News Archives - Page 27 of 27

CSM Information Meeting on Markets

23 Apr 2016 Events / News

Invitation to a CSM Information Meeting: Civil Society Perspectives on Smallholders’ Access to Markets Date: 27 April, 8:30-10:00am Venue: Austria Room, FAO HQ Coffee, tea and cornetti will be offered from 8:00-8:30am The Information meeting will provide an overview about the perspectives and expectations of small-scale food producer organizations for the final period of the CFS workstream on “Connecting Smallholders to Markets.” Spokespersons from the CSM constituencies of farmers, fisherfolks, indigenous people, pastoralists, agricultural workers and consumers will present and explain the priorities and proposals from civil society on the policy recommendations under discussion in the CFS in the coming weeks. The event is open to all members and participants of the CFS. Interpretation to English, French and Spanish will be provided. See the Flyer

CSM Information Meeting on Nutrition

06 Apr 2016 Events / News

The Civil Society Mechanism (CSM) to the UN Committee on World Food Food Security (CFS) kindly invites you to a CSM Information Meeting on Monday 4 of April 2016 from 09.30 to 11.30 am in the LEBANON ROOM at FAO HQs “The Role of the CFS in the Global Architecture of Nutrition Governance” We would highly appreciate your presence.The event is open to all CFS Members and Participants. Click here to see the Flyer

Call to send inputs for the elaboration of an independent CSO Report on the use and application of the VGGTs

28 Mar 2016 News

CSM WG on monitoring Call to send inputs for the elaboration of an independent CSO report on the use and application of VGGT as input to the global thematic session during CFS 43 The CSM WG on monitoring is preparing the elaboration of an independent CSO report on the use and application of VGGT as input to the global thematic session during CFS 43 . All CSO are invited to submit their inputs into this process. To facilitate the gathering of inputs and the consolidation of the report, the CSM WG on monitoring has developed the following simple draft questionnaire to help preparing reports: How have VGGT been used at a national, sub-national or regional level? Please describe your own activities as CSOs and the activities that you are aware of having been undertaken by governments, international agencies/donors and the private sector. What impacts have your CSOs activities had? What impacts have the activities undertaken by other actors had? In the past four years, what have been the main developments with regard to governance of tenure in your country? Have there been tenure conflicts? If yes, please describe them and give concrete examples. Which role have VGGT played in solving these conflicts? In the past four years has your government undergone tenure reform or other reforms with impacts on tenure? Which role have VGGT played ? Have the groups most affected by landlessness, displacement, other forms of livelihoods loss and tenure insecurity been involved in tenure reforms and other legal/policy reforms with impacts on tenure in the last four years? Have VGGT helped women to claim and exercise their tenure rights? In which ways? Have you experienced cases of harassment, persecution or detention due to your activities in defence of your tenure rights in the last four years? Are the groups most affected by landlessness, displacement and other forms of livelihoods loss and tenure insecurity free to organize to defend their tenure rights? What are the main challenges ahead in terms of improving governance of tenure in your country? Can VGGT play a role to overcome them? What mechanisms exist in your country to monitor governance of tenure? Please send your inputs to monitoringvggt@gmail.com A team appointed by the CSM WG on monitoring will prepare a synthesis of all the inputs and reports received. This team will have the methodological support of recognized experts in the fields of tenure and monitoring

CSM Working Group on Nutrition Preliminary Position!

11 Mar 2016 News

CSM Nutrition Working Group – Preliminary Position January 2016 This brief document aims to provide an initial conceptual framing to the CSM preparations for the CFS Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) on Nutrition. While waiting for the final proposal of the Technical Task Team, the CSM Working Group agreed to define an initial set of driving principles and ideas that could lead the CSM engagement in the OEWG process. Preamble Understanding the challenge of malnutrition in all its forms requires a holistic and multidisciplinary analysis, one that combines the political and technical perspectives. Above all, it requires recognizing the need for urgency and justice, the appreciation for diversity and the values of human dignity, equity, sustainability and sovereignty. It is our common understanding that food is the expression of values, cultures, social relations and people’s self-determination, and that the act of feeding oneself and others embodies our sovereignty, ownership and empowerment. When nourishing oneself and eating with one’s family, friends, and community, we reaffirm our cultural identities, our ownership over our life course and our human dignity. Nutrition is foundational for personal development and essential for overall wellbeing. 1. Role of the CFS in the global architecture of nutrition governance 1.1 Policy coherence: The prime legitimate intergovernmental policy spaces that have a mandate on nutrition are the FAO Conference[1] (food angle of nutrition), the World Health Assembly (health angle of nutrition)[2] and the CFS (policy coherence, across different policy domains, with the UN charter and with human rights/the right to adequate food and nutrition), in addition to the UN General Assembly (which delegates to its subsidiary bodies and specialized spaces in-depth thematic discussions). In reality, only the WHA and CODEX, and to a lesser extent the FAO Conference, played regular roles in nutrition policy making in recent years, though many agencies and programmes often transcended their implementation functions and contributed to establishing policies through their operations, despite not having a normative mandate. While this state of affairs generated significant fragmentation, it also means that there is no other legitimate body other than the CFS (unless one calls in the General Assembly) that is responsible for policy coherence (with the UN charter and the human rights framework) on nutrition. It is therefore important to “debug” the on-going narrative that suggests that the CFS needs to “find a niche and avoid duplication”. The role of the CFS should be complementary to those of

CSM submission to the e-consultation for the HLPE Report on Food Systems & Nutrition

10 Mar 2016 News

CSM submission to the e-consultation for the HLPE Report on Food Systems & Nutrition This document conveys the collective input of the Civil Society Mechanism of the CFS regarding the e-consultation on the Issue Note proposed by the HLPE Steering Committee with respect to the upcoming HLPE Report on Food Systems and Nutrition. The document is based on the ongoing work of the CSM Nutrition Working Group. Preamble The CSM welcomes the initiation of the preparatory process for the HLPE Report on “Food Systems and Nutrition” as it will be the cornerstone of CFS’s engagement with nutrition. The past years have witnessed a growing disconnect between food and nutrition, as counterintuitive as this may be. While the imperatives of nutritional emergencies may have contributed to this situation, fact remains that nutrition policy, where existing, has been characterized by significant fragmentation, excessive “technicalization” and, often, overwhelming “medicalization”. Most recently, the scientific debate and the policy discourse shifted towards malnutrition in all its forms (this also being the key focus of the ICN2 framework), though significant asynchrony persists between such a narrative and the reality of most nutrition programmes, particularly at the level of international development cooperation. On the contrary, understanding the challenge of malnutrition in all its forms requires a holistic and multidisciplinary analysis, one that combines political, socio-cultural and technical perspectives. Above all, it also requires full appreciation for diversity and the values of human dignity, equity, sustainability and sovereignty, while recognizing the need for urgency and justice. The first fundamental step is the firm re-connection of nutrition with food, with the understanding that food is the expression of values, cultures, social relations and people’s self-determination, and that the act of feeding oneself and others embodies our sovereignty, ownership and empowerment. When breastfeeding, nourishing oneself and eating with one’s family, friends, and community, we reaffirm our cultural identities, our ownership over our life course and our human dignity. The CSM therefore expects that such a holistic understanding of food and nutrition will provide inspiration and guidance to the HLPE Report. Should this happen, the Report will greatly contribute to a new phase of nutrition research and policy that can address past fragmentation and re-build a new comprehensive narrative and practise on this critical dimension of human life. Substantive considerations 1. Contextualization of the Report within the CFS: The Report on Food Systems and Nutrition should be a foundational report for

CSM Annual Report 2014/2015

11 Feb 2016 News / Publications

This Annual Report documents the work of the CSM during the period August 2014 to August 2015, and aims to be an essential tool for the internal and external communication and accountability process. The Report 2014-2015 consists of the following parts: Summary of CSM engagement with the CFS (2014-2015) Civil Society Contributions to, and Assessment of CFS 41 (2014) Operational information on the CSM during the reporting period Civil Society Contributions to CFS Processes in 2015 (towards CFS 42 In October 2015, the CSM Coordination Committee (CC) elected for 2013-2015 handed over the steering responsibility of the space to the new CC, elected for the period 2015-2017. This report shows the substantial collective work carried out by a huge number of extremely diverse civil society organizations that aim to articulate joint positions towards all complex policy processes in the CFS. The outgoing CC has shown extraordinary commitment and strong leadership to guide the CSM and all its entities in a permanently changing environment. The work of the CC has been greatly appreciated by participating organizations, but also by CFS members and other CFS participants. This is the moment to express the collective gratitude for the energy, lifetime and wisdom they have put into the CSM processes! Thank you! READ THE CSM ANNUAL REPORT 2014/2015

Civil Society Plenary Statements at CFS 42

11 Feb 2016 News

This publication collects contributions and key messages of civil society as delivered during the 42nd Plenary Session of the Committee on Food Security (CFS), which took place at FAO Headquarters in Rome from the 12 to the 15 of October 2015. The contributions to this publication are the outcome of a year of passionate and thorough work of the CSM policy working groups on the different workstreams of the CFS. Some outstanding decisions were adopted during this last CFS Plenary Session, such as the Framework for Action for Food Security and Nutrition in Protracted Crises and the Policy recommendations on Water and Food Security and Nutrition, while other topics are about to become standing issues within the CFS in the years to come, such as Nutrition. The elaboration of the civil society contributions to the annual CFS meeting departs from the intense work of the CSM Policy Working Groups during the inter-sessional period and passes finally through the CSM Forum that took place on 10 and 11 of October 2015, where these civil society positions and key messages were consolidated. This recollection aims to be a tool for sharing information among civil society organizations and with other CFS actors and underlines the commitment of social movements and civil society organizations to the CFS and to progressively achieve the full realization of the human right to adequate food for all. November 2015 Read CSO Plenary Statements at CFS 42

Preliminary CSM Comments on the HLPE Zero Draft on SADL

17 Oct 2015 News

Preliminary CSM Comments on the HLPE Zero Draft Report on “Sustainable Agricultural Development for Food Security and Nutrition, including the Role of Livestock” October 2015 This document conveys the preliminary comments of the CSM on the Zero Draft of the HLPE Report. Given the short deadline for comments, the language restriction (text only in English) and the time needed to adequately consult within social movements, including alliances of nomadic peoples, peasants, women in agriculture, indigenous peoples, landless, migrants, agriculture workers and those representing the workers in the meat processing chain, this document features short and concise comments, which will be followed by more detailed feedback later in November. 1. Overarching comments While acknowledging the significant work for the preparation of the Zero Draft, the CSM is deeply concerned by the narrative exposed by the current version and strongly believes that the next draft would require a significant re-orientation if it is to fulfil the mandate of the HLPE: 1. Lack of contextualization in the CFS mandate and human rights framework: Despite the title, the report fails to adequately locate sustainable agriculture, including livestock, within the context of the mandate of the CFS. First, the report appear to be much more driven by the self-serving conventional development of the sector rather than by the sincere desire to explore how such development can become a critical pillar to address Food Security and Nutrition (FSN). Secondly, when referred to, FSN is addressed as a need to be met by the market rather than as a fundamental right. Indeed, there is no mention, in the entire document, of the Right to Adequate Food and Nutrition, nor other human rights, despite these being one of the central pillars of the Global Strategic Framework (GSF) of the CFS. Thirdly, smallholders, another central pillar of the CFS and its GSF, are portrayed as a marginal and unproductive category. Lastly, both the lack of reference to rights and the non-centrality of smallholders contribute to the profound mischaracterization of Food Sovereignty, which is merely introduced as an intellectual debate in a box; 2. False narrative on the grand challenge of feeding the planet and focus on Yield Gaps: The report reiterates the grand narrative of feeding a growing planet and constructs the myth of the pressing demand for food that urgently requires a “productivity” revolution. This narrative is false and misleading. The reality is that there is no shortage

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