The event will be hosted by the Confederation of Small Farmers’ and Fishers’ Organizations (PAKISAMA), an AFA member in the Philippines and is being supported by the Collectif Stratégies Alimentaires (CSA) in Belgium and Agriterra in the Netherlands.

Around forty delegates coming from AFA’s member organizations as well as other farmer organizations, agri-agencies, non-government organizations and government agencies are expected to participate.

There will be case presentations on small farmers marketing arrangements, inclusive business models, workshops to capture key lessons, as well as a field visit to some local agricultural cooperatives.

Click here for the program

AFA gives international situationer

Tagaytay City, Philippines, April 13, 2013 – Fourteen farmers, five of them women, all members of the National Council (NC) of PAKISAMA (National Confederation of Farmers Organizations), AFA member in the Philippines, together with its national secretariat and regional coordinators, started today a four day orientation workshop in Tagaytay City, aimed to level-off on basic tenets of the organization, roles and functions of each governing and management structure, and to set directions of the organization for the next three years.

The first day of the orientation was spent on getting to know each other better, clarifying expectations between and among different levels of organization(e.g. secretariat, officers, council members) through a team-building exercise (e.g. secretariat, officers, council members), reviewing the core principes of authentic humanism and active non-violence, and levelling off on international and national situation of farmers, agriculture and sustainable development general. AFA Secretary General Esther Penunia gave inputs on the engagement of AFA in international policy advocacy work and Pakisama’s current involvement in it, especially in advocacy for land rights, sustainable agriculture and farmers’ market power, particularly in GAFSP, MTCP and in the celebration of the International Year of Family Farming in 2014.

The new set of NC leaders were elected during its 8th national congress, held last Feb 20-22, 2013 in Quezon City. Like in previous Congresses, the NC leaders were elected by each island region (Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao), each region having five slots, with one slot given to a woman and another slot to a fisher. But unlike in previous Congresses, the President , Vice President and the committee heads are now elected from among the NC members. Elected for a three year term were Benedicto “Benny” Aquillo as Chairperson and Ireneo “Rene” Cerilla as President.

The last Congress also celebrated Pakisama’s 26th year, where it gave plaques of appreciation to organizations and individuals who have supported it from its founding years. AFA received one for its contribution to PAKISAMA’s international work.

Good afternoon friends and colleagues. I take this session as an opportunity to dialogue with our northern CSO counterparts and to our friends in IFC and WB Coordination Unit.

I am Soc Banzuela, national coordinator of PAKISAMA, a national confederation of peasant organizations in the Philippines.  We are a member of Asian Farmers Association (AFA), an Asian Confederation of 12 national farmers federations in ten countries in three regions of Asia, providing Secretariat services to the Asian CSO representative to  the GAFSP Steering Committee, Dr. Saing Yang Koma.  I sit as his Alternate and have attended four Steering Committee meetings, with two other CSO representatives one representing African farmers, ROPPA, and the other the Northern NGOs, Action Aid.  I have conducted two missions in Bangladesh, three missions in Nepal, two missions in Mongolia, and one mission in Cambodia over the past two and a half years. Most of the projects funded by GAFSP in 14 countries, six of them are in Asia and the other eight are in Africa,  are still in the start up stage and Bangladesh, one of the early grantees has just recruited and deployed its 700 project personnel to help enhance the production and income of some 350,000 farmers located in two regions.  Thus, we cannot show you much yet in terms of outcomes.

But what I would like to do this afternoon is to show you a 5-minute video on the possibilities of GAFSP. The video is about our 18-year experience  on how we successfully engaged government in a food security project in the Philippines. The video will try to demonstrate the key issues we push in the GAFSP Board room and in our field missions. (video showing of PECUARIA).

I have three points to make.

Firstly, on project development. as shown in the video, we have been insisting in GAFSP  three things:

One, it is important for farmers to have control, access, and ownership of the basic food security endowments such as land, seeds, production capital, and agro-ecological production technology.

Two, it is important to have access and control over the market.

and three, it is important to have strong cooperatives, farmers organizations, to be able to achieve the first and the second.

These are  possible in the GAFSP but project development is a key challenge.

The GAFSP project framework document already has  provisions allowing country proponents to include these components in their respective project proposals. But project development, as we all know,  is in itself a battlefield. While country-led, very few proposals received so far from IDA countries have had the benefit of CSO input, thus, most of the projects that are eventually funded have no land tenure component and are not strong in ensuring agro-ecological approaches in enhancing production nor in building capacity of farmers’ organizations to perform higher level intervention such as in marketing ,  post-harvest /agro-processing, value-addition and governance . GAFSP provides for multi-stakeholdership and encourages CSO participation in various levels and processes. A new call for proposal for public sector window has been opened and will close on June 5. But it has been quite a challenge to organize CSOs in IDA countries to engage their respective governments in coming out with proposals that would include the above-mentioned components.. We hope we can inform our CSO counterparts in IDA countries to do exactly this. And once the projects are funded in accordance with these themes, that we encourage them to actively participate in the implementation by insisting their participation in the national project steering committees, in monitoring and evaluation,  and in providing technical assistance to farmers and their organizations.

The second point I want to make is on GAFSP Governance.  GAFSP I think provides one of the most innovative governance structures among the current global programs and has shown its commitment to multi-stakeholdership and inclusivity not only by including CSO participation at the highest policy making body such as the Steering Committee but by ensuring a tradition of consensus decision-making in Board processes, thanks to the previous and current leaderships.  But there are elements that we agree must continue to undergo improvement such as the cohesion of the private and public sector windows, the loan and grant components, and CSO participation in the private sector window processes.  Given the 14 funded projects and the forthcoming projects, what can be done to ensure the private sector window, providing concessional loans, will be able to build on the  public sector  window-funded projects  and help build smallholders power not only in production arena but also in the market as well? These are exactly the themes we would like to discuss in our forthcoming meeting on the 22nd of April. Laura has shown to us the direction of IFC, of working with an institution that supports farmers cooperatives producing fairly-traded agri-ecological products. To me this  is already a big step  at the right direction even as we CSO representatives hold the view that perhaps IFAD should be the one to handle the private sector window given its experience and commitment to working with agricultural cooperatives and that focus on production must address more the domestic food security needs of IDA countries. I believe we will be able to reach an arrangement acceptable to all stakeholders.

The third and final  point I want to make is about Synergy and Responsibility.  GAFSP was born out of the 2008 global food crisis. The number of hungry people grew by  60 million people last year even while governments promised in 1996 World Food Summit to halve the 900 million figure of hungry people  by 2015. This magnitude of hungry people in Sub-sahara and Asian countries, which are largely rural and female, is just so scandalous given we know that another third of the global population is obese and over-fed and that global budget for the war industry ridicules global budget for food security.  GAFSP I believe, given the stakeholders involved, is in a unique position to make a big difference. GAFSP can provide the global standards and leadership in effectively waging war against hunger and poverty. But we barely raised five percent of the original 22 billion dollars original target for the facility. And the demand is so huge.

We would need to continue to improve ourselves and find innovative ways to bring about greater synergy and cooperation among various stakeholders.  I don’t think this is a choice. It is an imperative. And I think CSOs, especially, northern NGOs, may just have to take greater leadership in continuing to remind and engage  especially donor governments and multi-lateral institutions, who are key players in a funding facility such as GAFSP, to be like Spiderman, to exercise greater responsibility in proportion to their powers, to reach out to the hungriest and the  poorest and to collectively facilitate their empower ment process leading to   transformed lives and their societies.

Dhaka, Bangladesh – The Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP), a multi-lateral funding mechanism, approved funding for the government’s Integrated Agriculture and Food Security Project (IAPP) last June 2010 for an amount of $50M through its public sector window, aimed to increase agriculture production through technology generation, adoption and water management. The IAPP began implementation in early 2012.

In March 2012, the GAFSP likewise approved a loan to Natore Agro, a subsidiary of PRAN, a big agro-processing company in Bangladesh, for an amount of $5M, through its private sector window, managed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank group. The loan was part of the total $15M loan to the said company, provided by IFC to “expand production capacity, create 1,800 rural jobs and integrate small farmers into retail supply chains.”

Implementors of the two projects were not aware of the each other’s project. Meanwhile, at the Steering Committee level, its members were in a GAFSP continuous improvement process, and one major issue currently being reviewed is the relationship, coherence, coordination and governance of both the public and private sector windows of GAFSP.

It is in this context that AFA, together with Action Aid Bangladesh and Kendrio Krishok Moitree, AFA’s member in Bangladesh, conducted a consultation in Dhaka last April 4 at the Action Aid office in Dhaka. The consultation brought together , for the first time, key stakeholders of GAFSP in Bangladesh: 20 representatives of IAPP, PRAN, IFC, and FAO, who is handling the technical assistance component of IAPP, and CSOs who have been tracking the progress of GAFSP in the country since 2011, when the first concept note was approved. A lively discussion took place where participants raised questions, made clarfications and shared concerns and issues related to both projects’ implementation and relationship with each other.

The consultation was part of the GAFSP CSO mission conducted April 3-4 by an AFA team composed of Mr. Soc Banzuela, National Coordinator of Pakisama, AFA member in Philippines and alternate CSO-Asia representative to the GAFSP SC, and Mr. Amirul Islam, Program Manager of AA-B and anchor staff for KKM. The mission was supported by funds from the Coordinating Unit of GAFSP.

AFA will provide a full report of the mission at the end of the month.

[High-Level Consultation on Hunger, Food Security and Nutrition in the Post-2015 Development Agenda. April 4, 2013. Madrid, Spain. (C) IISD.]

Thus stated UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, when he formally accepted the result of the Global Consultation on Hunger, Food Security and Nutrition in the Post 2015 Development Framework, at the closing ceremonies during the High Level Meeting in Madrid, Spain on April 4. The meeting was the third and final phase of the Global post 2015 consultation on the said theme. Participants responded to a working document entitled “Food Security and Nutrition for All: A Vision and Building Blocks for a Global Agenda,” which represented the results of the first two phases of the consultation.

The participants during the high level meeting said that the common vision of ending hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in a sustainable manner by the year 2025 is both a moral and political imperative and called for a bold and effective action to achieve this vision. They acknowledged that the critical agents of change are women and men small producers and their organizations, family farmers, fishers, livestock keepers, forest users, workers, entrepreneurs, and indigenous peoples, as well as consumers at all levels.

AFA Secretary General Esther Penunia, in her intervention, suggested to include in the “building blocks for a development agenda” ensuring rights to fisheries, forests and seeds, in addition to land rights; to prioritize investments on sustainable agro-ecological approaches and in motivating the youth to go into agriculture; to establish market rules that are fair to small-scale producers, and to strengthen at all levels policy and program coherence among all departments related to food security and nutrition. She mentioned that the celebration for the International Year of Family Farming in 2014 may be an opportunity to strengthen such coordination.

The meeting was co-hosted by the Governments of Spain and Colombia, and led by FAO and WFP. It was attended by representatives from national governments, intergovernmental organizations, UN systems, private sector, NGOs and producer organizations such as La Via Campesina, World Farmers Organization, Pan African Farmers Organization, World Forum of Fish Harvesters and Fish Workers, and the Asian Farmers’ Association.

Click here for the Joint Chair and Co-leads Synthesis Report

Click here for the Remarks of the UN Secretary General

Click here for the Vision and Building Blocks for the Global Agenda

Click here for AFA intervention

Click here for the Summary Report from IISD

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Obama administration’s fiscal year 2014 budget, released today, includes long-overdue changes to the way the U.S. distributes its food aid around the world. These changes will make aid more efficient—up to doubling the bang for each dollar spent—and they will help build local capacity in developing countries, creating markets for local farmers who in turn will help their countries cope with an increasingly volatile international food supply.

For nearly 60 years, U.S. food aid has relied on buying food from American farmers through U.S. corporations to send abroad on U.S.-owned ships. President Obama proposes shifting food aid to programs that also support local and regional procurement of food aid.

“For too long, we’ve been sold the idea that U.S. farmers must feed the world. Instead, to build real food security, we need farmers everywhere, whether in Kansas or Kenya, to be able to feed their own communities and nations. Strengthening that capacity through our food security and trade policies should be the priority,” says Karen Hansen-Kuhn of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP). “Food aid is the last safety net when all else fails, so it is imperative that funding levels don’t fall, but making it faster, more flexible, more efficient and building a tool to build local markets is a common-sense solution.”

Read more

IRIN/Phnom Penh, “Land rights have key role in Cambodia”, Gulf Times, March 16, 2013

Click here for related news and information

The Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA) joins the South East Asia Regional Initiatives for Community Empowerment (SEARICE) and other network partners in the campaign against the commercialization of Golden Rice, as well as other GMOs, in the Philippines.

In line with its desire to achieve rice self-sufficiency for the country, the Philippine government has declared 2013 as the National Year of Rice. While this may be good on the surface, it is quite alarming that part of the efforts to achieve rice self-sufficiency involves the commercialization of Golden Rice, a genetically modified rice variety that is said to be vitamin A-enriched.

In addition to concerns over risks to health, environment, biodiversity, and infringement of farmers’ rights and livelihood, AFA believes that the best way to eliminate Vitamin-A deficiency is by eating a variety of nutritious foods that are usually found in diversified and integrated farming systems by smallholders, and which the government should support instead.

Thus, AFA joins hands with SEARICE and its network partners in issuing a call against Golden Rice commercialization by voicing objections, demanding a moratorium, and ultimately, halting its cultivation.

We ask friends and partners to uphold the right to safe food and the protection of farmers and the environment by supporting this campaign.

Click here to sign the petition at ipetitions.com 

Click here to sign the petition at change.org

Click here to download a primer on Golden Rice by SEARICE

[“Making agricultural investments more inclusive: building a framework for action”. February 28, 2013. London. International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).]

This was one of the main points emphasized by AFA in a recent roundtable discussion organized by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) last February 28, 2013 in London.

In the meeting entitled “Making agricultural investments more inclusive: building a framework for action,” AFA Policy Advocacy Officer Lany Rebagay said that small-scale farmers could have greater bargaining power if they deal with investors on a collective approach rather than on individual basis

AFA joined the first panel to articulate the perspective of small-scale women and men farmers on important elements that a prospective investor should include in their community engagement and on concerns related to embedding inclusiveness in contracts specifically on important elements that should be included in an investment contract that will ensure inclusion of smallholder producers.

Ms. Rebagay articulated the principle of free Prior informed consent (FPIC) as a key principle that prospective responsible agricultural investor should abide. She also articulated the primacy of genuine peoples’ participation in all stages of agricultural investment.
Equitable sharing of risk and benefits as well as concern for protection of biodiversity through the use of sustainable production and processing technologies should likewise be assured in the design of any agricultural investment.

On the issue of ensuring inclusiveness in contracts, she pointed out that technical and legal assistance is important support needed by smallholder producer that government in partnership with CSOs should made available to facilitate fair negotiation in contracting process.

In addition, informed decision by the community/smallholder can be best achieved with access to information made available through transparent process, of making relevant investment document at the public domain. Moreover, mechanism for regular review, monitoring and redress of grievance should be clearly stipulated in any contract.

Particular concern on land-based investment and gender was also discussed during the workshop. Participants articulated the need for clear government regulation that will protect land rights of smallholder farmer including reform in some customary land rights that marginalizes women.

The round-table workshop was attended by representatives from CSOs, research institute, private sector, government, intergovernmental bodies (FAO, IFAD).A follow-on meeting on March 1, 2013 was attended by interested groups from the workshop. The follow-on meeting identified some key action points and areas for future cooperation.

[Meeting of the World Consultative Committee for the International Year of Family Farming 2014. January 29-30, 2013. Rome, Italy. Copyright: WRF]

During the meeting, the WCC members agreed that (1) the year belongs to everybody, and that IYFF-2014 is an opportunity to work towards common goals while recognizing and appreciating diversity; (2) farmers organizations will lead the IYFF-2014 and will lead the WCC; (3) national level is the key level of action; (4) all interested organizations will be invited to participate in national level committees and actions.

The WCC is the civil society process for IYFF while another process is being undertaken by FAO, which was mandated by the UN to take charge of the celebration of the family farming year. A meeting took place between WCC members and FAO and IFAD to discuss ways of working together. The WCC will be in charge of ensuring that there are activities related to IYFF-2014 at global level, while regional organizations in WCC will lead and ensure the existence of regional and national level initiatives.

Inside the WCC, a task force has been created to define the global action plan and the launching of the year. AFA is part of this Task Force, together with  regional FOs COPROFAM and ROPPA-PAFO, and with international organizations Oxfam Intl, Slow Food International, AsiaDHRRA and of course, WRF, who will function as the CSO global coordinator for the IYFF-2014 campaign.

Click here for UN declaration of 2014 as International Year of Family Farming

Click here for IYFF Report 2011

Ms. Ika Krishnayanti (left), API International Relations Officer, emphasizes that farmers should also be recognized as researchers during the policy dialogue on technology transfer for smallholders in Bogor, Indonesia last February 13, 2013 organized by CAPSA. Credit: SATNET Blog.

Representing both API and AFA, Ms. Ika Krishnayanti, International Relations Officer of API, participated in the high level policy dialogue “Technology Transfer for Smallholder Farmers” organized by the Centre for Alleviation of Poverty through Sustainable Agriculture  (CAPSA) in collaboration with the European Union (EU) and the Government of Indonesia last February 13, 2013 in Bogor, Indonesia.

The dialogue aimed to stimulate “discussion among senior officials from agricultural ministries, national agricultural research centres and non-governmental organizations from the Asia-Pacific Region in order to provide options for policymakers to facilitate and enhance the transfer of sustainable agricultural technologies to smallholder farmers and support investments that improve food security, reduce poverty and preserve the environment.”

During the policy dialogue, Ms. Krishnayanti joined other panelists in a moderated discussion addressing the question, “How can advances in science and research better reach smallholders to promote sustainable agriculture?”

She emphasized the “farmers should be recognized as researchers, and not only seen as scientific findings recipients” as she introduced “Ms. Maria Loreta, member of API’s National Board of Peasants and Head of API’s Peasant Women Committee, who recently received an award for her conservation of local species as well as supporting successful rice adaptation made by farmers in East Java to suit saline soil conditions.”

For reports and photos, visit the SATNET Blog at http://satnetasia.blogspot.com/

For the papers and presentations, visit the SATNET Asia website at http://www.satnetasia.org/public/presentation.html

(Reports and photos taken from SATNET Blog)

She was in the country to attend a Board meeting in AsiaDHRRA, a regional network of rural development NGOs in Asia, where she also sits as Chairperson.

Dr. Huang has been actively supporting TWADA in their production and marketing initiatives through the National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST), which has an ongoing partnership cooperation with the farmers’ association.

She has also attended various AFA meetings and has represented AFA in some conferences related to marketing and agribusiness.

PMAC is an annual conference attended by a wide-range of experts and development players focusing on issues in public health. This year’s theme is “A world united against infectious disease: cross-sectoral solutions.”

The event was attended by around 1,000 participants from across the globe.

AFA joined the panel “Contribution of the One Health Paradigm to Food Security” moderated by Dr. David Nabarro, UN Senior Coordinator for Avian and Pandemic Influenza and Special Representative on Food Security and Nutrition.

Ms. Lany V. Rebagay, Policy Adovacy Officer of AFA, spoke about the role of small-scale farming in ensuring health, nutrition and food security. She said that “small-scale farmers feed the world and care for the earth.”

This is also the theme of the International Year of Family Farming (IYFF), which the UN declared after a worldwide campaign by a broad range of CSOs anchored by the World Rural Forum (WRF) and actively participated in by AFA.

She pointed out that in the discussion of One Health paradigm, a multi-sectoral collaboration to address health concerns integrating human-animal-environment dimension, participation of small-scale farmers is crucial.

She also asserted that small-scale women and men farmers feed 70% of the world’s population while ensuring environmental sustainability through agro-ecological farming systems that also ensure a diverse source of micronutrients that support sustainable diet.

Click here for more information about the panel

Participants to the ASEAN High Level Consultative Meeting on “Integrating Nutrition in ASEAN Integrated Framework on Food Security and its Strategic Plan of Action for Food Security,” jointly organized by the ASEAN Secretariat and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), January 29-30, 2013, Bangkok, Thailand. © AFA

Bangkok, Thailand — AFA, through its policy advocacy officer Ma. Elena Rebagay, is participating in the ASEAN High Level Consultative Meeting on “Integrating Nutrition in ASEAN Integrated Framework on Food Security and its Strategic Plan of Action for Food Security.” The meeting is jointly organized by the ASEAN Secretariat and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on January 29-30, 2013 in Bangkok, Thailand.

The overall goal of this consultation is to provide an opportunity for participants to increase their understanding of agriculture’s role in improving nutrition and intensify dialogue and mutual understanding of each sector’s role in integrating nutrition into the ASEAN Integrated Food Security (AIFS) framework and its processes. Specifically, the meeting hopes to:

• Identify common issues of concern, gaps and needs to address food security and nutrition and to raise awareness among participants on particular value and the contribution of agriculture in improving nutrition;
• Increase understanding on the harmonization of policy, institutional mechanism and governance for improved food security and nutrition; and,
• Integrate best practices and approaches for improving nutrition into the AIFS framework and its processes;

During the consultation, AFA asserted the significant role of women farmers as the frontline players in ensuring nutrition and food security at the household level. Women farmers, as producers, mothers and consumers, are in the best position to articulate the gaps as well as solutions to issues and problems related to nutrition and food security. AFA also affirmed the common sentiment among stakeholders that nutrition and food security cannot be addressed by one agency alone, but should be a multi-stakeholder coordinating mechanism that would ensure the integration and harmonization of various initiatives on nutrition and food security. In line with this, AFA called for institutionalized and meaningful participation of farmers’ organizations representing the concerns of women farmers in various coordination mechanisms and other bodies that look into the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation programs and policies on nutrition and food security at the local, national, regional and global levels.

The office of Aliansi Petani Indonesia (API) is in evacuation mode after the heavy flooding caused by unusually strong monsoon rains in Jakarta last week. API’s office is located at the banks of Ciliwung River, one of Jakarta’s thirteen rivers. They have moved their office equipment and documents to the second floor after flood waters rose last January 16. Around 18,000 people have been evacuated and 11 have died due to the floods. In API’s area, there are around 300 households that were affected.

In response to the flooding, API, together with other people’s organizations in Jakarta, has set up a relief center to help the people affected by the floods. API’s staff will be working in these relief centers in the next two weeks. They are accepting donations in cash or kind. Direly needed are basic aid supplies, such as, ready to eat food such as bread and instant noodles, drinking water, rice, milk and diapers for infants, sanitary napkins for women, soaps, blankets, clothes, etc.

The city is flooded every year during the monsoon season. In 2007, it experienced one of the worst flooding in recent years. Experts have since then warned that flooding would be a more frequent occurrence in Jakarta. This year’s flooding is expected to surpass that of 2007, and more rains are expected in the coming days.

Partners who wish to send their support to API and the affected communities in Jakarta may get in touch with Ms. Ika Krishnayanti through e-mail address ikank@yahoo.com and mobile numbers 62-08128387971, 62-085888351668

Click here for more photos

(With report and photos from Ika Krishnayanti)

Since June 2009, the Medium Term Cooperation Programme (MTCP) funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and coordinated at the regional level by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has been implemented in two sub-regions, namely Southeast Asia plus China and South Asia. The goal of the MTCP is to improve the livelihoods of rural poor producers, and its purpose is to enable small farmers’ organizations in the Asia and Pacific region and their networks to influence policies affecting their members. As an active member of the Global Farmers’ Forum, AFA, together with other regional/international FOs, pioneered the promotion of MTCP within IFAD.

IFAD initially expressed commitment to support MTCP phase 2. AFA expressed appreciation for IFAD’s effort to strengthen solidarity and cooperation among farmers. In line with this, AFA pushed for a more FO-led MTCP 2 as manifested by an institutional arrangement that allows FOs to manage and coordinate various activities not only at the national level but also at the sub-regional and regional levels.

Results of the activity will feed into efforts at strengthening FO involvement in government agri policies and programs as well as in future project proposals that may be developed to support FO involvement in policy making processes for GAFSP.

One of the major lessons learned was the primacy of a strong farmers’ organization with capacity to constructively engage government and other stakeholders as key to the success of any food security program like GAFSP.

Click here to download the workshop results

15 October 2012, Rome, Italy – Opening session of the 39th Session of the Committee on World Food Security CFS, FAO headquarters (Plenary Hall). ©FAO/Giulio Napolitano

The member governments of CFS  noted that the GSF will “provide an over-aching framework and a single reference document with practical guidance on core recommendations for food security and nutrition strategies, policies and actions validated by the wide ownership, participation and consultation afforded by the CFS.”

9 October 2012, Rome, Italy. World Farmers Organization – The Role of Women in Agriculture. CFS 39 – Side Event. FAO headquarters (Malaysia Room). ©FAO/Marco Salustro

The CSM found positive aspects in the GSF document, especially its reference to the right to food, to  smallholder farmers, agriculture and food workers, artisanal fisherfolk, pastoralists, indigenous people and the landless, women and youth, and recognition of agro-ecology, among others. Since the GSF is not a legally binding document, the challenge is for national governments to promote and make use of the GSF when formulating strategies, policies and programmes on food security, nutrition, agriculture, fisheries and forests.

In the approved TOR for RAI, the  tentative schedule of the consultation process for the set of principles on RAI starts in November 2012, with the final version scheduled to be approved during the CFS Plenary meeting in 2014. Regional multi-stakeholder consultations, e- consultations and consultations within existing regional meetings/fora is tentatively scheduled in 2013. While small farmers and their organizations are categorized under private and public investors, separate from CSO, the TOR nevertheless states that  the consultation process should be open and include all stakeholders, and that adequate participation of CSOs and the private sector (of all sizes) should be ensured.

19 October 2012, Rome, Italy. World Farmers Organization – The Role of Women in Agriculture. Ms. Estrella Penunia. CFS 39 – Side Event. FAO headquarters (Malaysia Room). ©FAO/Marco Salustro

During the side event entitled “Role of Women in Agriculture,” Ms. Penunia delivered the following intervention: “A woman farmer produces food. She cooks and puts food on the family dining table. She also markets her family’s farm produce. She takes care of the health of the family. She is the first teacher of her children. She gives birth. For a woman farmer, these roles are interrelated, interconnected. Thus if we want to ensure food security and nutrition, and want to reduce hunger and poverty in the world, we have to respond to the needs of the woman farmer down at the household level so that she can perform effectively and efficiently her many roles as a woman farmer.”

Click here for the first version of the Global Strategic Framework (GSF)

Click here for the Final Report of CFS 39, which includes the TOR for RA

Click here for the link to the CFS 39 documents