Participatory System of Guarantee (GSP) - National System of Certification of Organic Production
In 2005, the Agroecology Network was created on the initiative of the Association of Organic Producers, trying to complement the certification of organic products for small producers and for the sale of products over short distribution channels. This is how the Participatory Certification Program began, which was developed with inputs from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), thus forming a "Participatory Guarantee System (GSP)" which the FAO also supports in other countries. Any interested person can be included in the Network if they are in favor of its principles. The System seeks to bring together producers, consumers, support organizations and in general any organization or person that shares its principles to issue resolutions based on participatory deliberations on the issuance or modification of certifications. The Program works in regional divisions that choose a Council of Ethics and Quality. They also formed a National Coordination and an Advisory Group from the regional groups. In 2008, this initiative is supported by Decree 557/008 which includes, from more classic forms of participation, "participatory certification", which has as a consequence the empowerment of the people involved in organic production. In 2015 the program was authorized by the Ministry of Livestock Agriculture and Fisheries, entering as the first certifier under the participatory regime in the Register of Certification Entities of Uruguay. The aims of this program are to build productive systems that are economically viable, environmentally sustainable and socially just and based on equal participation and capacity building of small producers and agricultural producers.
Institutional design
Formalization: is the innovation embedded in the constitution or legislation, in an administrative act, or not formalized at all?
Frequency: how often does the innovation take place: only once, sporadically, or is it permanent or regular?
Mode of Selection of Participants: is the innovation open to all participants, access is restricted to some kind of condition, or both methods apply?
Type of participants: those who participate are individual citizens, civil society organizations, private stakeholders or a combination of those?
Decisiveness: does the innovation takes binding, non-binding or no decision at all?
Co-governance: is there involvement of the government in the process or not?
- Formalization
- only backed by a governmental program or policy
- Frequency
- regular
- Mode of selection of participants
- restricted
- Type of participants
- citizens civil society
- Decisiveness
- democratic innovation yields a binding decision
- Co-Governance
- no
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Ends
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