The Global Strategic
Framework for Food Security and Nutrition (GSF) document is the strategic
plan on the priorities and actions that will be undertaken by the CFS and the
key overview document it is therefore critical that Organic Agriculture is
included.
The intervention related to importance on the
respect of the rights of people affected by protracted food crises and that
they should be put at the centre of policies, involved in decision making to
ensure their sovereignty over resources and livelihood and actively involved in
defining the solutions.
encouraged the continuation of
the inclusive process for the development of the Voluntary Guidelines on the
Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land and Other Natural Resources with a
view to submitting the guidelines for the consideration at CFS 37
decided to start an inclusive process of
consideration of the Principles for Responsible Agricultural Investments that
Respect Rights, Livelihoods and Resource
requested its high-level panel of experts to study
/ review:
the respective roles of large-scale plantations and
of small-scale farming including
economic, social, gender and environmental impacts
existing tools allowing the mapping of available land;
comparative analysis of tools to align large scale
investments with country food security strategies
Price volatility: causes and consequences (by CFS 37)
Social protection: vulnerability reduction, impact of
existing policies, special focus on small scale rural producers, urban and
rural poor, women and children, local production and livelihoods and promoting
better nutrition (by CFS
37)
Climate
change: existing
assessments and initiatives, most affected and vulnerable regions and
populations, interface between climate change and agricultural productivity,
including the challenges and opportunities of adaptation and mitigation
policies (by CFS 37)
In the last decades most
international efforts have focused on distributing food to vulnerable
populations; with very little support dedicated to strengthening the ability of
small holder farming to adequately feed their local communities. IFOAM has
always criticized this policy, and asked for international aid to support rural
development in particular adopting organic agriculture as an efficient tool for
food security. IFOAM strongly advocates for agricultural development that puts
the needs of local people before commodities for international markets.
Despite smallholder agriculture now
taking centre stage in international food security policy discussions there is
a strong push within the CFS for promoting chemical agriculture and GMO’s as the solution for
smallholders despite the high suitability and affordability of organic
agriculture for smallholders. This is despite growing high level recognition of
the benefits of ecological based agriculture and organic in particular as a
solution to the MDG 1:Extreme
Poverty & Hunger:
The issue of food security
is a major UN priority given that the eradication of extreme poverty &
hunger is the No.1 Millennium Development Goal (MDG). In the time since the
MDGs were instigated instead of halving the number of undernourished people as
stated, the number has increased to 1 billion.
The Committee for World Food Security (CFS) is a
governing body of the FAO and is the United Nations’ forum for policies
concerning world food security. It makes the recommendations on how Rome UN
agencies (FAO, IFAD and WFP) and national governments allocate policies,
programs and funding in farming and food systems.
This meeting is particularly significant as it is
the first since major reforms to the CFS have begun. Following a year of
negotiations among governments, CSOs and UN bodies the CFS has been redesigned to
act as an authoritative global policy forum deliberating on food policy issues.
The Civil Society Mechanism (CSM) and the High Level Panel of Experts on Food
Security and Nutrition (HLPE) are central pillars of the reformed CFS that will
feature for the first time at CFS 36. Important items to be discussed / agreed at
CFS 36 include:
According to the agreements, the reformed CFS, as
the foremost body of global food security governance, should have the authority
to formulate and approve a “Global Strategic
Framework for Food Security and Nutrition” (GSF). Governments would
commit themselves to translating this framework into national action plans with
the participation of all stakeholders, and would be held accountable for the
results. it is anticipated that the GSF will increase the
effectiveness and impact of a more inclusive and participatory CFS.
The concept note on the GSF presented at CFS36
stated that developing the framework it is useful to emphasize that the GSF must:
take into account existing frameworks such as the
UN’s Comprehensive Framework for Action (CFA), the Comprehensive Africa
Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) and the Voluntary Guidelines to
Support the Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food in the
Context of National Food Security.
take into account the International Assessment of
Agricultural knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD),
Scaling Up Nutrition and other relevant documents
take into account the Five Rome Principles for
Sustainable Food Security, and the definition of food security
be developed through a comprehensive,participatory and transparent process including all
CFS stakeholders and relevant UNbodies, other international
organizations, international finance institutions, private philanthropic
foundations, and private sector associations. The elaboration processwill be led by the CFS Secretariat in close
collaboration with the Bureau, AdvisoryGroup and High
Level Panel of Experts (HLPE). The GSF will be adopted by the CFS Plenary to
ensure ownership by all.
The overall purpose of the GSF is to provide a
dynamic instrument to enhance the role of the CFS as a platform to improve
cooperation, catalyze coordinated action and provide guidance towards effective
and synergized partnerships in support of global, regional and country-led
plans and processes designed to prevent future food crises, eliminate hunger
and ensure food security and nutrition for all human beings. More specifically,
the GSF is expected to help the CFS:
Improve coordination and synchronized actions among
all stakeholders based on comparative advantages and partnerships
Strengthen coherence and convergence among policies
and programmes of countries, donors and
other stakeholders
Add value through a harmonized process of demand
driven (country-led) activities with scientific inputs from the network of
professional expertise and knowledge (HLPE) and field experience (joint
secretariat) by identifying focus areas, encouraging best practices, preventing
duplication and overlapping, and filling the response gap
Catalyze country level capacity building
Strengthen CFS as a platform for communication and
information exchange
Create an atmosphere of trust, shared
responsibility and mutually reinforcing incentives among all stakeholders.
The GSF will be a high profile, living document
updated periodically by the CFS. The elaboration of the GSF should include a
broad participatory process that will strive to “ensure the voices of all
relevant stakeholders – particularly those most affected by food insecurity –
are heard” The GSF will be voluntary and thus will not constitute a mandatory
requirement and will be approved by CFS member states but will be endorsed by
all stake holders. Neither approval nor endorsement will be binding; they will
rather constitute an acknowledgement that the document is a sound framework to
improve convergence and synchronized action in food security and nutrition
governance.
A critical aspect of the CFS reform was the
establishment of the Civil
Society Mechanism (CSM) to
facilitate the participation of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in the work
of the CFS, including input to negotiation and decision-making. Three of the CSO members of
the Contact Group, IPC (the International Planning Committee for Food
Sovereignty including Via Campesina), Oxfam and Action Aid International, took
the initiative to establish a drafting committee to facilitate development of
the CSM. The proposal
was one of the official documents at the CFS meeting. Opening-up to a wider group of stakeholders was
intended to help it to make better decisions on how to fight hunger and
malnutrition and promote agricultural and rural development worldwide.
The CSM is intended to provide a space for dialogue
between a wide range of civil society actors where different positions can be
expressed and debated. The CSM will present common positions to the CFS where
they emerge and the range of different positions where there is no consensus.
The CSM included the introduction of the right for CSOs to participate in the
CFS as full participants and not just observers and with the same rights as the
members except the right to vote. As a consequence representatives of
small-scale food producers and other CSOs, along with private sector
associations and other stakeholders took part in the 36th meeting of the CFS
including IFOAM.
Also as part of the ongoing reform of the
international governance of food security and nutrition a Steering Committee
was established to lead the High Level Panel of Experts
on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE) advisory body. 15 world-class experts
were appointed to the committee including M. S.
Swaminathan who is the Chair. They participate in their individual capacities, and
not as representatives of their respective governments, institutions or
organizations. The Steering Committee will appoint ad-hoc expert teams to
provide independent expert knowledge on food security-related topics. Its
function will be to assess and analyze the current state of food security and
nutrition and its underlying causes and provide scientific and knowledge-based
analysis and advice on specific policy-relevant issues.
I represent The
International Federation of Organic Agricultural Movements – IFOAM. We have
over 800 member organisations in 120 countries. We congratulate the CFS for
including Civil Society and believe that the Global Strategic Framework is an
important document. We appreciate the support of Brazil,
Argentina, USA, Cuba and other countries that Civil
Society and other relevant stakeholders are included in the Global Strategic
Framework process as this will ensure a comprehensive robustness to the
outcomes.
IFOAM would like to
participate as a stakeholder in the GSF process particularly in relation to
paragraph 16 of the document looking at case studies and good practices so that
Organic Agriculture is included in the mix of options within the Global
Strategic Framework
Organic agriculture has a
proven track record of improving yields as well as delivering a range of social
and environmental benefits to small holders in the developing world
A high proportion of the
world’s farmers are traditional farmers and they are organic by default.
Significant increases in yields can be
achieved by teaching these farmers to add good organic practices to their
traditional methods such as:
Better soil
nutrition
Improved pest
and disease control
Better water
use efficiency
Better weed
control methods
Multiple studies have
found that these methods can increase yields in smallholder systems with an
average 116 per cent increase in yields for all African organic projects.
Training farmers in good
organic methods is a practical, low cost and proven way to increase yields and
income.
We are particularly pleased with the mention that the WFP
and the CFS will be working with small holders and local institutions for long
term solutions. We are pleased to hear that all the actors will be involved and
appreciate the shift by OXFAM that donors should work towards building
sustainability and resilience in agriculture.
Civil Society believes that it is very important to Respect the rights of people affected
by protracted crises and they should be involved in decision making to ensure
their sovereignty over resources and livelihood. People affected by protracted
crises should be put at the centre and actively involved in defining the
solutions.
