Overcoming the challenges of travel restriction and social distancing due to Covid-19 pandemic, the project had two groups of between 20 and 40 people attending the workshop together in Hanoi - Vietnam and Vientiane – Lao PDR, while over additional 70 participants joined the workshop by conference call from Cambodia, Myanmar and Europe. It is the very first time ASSET brought together its two donors, the European Union (EU) and the French Development Agency (AFD) alongside the whole ASSET team, including the two main coordinators Agricultural Research for Development (CIRAD) and Professionals for Fair Development (GRET), and 25 other partners of international, European and national institutions and organizations.

In South East Asia, the continuous intensification of conventional models which rely heavily on chemical inputs and capital is leading to a simplification of agricultural landscapes, land degradation and biodiversity depletion, and to increased health risks for farmers and consumers. In need of switching to agroecological approaches for an increasing range of agricultural and market innovations towards healthier, environmental and sustainable practice, the initiative Agroecological and Safe food System Transitions (ASSET) is developed to make food and agricultural systems in the Southeast Asia more sustainable, safer and inclusive, through harnessing the potential of Agroecology to transform them.

The ASSET project has been designed and prepared since the beginning of 2020. Now the ASSET kick-off workshop was organized to launch project activities and management, to provide a platform for ASSET partners to meet and discuss their vision for the project as well as ways to collaborate successfully during the next five years.

The 3-day workshop comprised 3 plenary sessions and 2 national group discussions.  Plenary sessions were conducted in the afternoons, featured the introductory presentations from coordinators and partners, project methodology (focusing on theory of change and Monitoring & Evaluation) and project management (administrative and financial procedures and internal communication tools). Group discussions were conducted in the mornings, separately in Vietnam and Lao PDR. They focused on the scoping studies in the two countries, dealt with the needs and expectations regarding the ALiSEA multimedia platform and its transformation into a knowledge hub in Vietnam, and regarding training and capacity building needs in Lao PDR. The workshop concluded with a wrap up and updated timeline for the project by the project coordinators.

The ASSET kick-off workshop was expected to set the tone for the project, to ensure that its big and strong group of stakeholders are on the same page and have a common understanding of the project objectives.

“I am confident that the Workshop today will build up a platform for all participants to exchange view and ideas on how to successfully implement ASSET regional project together.” - stated Dr. Thatheva Saphanthong, Department of Agricultural Land Management of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (DALaM – MAF)