Banca de DEFESA: GILMAR CORREIA DIAS

SOLIDARITY ECONOMY AND AGROECOLOGY: AN ANALYSIS OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF STRATEGIC PLANNING AS A STRENGTHENING OF SELF-MANAGEMENT IN ASSIM, LAGOA DE ITAENGA-PE

Collective work. Participatory Planning. Strategic plan

The study “Solidarity Economy and Agroecology: an analysis of the implementation of
strategic planning as a strengthening of self-management at ASSIM, Lagoa de Itaenga
– PE”, analyzes the construction process of the participatory planning of an association
of family farmers, which carries out a work of organization and training with
agroecological producers in the North of a region called Zona da Mata in the State of
Pernambuco. The work, based on action research and participatory rural planning, was
built on popular education principles. With a critical look at the associative project and
the construction of collective self-management strategies, both in its historical
trajectory and in its current stage, one can see an advance in production and
commercialization, while self-management practices and reciprocal collaboration
stagnated. In this territory, where there are approximately 30 families of agroecological
producers who for twenty-five years have developed activities and actions based on
solidarity, unity and democratic participation, it was found through this work that it was
time to renew these practices and agree on strategies for the coming years considering
new convening ideas. With the action research, ASSIM associates were involved in
the construction of knowledge, through a planned process of interaction with the local
reality. In this way, the construction of a participatory rural diagnosis culminated in the
participatory strategic planning and finally became a political strategy, which starts
from a worldview and the identification of issues that have distanced ASSIM from the
characteristics of collective and participatory management, reacting to the necessity of
income generation appeals and focusing on commercialization processes. The product
of this thesis, participatory rural planning and its respective strategic plan, packed the
concrete intervention in the sense of seeking better institutional, economic and social
conditions for the entity's associates, as well as looking in more depth at the future of
the association. Finally, it is expected that at the end of the ongoing process, ASSIM
will be able to strengthen itself to conquer rights, reaffirm its territorial identity,
strengthen local leaders, improve collective decision-making processes, as well as
boost production and marketing.