IFOAM Delegation:
Andre Leu - IFOAM vice-president and INOFO focal point for Australasia region
Cristina Grandi - IFOAM Liaison Officer to FAO and IFAD.
IFOAM Intervention during the GFS Plenary Session of CFS 36
IFOAM Intervention for CSOs at the Roundtable on Protracted Food Crises at CFS 36
IFOAM Key Messages / Objectives
Background & significance of the CFS 36
CFS - Global Strategic Framework for Food Security and Nutrition (GSF)
CFS - Civil Society Mechanism (CSM)
CFS -High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE)
IFOAM Intervention during the GFS Plenary Session of CFS 36
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.
IFOAM Vice President making the intervention
Transcript of the Intervention
IFOAM Intervention on behalf of the CSOs during the Roundtable on Protracted Food Crises at CFS 36
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.
Transcript of the Intervention
The Committee:
agreed to develop the first version of the Global Strategic Framework for Food Security and Nutrition (GSF) by October 2012, which will be subject to regular updates reflecting the outcomes and recommendations of the CFS.
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)
IFOAM Key Messages / Objectives
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:
IAASTD (the World Agriculture Report)
The UN Rapporteur on the Right to Food
Background & significance of the CFS meeting
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:
The Global Strategic Framework for Food Security and Nutrition (GSF)
Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land and Other Natural Resources (VG)
Principles for Responsible Agricultural Investments that Respect Rights, Livelihoods and Resource
Global Strategic Framework for Food Security and Nutrition (GSF)
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.
High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE)
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.
IFOAM CFS36 Intervention – In Full
Thank you Mr Chairman,
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.
Roundtable Intervention on Behalf of Civil Society – In Full
Thank you Mr Chair
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.
Links
All official CFS 36 preparatory documents
Statement of the Chairperson (MS Swaminathan) of the HLPE at CFS 36