Pro Ratatouille Participatory Guarantee System

What is Participatory Guarantee?
Participartory Guarnatee System or PGS is present globally offering small scale, disadvantaged producers an alternative to external organic certification. The certification process relies on trust, social cooperation and knowledge sharing; while being performed with the active participation of producers and consumers. The aim is to produce organic, fair- trade, healthy products and provide quality control to gain the trust of consumers. All this cheaper and simpler, than external organic certification.

Pro Ratatouille PGS
In 2016 Butterfly Development has started to prepare the professional background for a Pro Ratatouille “Participatory Guarantee System” (PGS) that would enable qualification of participating community and individual gardens for a trademark/ brand.

PGS is a well fitted tool for the Pro Ratatouille project, as it can give a cheap, accessible solution to qualify organic production and fair- trade aspects of production and sales, thus providing an alternative to external organic certification. Participation means that all stakeholders- producers, supervisors, consumers- participate in the qualification process, so it is well fitted to the sense of community Pro Ratatouille represents.
The aim of the work in 2016 was to develop the system according to the needs of producer groups and international guidelines. Production guidelines, system structure, background documents were developed, while educating and collecting feedback from producers who will be direct beneficiaries of the certification. In the future, the PGS system can serve as a basis for turning the Pro Ratatouille concept into a brand, thus helping the Pro Ratatouille gardens to be financially profitable for the participants.

Results of 2016
During the pilot testing phase, expert work was combined with direct feedback from producers, trainer- educators and consumers to design a system that is not only comprehensible for all parties involved, but provides a sense of ownership for the Pro Ratatouille members. The experience shows, that this was a good approach, as all gardeners and trainers were very enthusiastic throughout the whole education and pilot testing process. The common activities also helped strengthen the bond and trust between the gardening communities, which we believe is key to the success of both the Pro Ratatouille gardening and PGS program.
During the season 2016, Pro Ratatouille participants and educators from four villages; namely Hejőkeresztúr, Ároktő, Hejőpapi and Sajókeresztúr participated in the education and pilot testing of the PGS system. Specific educational material and educational methodology was developed for all educational activities and pilot testing events in harmony of the Pro Ratatouille Project toolkit.
We carried out two educational occasions, where we defined together key aspects of the Pro Ratatouille products and the production guidelines and functioning of the system were all worked out together with participating producer groups.
As part of the education, garden visitations were carried out, which are the cornerstone of any participatory guarantee system.

We will continue this work in 2017 by registering the Pro Ratatouille trademark and starting marketing of products under a common brand with the common goals: To produce organic, healthy products; support the livelihood of disadvantaged communities and make the products accessible to local consumers with a strong quality.

We thank the Latter Day Saints Charity for supporting The Pro Ratatouille PGS pilot year!

	Pro Ratatouille Participatory Guarantee System

■ About us ■ Introduction ■ Methodology ■ Contact ■ Our team ■ Pro Rataouille program ■ About Pro Ratatouille ■ Hejő Sajó village network ■ Pro Ratatouille Villages ■ Other activities ■ Cserehat Roma News Agency ■ Private Ratatouille ■ Porverty research ■ Poor Roma, poor Cserehat ■ RUSDELA PROJECT ■ Support us! ■ Private support ■ Corporate social responsibility ■ Our supporters ■ Butterfly news ■ Tedd jobbá ■ Elöljárók ■ Fenntartható Fejlesztései Célok Kártya	What is Participatory Guarantee? Participartory Guarnatee System or PGS is present globally offering small scale, disadvantaged producers an alternative to external organic certification. The certification process relies on trust, social cooperation and knowledge sharing; while being performed with the active participation of producers and consumers. The aim is to produce organic, fair- trade, healthy products and provide quality control to gain the trust of consumers. All this cheaper and simpler, than external organic certification. Pro Ratatouille PGS In 2016 Butterfly Development has started to prepare the professional background for a Pro Ratatouille “Participatory Guarantee System” (PGS) that would enable qualification of participating community and individual gardens for a trademark/ brand. PGS is a well fitted tool for the Pro Ratatouille project, as it can give a cheap, accessible solution to qualify organic production and fair- trade aspects of production and sales, thus providing an alternative to external organic certification. Participation means that all stakeholders- producers, supervisors, consumers- participate in the qualification process, so it is well fitted to the sense of community Pro Ratatouille represents. The aim of the work in 2016 was to develop the system according to the needs of producer groups and international guidelines. Production guidelines, system structure, background documents were developed, while educating and collecting feedback from producers who will be direct beneficiaries of the certification. In the future, the PGS system can serve as a basis for turning the Pro Ratatouille concept into a brand, thus helping the Pro Ratatouille gardens to be financially profitable for the participants. Results of 2016 During the pilot testing phase, expert work was combined with direct feedback from producers, trainer- educators and consumers to design a system that is not only comprehensible for all parties involved, but provides a sense of ownership for the Pro Ratatouille members. The experience shows, that this was a good approach, as all gardeners and trainers were very enthusiastic throughout the whole education and pilot testing process. The common activities also helped strengthen the bond and trust between the gardening communities, which we believe is key to the success of both the Pro Ratatouille gardening and PGS program. During the season 2016, Pro Ratatouille participants and educators from four villages; namely Hejőkeresztúr, Ároktő, Hejőpapi and Sajókeresztúr participated in the education and pilot testing of the PGS system. Specific educational material and educational methodology was developed for all educational activities and pilot testing events in harmony of the Pro Ratatouille Project toolkit. We carried out two educational occasions, where we defined together key aspects of the Pro Ratatouille products and the production guidelines and functioning of the system were all worked out together with participating producer groups. As part of the education, garden visitations were carried out, which are the cornerstone of any participatory guarantee system. We will continue this work in 2017 by registering the Pro Ratatouille trademark and starting marketing of products under a common brand with the common goals: To produce organic, healthy products; support the livelihood of disadvantaged communities and make the products accessible to local consumers with a strong quality. We thank the Latter Day Saints Charity for supporting The Pro Ratatouille PGS pilot year!	Participatory Guaranty System Pro Ratatouille project LDS Charities organic agriculture small scale agriculture Pro Lecsó program.