Call for inputs to monitor the use and application of CFS Policy Recommendations 2019
With the recent adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and other people working in Rural Areas and the foreseen start of the UN International Decade on Family Farming, 2019 will be an important year for setting a clear advocacy agenda for public policies that support small-scale food producers. The monitoring exercise taking place within the CFS is an important contribution to this agenda, creating the possibility to reflect on the challenges, as well as the needed public policies that support small-scale food producers and the right to food.
As part of the incremental development of the CFS Monitoring Mechanism, in 2019 for the first time the CFS will make efforts towards monitoring the use and implementation of ‘Policy Recommendations’ as distinct from ‘major outcomes’ like the Tenure Guidelines. As a pilot exercise, the CFS will focus on policy recommendations that support investment and development in smallholders, including:
1: Investing in Smallholder Agriculture for Food Security and Nutrition (endorsed in 2013)
2: Connecting Smallholders to Markets (endorsed in 2016)
3: Sustainable Agricultural Development for Food Security and Nutrition: What Roles for Livestock? (endorsed in 2016)
These recommendations are the outcomes of negotiations in which civil society invested a lot of effort and won some important points. ‘Investing in Smallholder Agriculture for FSN’ acknowledges that small-scale producers are responsible for the bulk of the food consumed in the world and for most investment in agriculture and urges governments to develop coherent policy packages in support of smallholder agriculture, with the participation of producers and other actors. ‘Connecting Smallholders to Markets’ unveils the reality that most food transits not through global value chains but through territorial markets rooted in local, national and regional food systems. It recommends filling the data gap on territorial markets, which are not targeted in official data collection, and developing appropriate public policies to support them. The recommendations on ‘Sustainable Agricultural Development for FSN: What roles for Livestock’ recognize the existence of different livestock systems with significantly different impact on the livelihoods and ecological foundations of their respective communities and chart pathways for their sustainable transformation, while acknowledging the specificities and contribution of pastoral systems.
The outcome of the exercise will be shared in a three-hour session during CFS 46 in October 2019. It will focus on how smallholders have benefitted, or are expected to benefit, from these CFS policy recommendations. Recognizing that they have been adopted recently and are not likely to have been widely applied, CFS actors are also invited to reflect on the likely benefits of the potential application of CFS policy outcomes, for example . in the context of the UN Decade on Family Farming.. The session will generate lessons learned and suggestions for the further use and application of the recommendations which will be included in the report of CFS 46.
It is important that Civils Society contributes to this discussion in order to give greater visibility to these recommendations and generate more energy to apply them on the ground.
In order to contribute to the discussion, the CFS will utilize the online Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum).We encourage members of CSM to utilize this space in order to share experiences, programs, and policies that 1) directly utilize these policy recommendations; 2) indicate how such policies can support their work or community, which includes good practices as well as challenging situations and policies in which the reviewed policy recommendations could support solutions; and 3) reflect on policy gaps and/or incoherencies within these selected areas that hinder the full application of these recommendations and would need to be addressed by future policy convergence processes.
In order to contribute to the discussion, you can fill out the template and send it to the CFS secretariat at fsn-moderator@fao.org or upload it directly to the FSN Forum by the 22nd of April 2019
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