The Education for Development project (EfD) entitled “2030 Goal: EFAS for Sustainable Development” within the framework of the rural development agreements financed by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) that the Social Promotion Foundation is implementing in Palestine, Gaza and the West Bank, and Ethiopia.

The Foundation is developing the project together with the Union of Family Farming Schools (UNEFA), which brings together the EFAs’ territorial federations in Spain.

EfD’s activities are aimed at students of Family Farming Schools (EFAs) who carry out their vocational training in schools located in rural areas.

These young people are the ideal recipients of the awareness actions designed and will be able to learn about the reality of the rural environment in these countries, in a situation of conflict, in a pandemic context, and which are among the most arid countries in the world and the most affected by climate change.

Thanks to the project, they will be able to become aware of the challenges and issues faced by the rights holders of the agreements in both countries.

On Thursday 10 December, the opening day took place remotely with students from the six EFAs in which they took part:

  • María Dolores Ochoa, Director of the social consultancy PERIFERIA, which is collaborating on the project, who commented on the project’s objectives, the main milestones and the fundamental role of the participants, whom she defined as agents of change, thanks to their ability to act and mobilise others, especially through social networks.
  • Mayte Illán and Gerard Poch, FPS’s Heads of Mission in Palestine and Ethiopia respectively, in a very didactic way, gave an overview of the situation in both countries, some aspects of the Foundation’s work within the framework of the agreements and the great challenges faced by the population in the rural areas where we work.

Over the next two years, young people studying at the EFAs Casagrande (Badajoz) , Oretana (Toledo), El Piñeiral (La Coruña), El Salto (Zaragoza), El Soto (Granada) and Torrealedua (Valencia), will find out how the agreements have applied the approaches of rights, environmental sustainability and gender equality.

The agreements’ interventions aim at the most vulnerable rural population in the West Bank and Gaza and the Somali region in Ethiopia, in order to guarantee their access to the fulfilment of their rights in terms of equity and sustainability.

The EFAs are vocational training centres in rural areas that provide medium and higher level training officially recognised by the Ministry of Education, in the professional areas of Agriculture, Food Industries, Socio-cultural and Community Services, Health, Transport and Vehicle Maintenance, Hotel and Tourism, IT and Communications, Commerce and Marketing, Physical and Sports Activities and Administration and Management. In addition, some EFA schools offer official secondary school education.
All the EFAs provide Occupational Training and Continuing Education.

The presence of the EFAs fulfils a very important mission in the face of the challenge of the depopulation of the Spanish rural environment. They contribute to the presence of women in the rural environment, help to fix its population and stop the abandonment of the rural environment.