Advocate for policies that favour market access.

In Togo a proposal for a law to regulate organic agriculture was developed by one of the local organisations (Biodream) and shared with IFOAM – Organics International. The proposal was very good quality (based on the Tunisian Organic Regulation) and the policy team to decide to support the process and to provide technical assistance to improve the text and support a stakeholder consultation, which was launched in August 2018. Since this needs to be a process that has to be agreed on at national level, a committee of stakeholders in Togo will further steer the process and decide how to move forward with the proposal. The IFOAM Policy Brief on How Governments Can Support and Recognise Participatory Guarantee Systems has been revised with up-to-date information and is now available in English and Portuguese. A French version will be ready in the next quarter. This document is useful for stakeholders to advocate for public policies that support OA in general, with a focus on the role of PGS and the domestic market. The recognition of PGS as an M4P tool is progressing. For example, government reps from Ghana, Togo and STP have participated in the PGS trainings, and therefore got sensitised about the benefits of PGS. The Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP) , of which STP is a member, in collaboration with the FAO representation in Portugal, is interested in PGS as an M4P tool. The CPLP countries played a key role in the negotiations that led to the 72nd Session of the UN General Assembly approving the Decade of Family Farming (2019-2028). Through contacts in STP in the framework of OM4D, IFOAM - Organics International has been invited to participate in discussions on how to further promote PGS as a tool for market access supporting sustainable family farming in CPLP. IFOAM - Organics International is therefore currently leasing directly with CPLP and FAO Portugal to expand PGS activities and recognition more broadly. As part of the strategy commonly adopted to support and promote family farming in the member states (currently nine), governments in CPLP have taken up the commitment to review or establish an appropriate regulatory framework and to support PGS for quality assurance within the CPLP. ***Starting with May 2019, this activity focusing on EU policies was redesigned due to the new EU regulation and the changes concerning group certification. The budget was reallocated to activity 4.3.2. instead