10 January 2023
Food systems Agricultural sectors Agroecology Food safety Human rights Afrique de l'Ouest

3 questions to… Prémila Masse, the new head of GRET’s Food and Rural economy department

Actualité

Prémila Masse, an agronomist, has been working at GRET for almost ten years. First as a technical assistant, then as project manager for a rural development programme in Myanmar, she subsequently continued her activity as projects manager until becoming head of the Food and Rural economy department (ALER) in October 2022.

What are the challenges currently facing the teams in your department? 

The teams are working in around ten countries in West Africa, South-East Asia, Haiti and Madagascar. Despite a diverse range of situations, food and nutrition security is currently a central issue everywhere, in an uncertain context marked by the Covid-19 pandemic, with the impacts of climate change on agricultural production and supply risks related to the war in Ukraine. To respond to this, GRET is continuing to promote and support agricultural development in territories, taking an approach based on family farming and sustainable, inclusive agricultural value chains. We are also dealing with increasing instability due to the multiplication of political and security crises in many countries, obliging us to constantly review and adapt our modes of action to continue supporting vulnerable populations. Access to land and natural resources in these contexts is also becoming a major issue for our teams, and there is a necessity to ease and prevent tensions and violence.

What will be the priority during your mandate as head of department at GRET? 

I think it’s important to (re)create connections and collaborations within the team and within GRET to move beyond our usual thematic and geographic spheres. This makes it possible to improve our internal operations while favouring exchange and mutual learning, and to better respond to current development challenges by taking a more systemic, multi-sectoral, international approach. This work was already initiated several years ago by bringing the international teams closer together and developing multi-department subjects, such as agriculture and nutrition, urban agriculture, and the One Health approach, on which several thematic teams work together. It can also be achieved through support for GRET staff’s international mobility, which fosters exchange of skills between the organisation’s various countries of operation.

In your opinion, what specificities does GRET possess in the development and international  solidarity sphere?

GRET favours collective, concerted action through numerous partnerships with local civil society organisations, the world of research and international NGOs. Our department is also involved in advocacy networks such as the Coordination Sud Food and Agriculture Commission (C2A), and in technical collectives such as the Working group on agroecological transition (GTAE).

Within this dynamic, one of the major projects in the coming years will be the organisation and implementation of the partnership alliance with AVSF, a sister NGO with which we have already worked on numerous projects. The main challenge will be to ensure that reflection around this alliance is as transparent and inclusive as possible for our teams and that GRET’s singular, original voice continues to be heard in the development sphere.

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