farmers organizations and improve capacity to deliver services to members and facilitate intra and extra regional trade.

CaFAN Secretariat, through partnership with the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) (ACP-EU), hosted two regional workshops this year; “training workshop on the Management of Farmers Association” and “New Trading Environment in the Caribbean: A Farmers Perspective” in Barbados and St. Lucia, respectively.

According to chief coordinator Jethro Greene, CaFAN is embarking on expanding, consolidating and strengthening of its Network, through its strategic planning workshop in Grenada. This Strategic planning exercise will draw on the knowledge and ideas from CaFAN members, partners and several regional and international organizations representing over twelve Caribbean Countries.

Greene also stated that a three-year strategic plan will be the expected output from the Grenada regional workshop. He also noted that areas to be focused on will include Disaster Preparedness for farmers, Strengthening of management capacity of farmers organizations, Trade and economic partnership agreements to ensure small farmers are protected, Joint regional and extra regional marketing, Use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) to strengthen the agriculture sector, Ensuring regional agriculture and food policies are in the best interest of Caribbean farmers and Linking regional agriculture to health, tourism and value added/processing

The workshop is being organized by the Eastern Caribbean Trading Agriculture and Development Organisation (ECTAD), which is the CaFAN Secretariat based in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

The Official Opening Ceremony, which will feature addresses by top Grenada Government officials, is scheduled to take place on Monday, October 15th, at 6:30 pm, at the Grand Beach resort Conference room.

For more information, please contact Jethro Greene, Chief Coordinator of CaFAN or Nyasha Durrant at telephone number 784 453 1004 or fax 784 453 1239 or email: ectadsvg@yahoo.com or cafancaribbean@gmail.com