Publications Archives - Page 2 of 3

CFS Policy Outcomes

10 Jul 2020 News / Publications

CFS Policy Outcomes Framework for Action for Food Security and Nutrition in Protracted Crisis Principles for Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of the Tenure of land, fisheries and forests in the context of food security (VGGT 2012) Global Strategic Framework for Food Security and Nutrition (last updated in 2017) Online GSF Voluntary Guidelines to support the progressive realisation of the right to adequate food in the context of the national food security Sustainable forestry for food security and nutrition (CFS44, 2017) Policy Recommendations || HLPE Report Sustainable agricultural development for food security and nutrition: what roles for livestock? (CFS 43 2016) Policy Recommendations || HLPE Report Connecting Smallholders to Markets (CFS 43, 2016) Policy Recommendations Water for food security and nutrition (CFS 42, 2015) Policy Recommendations || HLPE Report Food losses and waste in the context of sustainable food systems (CFS 41, 2014) Policy Recommendations || HLPE Report Sustainable fisheries and aquaculture for food security and nutrition (CFS 41, 2014) Policy Recommendations || HLPE Report Biofuels and food security (CFS 40, 2013) Policy Recommendations || HLPE Report Investing in smallholder agriculture for food security (CFS 40, 2013) Policy Recommendations || HLPE Report Food Security and Climate Change (CFS 39, 2012) Policy Recommendations || HLPE Report Social protection for food security (CFS 39, 2012) Policy Recommendations || HLPE Report How to increase food security and smallholder sensitive investments in agriculture (CFS 37, 2011) Policy Recommendations Gender, food security and nutrition (CFS 37, 2011) Policy Recommendations Price volatility and food security (CFS 37, 2011) Policy Recommendations || HLPE Report Land tenure and international investments in agriculture (CFS 37, 2011) Policy Recommendations || HLPE Report

CSM Annual Report 2019

24 Jun 2020 News / Publications

CSM Annual Report 2019 DOWNLOAD THE REPORT HERE 2019 was a year of trials and tribulations for global food governance. We witnessed unprecedented attacks on multi-lateral intergovernmental spaces, including the CFS, and new attempts of corporate capture of the United Nations. And yet, amidst a new world food crisis and collapsing ecosystems, the number of food insecure people across the world is growing. In 2018, the CSM expressed loud and clear that it was high time to recommit to the CFS and its vision. In 2019 the CSM asserted once again that the change of direction we recommitted to is vital. Transformational action cannot wait any longer! The CSM Report 2019 sets out to be a shared tool that covers all the work carried out by the CSM Coordination Committee (CC) members and CSM participating organizations throughout 2019, as well as an exercise of accountability and reporting. Our intention in writing this document is also to express our gratitude and appreciation for the incredible work carried out by CSM participating organizations at local, regional and global levels, day in and day out, in the struggle for the right to food for all. As in previous years, a draft of this report was presented and discussed at the CC meeting and CSM Forum of October 2019, and then further revised and completed. The first chapter summarizes the CSM key messages conveyed to the CFS Plenary 2019, and includes an outline of CSM engagement with CFS policy processes, then further developed throughout the second chapter. The third chapter provides an overview of the work done by the CC members and participating organizations to ‘bring Rome home’, and to bring the realities and struggles ‘from home to Rome’. It shows the efforts made at all levels to promote the use, application and monitoring of CFS policy outcomes, and to raise awareness on the CFS and its relevance for peoples’ struggles. It highlights the work done by local level actors to collect demands, requests and inputs, to then channel them to the CFS, through the space facilitated by the CSM. Additionally, in this report you will find: an overview of the key decisions taken by the CC; the CSM financial overview; and a summary of the outcomes from the CSM Southern Africa sub-regional meeting that took place in March 2019. The results of the CC renewal selection process that took place from February

Towards Smallholder-oriented Public Policies. Independent Report by CSM

15 Oct 2019 News / Publications

Towards Smallholder-oriented Public Policies: Independent report by the Civil Society and Indigenous Peoples Mechanism for the Committee on World Food Security monitoring the use and implementation of CFS policy recommendations on smallholders – 2019 DOWNLOAD THE REPORT HERE! Small-scale producers or smallholders feed the large majority of the world’s population, yet their importance has only recently been recognized in global policy spaces. The UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS) has been a key player in this, challenging the dominant narrative that the only solution to food insecurity is calling on technology to produce more food and agribusiness value chains to process it and channel it to consumers. Since its reform in 2009, the CFS has recognized both the agency of small-producers as well as the key roles they play in right to food realization and in achieving food security and nutrition. Through policy convergence processes, it has worked towards supporting smallholders in these roles. This policy focus is a direct result of the participation and evidence of small-scale producers from around the globe in CFS policy processes. This year the CFS is placing smallholders at center stage, monitoring the use and application of three CFS policy recommendations: Investing in Smallholder Agriculture for Food Security and nutrition (CFS 40, 2013), Connecting Smallholders to Markets (CFS 43, 2016) and Sustainable Agriculture Development for Food Security and Nutrition: What Roles for Livestock? (CFS 43, 2016). This report is the contribution of the Civil Society and Indigenous Peoples Mechanism (CSM) to that process. Following a human rights-based approach on monitoring and based on exchanges with actors from around the globe, this report takes the reality on the ground as the basis of analysis to assess not only how the policy recommendations have been used at the national level, regional and global level, but also where their potential is and further work is needed. The report begins by highlighting the progress made in the use and application of the CFS smallholder policy recommendations. The recommendations have helped to shape the content of other UN policy initiatives and legal instruments, including the UN Decade of Family Farming and UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas. Also within the CFS, these policy processes have contributed to a common understanding and language on the importance of respecting, protecting and fulfilling women’s rights in the context of food security and nutrition. Civil society

CSM Paper on Feminism and Agroecology!

01 Oct 2019 News / Publications

An input and vision paper of the CSM Working Group of Women Without feminism there is no agroecology! Towards healthy, sustainable and just food systems August 2019 This document intends to inform CSM positions towards the upcoming CFS Policy Process on Agroecology and other innovations. A shorter version of this vision is also included in the new edition 2019 of the Right to Food and Nutrition Watch of the Global Network for the Right to Food and Nutrition This text is the outcome of an incredible collective work and was adopted by the CSM Women Working Group that counts with 190 participating organisations in August 2019. It wouldn’t have been possible without the commitment and engagement of many special women. DOWNLOAD AND READ THE PAPER HERE!

CSM Annual Report 2017/2018

11 Apr 2019 News / Publications

CSM Annual Report 2017//2018 Download the Full Report here! The period 2017/2018 was a quite intense year for the CSM. This Annual Report provides an overview on the CSM engagement with all CFS Policy Processes during the period September 2017- October 2018 and shares a summary of key political messages towards CFS 45. As in previous years, the report also comprises an overview of CSM on the use, application and monitoring of CFS policy outcomes, and a summary of the Coordination Committee (CC) discussions and decisions in the reporting period. It concludes with the financial picture for 2017/18 and an outlook for 2019. This report was submitted for consideration of the CSM Coordination Committee meeting and the CSM Forum in October 2018, as part of the reporting and accountability procedures in the CSM. The report was revised and updated after these CSM meetings and the CFS 45. There are many elements that would be worthwhile highlighting in this introduction. Here, it might be good to choose just one of them: the CSM Coordination Committee discussed and agreed at its meeting in July 2018 on a name amendment to the CSM, as it was suggested by the Indigenous Peoples’ constituency in September 2017. The name’s amendment was unanimously ratified by the CSM Coordination Committee during its meeting in October and shared with and welcomed by the CSM Forum through a very inspiring and collective ceremony of celebration. The full name of the CSM is from now on: “Civil Society and Indigenous Peoples’ Mechanism (CSM) for relations with the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS)”.It was an important exercise for the CSM Coordination Committee to come to this amendment by consensus, as it involved a deep exchange, increased mutual understanding and full acknowledgment of the long-standing and ongoing struggles of indigenous peoples for being recognized in their identities as indigenous peoples.

CSM Women’s Vision!

14 Nov 2018 News / Publications

CSM Women’s Vision Document 2018 We women of the CSM constituency, gathering rural and urban, fisher folks, peasants, pastoralists, indigenous, consumers, agricultural workers, NGO activists, landless women from all across the world, met during the CFS High Level Forum on women’s empowerment in the context of food security and nutrition, and developed the structure of our Vision Statement. This vision has been adopted by the CSM Women Constituency and aims to guide and promote the actions of the CSM within and outside the CFS to achieve the right to food for all women. We believe that the right to food, food security and nutrition and food sovereignty of women will never be achieved without ensuring the full respect, protection and fulfilment of women’s rights. We want to go beyond the universally agreed goal of gender equality and women’s empowerment, which does not explicitly assert the centrality of women’s rights. We also express some concern about the term “empowerment”, which might imply a top-down relation where women are conceived as recipients of external education, training, and interventions. We want to support our self-determination, autonomy and decision-making power in all the aspects of our lives, including the food we produce and consume. We recognize the need to deconstruct the dominant narrative on women who are very often portrayed as victims in need of anti-poverty policies and social assistance, and treated as objects in the food advertising and marketing industry. All actors engaged in the CFS must internalize in their analysis, contributions and practical actions the fact that women are active political subjects, agents of their own change and development, and must be recognized as having the right to self-determine themselves and their bodies. Women are knowledge bearers and have capacities, we require public policies that are gender-oriented or specific for women, with adequate budgets to guarantee their effective implementation. They should be primarily directed to women’s organizations, promoting self-empowerment, self-training and women’s autonomy. This perspective should inform any discussion leading to CFS policy decisions as these can be conducive to change or perpetuate the violence against women by hierarchical and discriminatory power that is historically and socially constructed, and normalized. We believe that the current global food system builds on and perpetuates gender based discrimination and the violation of women’s rights. In order to achieve a fair and equal society where women can fully enjoy their rights, we must put at the

Civil Society Report on the use and implementation of the Right to Food Guidelines

05 Oct 2018 News / Publications

Independent Civil Society Report on the use and implementation of the Right to Food Guidelines Download the full Report here! The CFS’ monitoring of the use and application of the RTF Guidelines comes at an important moment. The protection, promotion and realization of human rights – including the right to food – is now at a critical juncture. Human rights spaces are under threat with the rise of authoritarian governments, xenophobic and nationalistic forces, and the trend towards declining authority of public sector policy-making to the benefit of private sector entities and interests. The CFS, too, is experiencing resistance to its human rights mandate. References to the right to food and human rights in the context of the CFS’ normative work are consistently challenged by some states. The CFS rules and practices that underlie its legitimacy by privileging the voice of those most affected by the policies under discussion are in danger of being eroded. Avowed concern for efficiency and cost-control, risk de-politicizing the CFS’ work and weakening its impact. Compounding the political struggles, for the first time in a decade, the number of food insecure has increased – with rates moving from 784 million in 2015 to an alarming 821 million in 2017. Mainstream reports cite the increasing number of conflicts and climate-shocks as the main driver of rising levels of hunger and malnutrition, together with growing rates of unemployment and the deterioration of social protection nets. However, this analysis fails to also fully address the root causes of hunger and malnutrition linked to gender, race, class, and access to resources, as well as the increasing influence of corporations at all levels, including in food production and consumption habits, pricing, and marketing. It has never been so important to reflect on the space and significance of human rights and the right to food. Monitoring in the context of the CFS provides an opportunity to consider how the normative understanding of the right to food has advanced since the adoption of the RTF Guidelines , to document success in right to food implementation and to critically assess where (and why) violations of the right to food persist. It also provides an opportunity to establish spaces of accountability, to give voice to those most affected by violations of the right to food and nutrition, and to plan for the future. .

CSM Evaluation and Facilitation

16 Feb 2018 News / Publications

CSM Facilitation 2019 – 2020 The findings of the CSM Evaluation of 2018 have been deeply discussed by the Coordination Committee and the CSM Forum 2018. Many of the findings generated new path and lines of works. As part of this follow-up work an internal Working Group on Facilitation was established with two main objectives: a) the drafting of a common understanding on Facilitation and the b) the drafting of a list of tasks for CSM Sub-regional and Constituency Coordination Committee members. Common understanding of Facilitation, as adopted by the Coordination Committee (CC) in January 2020. List of tasks for CSM Sub-regional and Constituency Coordination Committee members as adopted by the CC in January 2020. ———————————————————————————————————- CSM Evaluation 2018 The independent evaluation of the CSM conducted by Priscilla Claeys and Jessica Duncan it’s concluded and the full report is finally available at this link. Please find below the Terms of Reference and background process that informed the process throughout 2017//2018. The CSM Evaluation findings and recommendations were discussed during the Coordination Committee meeting of October 2018 and during the CSM Forum on 13-14 October 2018. Also find at this link a discussion paper on Facilitation prepared for the CSM by Josh Brem-Wilson from the Centre for Agroecology and Resilience of Coventry University (UK) in September 2018, that complements the work of the CSM Evaluation. Terms of Reference of CSM Evaluation Background and process: As foreseen in the CSM founding document, a first evaluation of the CSM was conducted in 2013/2014, and its results were discussed by the CC in July 2014. See the full report here. The exercise was found very useful for the development of the Mechanism, and therefore, a second evaluation was scheduled for 2017/18. The CC meeting in May 2017 had a first discussion on the scope and topics of the evaluation, and the CC meeting in October 2017 agreed on a concept note for its further implementation between December 2017 and March 2018. Objective of the Evaluation: The evaluation is carried out with the aim of assessing how the CSM is functioning in line with its founding document, guiding principles and mandate and functions. The Evaluation will assess CSM’s strengths and weaknesses, challenges and potentials with regard to three areas: the internal dimension, the external dimension, and “visionary” dimension, as outlined in detail in the section on the scope. The evaluation will particularly look at the last three

CSM Annual Report 2016/2017

30 Jan 2018 News / Publications

CSM Annual Report 2016//2017 The period 2016/2017 was a quite intense year for the CSM. This Annual Report gives an overview on the CSM engagement with all CFS Policy Processes and provides a political analysis of key debates in this period. The report also comprises a summary of Coordination Committee (CC) activities, the nancial report and an outlook for 2018. In October 2017, the CSM CC and the CSM Forum considered and discussed a draft version of this Annual Report which was then revised and updated, and is now shared publicly with the participating organiza- tions of the CSM and all interested members and participants to the CFS. The report demonstrates that the CSM is a dynamic and always evolving space where global, continental and national organisations of social movements, civil society and indigenous peoples commit to jointly contribute to the realization of CFS’s vision to strive for a world without hunger and to advance the progressive realization of the right to adequate food. The CSM is an essential and autonomous part of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS). The report shows how participating organizations to the CSM put into practice the mandate of this Mechanism: facilitating the participation and e ective contributions of all its constituencies – Smallholder and Family Farmers, Fisherfolks, Pastoralists, Indigenous Peoples, Food and Agricultural Workers, Landless, Women, Youth, Consumers, Urban Food Insecure, and NGOs – to the deliberations of the CFS. The new CSM Coordination Committee elected for October 2017- October 2019 took over from the previous CC before this year’s CFS Plenary. We would like to express again the collective and deep gratitude to the out- going CC members for their extraordinary commitment, energy and contributions in facilitating and guiding the Mechanism during the past two years! We were very sad when we heard that our dear friend and CC member Kuria Gathuru passed away on No- vember 15, 2017. Over the past three years, Kuria had been an integral part of our CSM family, serving as a co-facilitator of the global constituency of the Urban Food Insecure to the CSM CC and Co-Coordinator of the Urbanization and Rural Transformation Working Group. We always deeply appreciated Kuria and his way of being with all of us, enriching our space and work with his wonderful personality, knowledge and commitment. We are very grateful for the time and wisdom he dedicated to the CSM, bringing

CSM Welcome Kit

31 Oct 2017 News / Publications

CSM Welcome Kit: Useful Tips on the Civil Society Mechanism (CSM) for Relations with the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS) Understanding the role and structure of the CFS is no easy task! It results that understanding what the CSM is and does, proves to be quite complex too. This welcome kit wants to be an accessible tool to start navigating these complex spaces. It can be useful for those who approach the CSM and CFS for the first time, but they can also be a useful set of tips to get back to for more experienced participants. Please DOWNLOAD THE KIT HERE and share it widely among your constituencies and sub-regions so that the CSM and the CFS may become less abstract spaces for those who carry out the struggle at the local level. Do you want to know more? Check out the CSM page for a more detailed explanation and download the the power point presentation of the CSM

The CSM Annual Report 2015-2016 is now online!

03 Feb 2017 News / Publications

CSM Annual Report 2015-2016 This Annual Report documents the work of the CSM during the period August 2015 to August 2016, and aims to be an essential tool for the internal and external communication and accountability process. The Report 2015-2016 consists of the following parts: • Summary of CSM engagement with the CFS (2015-2016) • A civil society view on the CFS, 7 years after its reform • Reporting and Follow-Up to CFS 42 • Civil Society contributions to CFS Processes in 2016 (towards CFS 43) • Operational information on the CSM during the reporting period In October 2016, the CSM Coordination Committee and the CSM Forum considered the draft Annual Report that was then later revised and is now being published. The report shows the substantial collective work carried out by a huge number of global, regional and national social movements and civil society organizations who achieve, through participatory deliberation processes, to formulate and defend joint positions towards all complex policy processes in the CFS. Read the CSM Annual Report 2015-2016

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