This year, the CSIPM is co-organising three side events alongside the CFS 51st Plenary Session. For an overview of all side events, visit the CFS official website.
Human rights-based food governance – Coordinating policy responses, rebalancing power, and ensuring corporate accountability
23 October | From 13:30 – 14:45 pm – Iran Room, FAO Headquarters
Co-organised by the CSIPM, the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food), the Global Alliance for the Future of Food (GAFF), and Mexico.
Deep power asymmetries in food system governance block the transformation we need. International initiatives are proliferating, but they are often fragmented, neglect the voices of the countries and constituencies most affected by multiple crises, and promote solutions that are incompatible with the long-term transformation needed. Moreover, for decades, the institutions, policies, and norms that affect decision-making about food have been impacted by corporate overreach, undermining the public good and the rights of people and communities (especially those most affected by hunger and malnutrition) to engage in food governance on their own terms.
It is urgent and essential to critically examine the governance architecture of food to guarantee food system decision-making prioritizes the public good and the right to food for all.
Co-organised by the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food), the Global Alliance for the Future of Food (GAFF), Mexico and the CSIPM, this side event will examine how the upcoming CFS MYPoW can strengthen its mandate as a global policy coordination body and its role in promoting accountability. Drawing inspiration from successful initiatives such as the World Health Organisation’s tobacco control frameworks, the side event will explore actionable accountability mechanisms to ensure public-interest-based decision-making.
The event will be moderated by Lauren Baker, Director of Programmes, GAFF.
Panelists
- Shalmali Guttal, Executive Director of Focus on the Global South and IPES-Food expert
- Hala Barakat, HIC International and CSIPM
- Musa Sowe, ROPPA and CSIPM
- Victor Suárez, Mexico’s Undersecretary of Agriculture for Food Self-Sufficiency
- Daniel Dorado, Director of Policy Organising and Tobacco Campaign: International & Latin America, Corporate Accountability (Remote participation)
For in-person or virtual participation please register at this link: https://fao.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUldu2upjoqGd0Ydr4CTEzEsFns0gkszaWO#/registration
Interpretation will be provided in English, Spanish and French.
Data governance in the digitalization of the food system – Bringing together small-scale food producers and governments
24 October | From 8:30 – 9:45 am. – Sheikh Zayed Center, FAO Headquarters
Co–organised by the CSIPM, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food and Mexico.
The Committee on World Food Security (CFS) negotiations to develop the policy recommendations on data collection and analysis tools in the food system provided an opportunity for the CFS to enhance its understanding of how digitalisation and digital technologies could dramatically change the food system in the next decades, for better or for worse.
On the one hand, this technological evolution brings opportunities for the realisation of the right to adequate food and nutrition, as new ways of sharing and processing information emerge. On the other hand, there are social and ecological risks, especially for small scale farmers, youth, rural and urban consumers, and Indigenous People, as digitalisation can deepen existing inequalities, lead to technological lock-ins, and use a huge amount of minerals and energy.
From the beginning, governance has been a much-discussed topic. The central question in the room is what role States should have to guarantee that the digitalisation of the food system benefits the people that are most affected by food insecurity, supports small scale producers that produce the largest part of food especially for internal markets and leads to a food secure future for all, grounded in human rights, food sovereignty, biodiversity, and agroecology.
This event is co – organised by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Mexico and the CSIPM aiming to provide a space for exchange among CFS members and participants, where Indigenous People, youth, peasants, and small-scale food producers can share their realities and experiences on the impacts of the digitalisation of the food systems, looking forward to discuss the role of governments in the future of the digitalisation of food systems and emerging issues around digitalisation of the food system.
The event will be moderated by Patti Naylor, National Family Farmers Coalition, United States.
Speakers:
- Taina Hedman, International Indian Treaty Council, Panamá
- Valentin Friedl, small-holder farmer, European Coordination Via Campesina, Germany
- Moayyad Bsharat, UAWC, Occupied Palestinian Territory
- H.E. Ms Nosipho Nausca-Jean Jezile, Ambassador of the Republic of South Africa in Italy
- Victor Suárez Carrera, Deputy Minister of Food Self-Sufficiency, Mexico
- Michael Fakhri, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food
For in-person or virtual participation please register at this link: https://fao.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMtc–prTwpHNLDQmWpGQTujq1GChmqDrfm#/registration
Interpretation will be available in English, Spanish and French.
Reducing Inequalities in the Food System through an Intersectional lens
26 October | From 13:30 – 14:45 – Iran Room, FAO Headquarters
Organised by the CSIPM Working Group on Inequalities
The most recent CFS workstreams offered space for exchanges on deeply rooted inequalities within the food system. Through the youth recommendations questions regarding the meaningful participation and inclusion, access to resources and education, and awareness of the youth but also their demand of social justice and equity have been addressed. While during the gender negotiations social justice and equity have been central in the discussions intersectionality understood as a multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination was considered a contentious issue. Now the CFS Reducing Inequalities workstream will certainly offer us the opportunity to continue the dialogue and persist on the demands coming from the territories. One of the common threads of those workstreams is the necessity of an intersectional approach in the analysis of issues and the development of effective policy and the participation of those with lived experiences in policy making, including in the CFS.
The HLPE Zero Draft on Reducing inequalities defines intersectionality as interrelated and mutually shaping categories that describe groups who are minoritised and marginalized for eg by race and ethnicity, gender, age or ability ). These discriminations intersect , shaping experiences of power asymmetries and contributing to further health and nutrition inequalities. In other words, intersectionality acknowledges that multiple forms of oppression intersect and compound the experience of other discrimination leading to unique experiences and challenges. Therefore, an intersectional approach to the question of food security and nutrition can help us explore how the multiple and intersecting forms of oppression and discrimination that different social groups experience impacts food security and nutrition outcomes.
For in-person or virtual participation please register at this link: https://fao.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEuf-6orjoqHdGngRNBrvyRgmAqg9XjmpPL#/registration
Interpretation will be available in English, Spanish and French.
Please follow these links if you would like further details about the CSIPM Forum and its Public panel, which is scheduled on 22 October 2023, at 16:00 – 18:00 CEST in the Malaysia Room at the FAO Headquarters.