Multiple level partnerships have been described as critical to
achieving a world without hunger, FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu said Saturday
at a meeting with leading exponents of civil society and indigenous peoples
representing small scale food producers and family farmers.
"We need all of civil society to play an active role",
the Director-General said in wide-ranging remarks underscoring the need to
improve global food systems. "FAO is here to help you."
He addressed the annual Forum of the Civil Society and
Indigenous Peoples' Mechanism (CSM), a vehicle for the participation
of non-governmental actors in policy formulation at the Committee on World Food
Security (CFS), itself a multistakeholder platform.
Today's event focused on how to strengthen commitments to achieving Sustainable
Development Goal 2, also known as Zero Hunger.
A cornerstone of effective action means making sure "family
farmers are the final beneficiaries," Qu added, noting that the UN Decade of Family Farming offers
a great opportunity to implement and leverage ideas and recommendations made by
CFS.
He emphasized the importance of learning and working together
for concrete solutions with "interaction, brainstorming and open
minds." In this context, digital solutions can play a decisive role in
improving the livelihoods of small scale and vulnerable food producers,
particularly in relation to the impacts of climate change, according to the
Director-General.
Qu also emphasized that FAO would pioneer youth and women
engagement initiatives at all levels and highlighted the positive way that
FAO's Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS)
helps generate economic value, knowledge and rural-development solutions.
"We need to defeat hunger and poverty, which are
inextricably linked," said CFS Chair Mario Arvelo. "We need to use
every tool in the toolbox, as the Director-General said."
CFS itself needs to continually expand its inclusiveness, Arvelo
said.
The CSM is a self-organized body designed to give smallholder
family farmers, non-governmental organizations, Indigenous Peoples,
fisherfolks, herders, youth, consumers and other global citizens a voice in the
work of the upcoming session of CFS, which starts on 14 October and lasts
throughout the week.
The CSM's main message to the
upcoming CFS session, which starts on Monday 15 October, is that "the
possibility of attaining zero hunger is becoming more and more unlikely"
and that policy initiatives need not just to be accelerated but to change
direction.
The group noted with approval CFS progress in thematic areas
such youth employment in agriculture and food systems and reiterated its
priorities in the ongoing process of developing Voluntary Guidelines on Food
Systems and Nutrition, an exercise expected to be completed in 2020.
Among the panelists alongside FAO's Director-General at
Saturday's event were Silvia Dywilli from the World March of Women, Nettie Wiebe of La
Via Campesina, Azra Sayeed of the International Women's Alliance and
Musa Sowe of ROPPA, organizations representing a broad
array of global regions.
