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Economic Services and Governance

Initiatives to Improve Economic Services and Governance

We support agricultural and agri-food organizations in their democratic progress and the development of sustainable collective services that enhance income security for their members.

Profile: Elvie Maxineau

Elvie Maxineau dedicates her life to supporting and defending the rights of the Haitian people. She became involved in this cause at a young age, collaborating on a documentary that exposed the conditions in Haitian worker camps in the Dominican Republic.

After studying at Université Laval, she chose to get involved in Haiti to share her knowledge and inspire Haitians to continue their fight for a better future.

In 2021, she founded the Centre d’éducation et de développement intégré - Village de l’Espoir (Education and Integrated Development Center - Village of Hope) in Limbé, and opened a branch in Quebec the following year. The center provides support and services to the most disadvantaged and undertakes initiatives in agriculture, health, and education with the backing of Canadian cooperation organizations.

Elvie has many more projects planned for the future. She aims to establish a scholarship program for technical studies related to agri-food and to support women’s groups through training, personal development, and financial projects.

Women's Engagement: From Kwango to Their Ministry

The PASADEI Project (Support Project for Sustainable, Equitable, and Inclusive Food Systems) concluded its third and final year of implementation with women farmers and young farmers in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in partnership with COPACO-RPR.

In the context of climate change adaptation, the project’s first phase established two revolving funds to initiate forty agroecological entrepreneurship projects in the Kwango province, in collaboration with the regional farmers’ organizations of the Lonzo Peasant Cooperative (COPALO) and the Association of Kabuba Women Farmers (RFPK).

The second phase supported the engagement of rural women by strengthening their leadership and elected positions in regional professional agricultural organizations. The goal was to assist them in defending their rights, particularly in areas of land ownership access, credit, and agroecological knowledge, through two advocacy efforts with the  ministère de l’Agriculture de République démocratique du Congo (Ministry of Agriculture of the Democratic Republic of Congo) in 2023 and 2024.

This project was made possible by the financial and collaborative support of the QSF program from the Ministry of International Relations and La Francophonie.

UPSCALE: Developing Sustainable, Climate-Resilient Local Businesses

The UPSCALE project (Upscaling Local Enterprises), led jointly by UPA Développement international and Trias in four villages in the Karanganyar region of Indonesia, is in its final year of implementation.

With the support of the organization Bina Desa, a member of the AsiaDHRRA network, an accounting and financial management expert from the Réseau Agro-Innov (Agro-Innov Network) volunteer cooperation program traveled to Indonesia with his family for an eight-month period.

Marc-Antoine Dufort Boudreau was recruited to support the farmer organizations KOKAMA and HTNM in improving their internal procedures and professionalizing the services provided to their members.

For the women’s cassava processing cooperative KOKAMA, member mobilization enabled Marc-Antoine to conduct discussions and workshops aimed at refining, through a participatory process, the business plan for marketing their processed products.

Discussions on the profitability of collective services, marketing, and the structuring of the administrative and financial management systems also took place. Equipped with these tools, the elected members were able to define strategic directions for KOKAMA’s future and better serve their members.

Investing in the Future of Our Partners

In 2018, UPA Développement international (UPA DI) and other organizations in the finance and international cooperation sectors developed a unique financial tool: the Quebec International Solidarity Investment Fund (FISIQ).

This fund allows Quebec international cooperation organizations to invest part of their own funds, enabling farmer organizations in the Global South to access loans that meet their needs on fair and equitable terms.

UPA DI is currently supporting the Union des groupements coopératifs des agriculteurs Mowossokpo (UGAM) (Union of Cooperative Farmers of Mowossokpo) in Benin in developing a loan proposal to purchase certified seeds and fertilizers for its members.

This will enable them to obtain quality farming inputs at the beginning of the season and repay the loan in cereals after the harvest. Through this approach, UGAM members will be able to collectively market a larger volume of cereals and benefit from greater bargaining power.

Martin Caron
A Word from the President

A famous journalist and writer once said, "To engage is first to attempt to speak to others." And I can attest to that! In the early 1980s, a colleague invited me to a meeting of the group The Future Professionals of Agriculture. It was at that moment that I truly understood how my situation, in many ways, was similar others.

This openness toward others continued over time. I realized, through each of my engagements, that advocating for change and improvement first requires talking about it. This is how we can identify what unites people, their shared challenges, and the potential solutions.

The 100th anniversary of the Union of Agricultural Producers (UPA) in 2024 is an opportunity to celebrate this great sense of community. The 30th anniversary of UPA International Development (UPA DI) in 2023 was equally significant. In both cases, the gathering of individuals driven by an unwavering desire for openness and change has led to great achievements, in Quebec and around the world.

This commitment is invaluable, not only for Quebec's agricultural sector but for every community directly or indirectly impacted by the expertise, willpower, and know-how of our organization. It is with great pride that I have taken on the presidency this year, and I invite you to read and enjoy this year’s report.

Hugo Beauregard-Langelier
A Word from the Secretary-General

Whether we live on sand clay, or snow, there are individuals who make the decision to act in solidarity. This commitment is what has driven UPA International Development (UPA DI) from its creation in 1993 to the present day. Initiated by farmers cultivating the lands of Quebec and later enriched by their sisters and brothers in Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, and Asia, the dedication of these individuals to international solidarity and family farming has enabled UPA DI to grow. Although UPA DI's past is filled with success stories, the future global context in which we will operate suggests many challenges.

If agriculture has been the foundation of our civilizations, its current trajectory is concerning. Until 2019, living standards, health, and education worldwide showed steady growth. But starting in 2020, these indicators began to decline for the first time in nearly 30 years. It is difficult to judge history as it happens, , but the multiplication of global crises, the rise of inequalities, the erosion of civil liberties, and the expansion of artificial intelligence are all signs of significant upheavals ahead.

Despite this global uncertainty, , the engagement of those who grow our food and seek to live with dignity is essential.  Family-owned businesses remain the dominant model, contributing both to the vitality of rural areas and the food supply of cities. Whether in Europe, Africa, Asia, or Quebec, agricultural families around the world have demonstrated their ability to mobilize and commit to more sustainable food systems. It is within this commitment that UPA DI finds its purpose.

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