These included a strong vision of and
value for public education in which almost Finnish children participate as the creator of Finland's future society; resulting high status for the country's teaching profession whose members are stringently selected through rigorous university - based teacher education programs that confer Masters degrees on all of them; a widespread culture of collaboration in curriculum development among teachers in each school district; an equally robust culture of collaboration among all partners in strong local municipalities where most curriculum and other policy decisions are made; and a
system of widespread
cooperation and trust instead of US - style test - based accountability.
Firstly, the RUAF Foundation cooperates with urban producers, local NGOs, public administrations and other relevant stakeholder groups in setting up of concrete short chain marketing initiatives, for example within the framework of the Market - oriented urban agriculture project in Gaza (implemented in
cooperation with Oxfam) agricultural
value chains in various specific product groups are supported in a market - for the poor - perspective; The From Seed to Table programme supported 30 urban farmer groups in 17 cities to innovate their local production
systems, engage in
value - adding activities and establish innovative short marketing channels; The projects in Freetown and Makeni in Sierra Leone implemented in
cooperation with COOPI helped to establish various youth - led agro-enterprises (in pig raising and slaughtering; milk and fruit processing and waste management).