The project foresees the participative design and development of a non-formal peer education process, the first step of which will be the identification of global and local issues related to alternative food systems (AFSs) at transnational level and the definition of a common base of knowledge and competences on development issues related to AFSs at local level.

This would allow to design together with selected target groups the training programme and the working agenda that will constitute the bases for the next sets of activities. This will include local activation meetings with target groups, a participatory assessment of common bases of knowledge and competences on local AFSs and a study on best practices of AFSs in Italy, France, UK, Cyprus, Lithuania and Senegal.

The project foresees an extensive process of training and capacity building targeting 100 selected leaders and representatives of the groups involved, aiming at improving their methodological competencies as catalyst/facilitators of multi-stakeholder platforms of AFS actors and thus facilitating their ability to successfully lead the non formal peer education processes and ensure sustainability to the mutual learning environments established.

A process of tutoring will follow and integrate the catalyst training while they will manage and facilitate working groups and food council meetings. This will include direct tutoring and meetings at local level with catalysts to refine methodologies and discuss participation and engagement bottlenecks of local working groups and food councils. Tutoring and counselling will also be guaranteed to the on-line community of "changing actors" aimed at strengthening actors capacity of self-assessment in terms of environmental impacts of their daily life choices related to purchases and uses of food products and services.

As a result of the training, exchanges and on-going tutoring foreseen in this framework, catalysts in Italy, France, Cyprus, UK and Lithuania will achieve improved multidisciplinary competences and DE methodologies to facilitate global learning processes on their territories.

Building on the first phases of participatory assessment and of catalyst training, the project will implement a set of activities aimed at structuring a multi-stakeholder relationship system, embodied in local food councils. These are meant as mutual learning environments where smallholder farmers, food producers and consumers and LAs from involved EU countries engage themselves to amplify their voices within the national and EU food agenda, where citizens can modify their approach to food consumption towards more sustainable ways of living and where target group engagement on food issues is leveraged by an enhanced comprehension and understanding of global interconnections of food systems.