In this issue:
- Registration to the CFS 50th Plenary Session
- CFS Negotiations on Gender Equality and Women’s and Girls’ empowerment
- CFS Policy Recommendations on Youth Engagement and Employment in Agriculture
- The New Layer of Global Food Crisis and the struggle against false solutions
- The aftermath of the UN Food Systems Summit: new publication!
- CFS Advisory Group and Bureau meeting
- CSIPM is our new acronym!
- Women and Gender diversity Working Group name change
- Summer break
1. Registration to the CFS 50th Plenary Session is now open!
To register to the 50th plenary session of the UN Committee on World Food Security (10-13 October 2022), please send an email to CFS50-Registration@fao.org and Cc [REGISTRATION EMAIL] cso4cfs@gmail.com specifying your full name, organization, official title, address, and email address. The plenary will be held in person at the FAO headquarters as well as in a hybrid format. Please be aware that access for CFS participants (including civil society and Indigenous Peoples’ organizations) will be restricted, and the number of people who can access the FAO building has not been specified yet.
Please note that the deadline to register is 9 September. We will communicate further details as soon as they are made available to the CSIPM Secretariat.
The 2022 CSIPM Forum will be held in a hybrid format, most likely on Sunday, 9 October. However, it is not clear yet if, how and where it could take place. The still unknown restrictions to access the FAO building and the CFS Plenary do not allow for a detailed planning of the preceding CSIPM Forum. Most likely, it will be a rather small meeting in Rome with online connection to participating organizations around the world. The link and instructions for registration will be communicated in the first half of September. For now, please do not forget to Cc the CSIPM Secretariat [cso4cfs@gmail.com] when you register to the CFS 50th Plenary as mentioned above.
2. CFS Negotiations on Gender Equality and Women’s and Girls’ empowerment
The CFS negotiations failed in achieving consensus to agree on the final text of the Voluntary Guidelines on Gender Equality and Women’s and Girls’ Empowerment in the Context of Food Security and Nutrition (GEWGE). The process leading up to the Guidelines started in 2017. The CSIPM delegation was deeply worried by the fact that some CFS members did not acknowledge the centrality of gender equality and diversity nor the rights of women and persons who have been historically discriminated against, oppressed and barred from realising their right to food because of their gender identity or sexual orientation. Some of these delegations objected key concepts such as intersectionality, gender-transformative approaches or sexual and gender-based violence.
After a very active participation in the CFS regional consultations, the CSIPM Women and Gender Diversities Working Group (WG) highlighted the urgency to achieve strong and inclusive Voluntary Guidelines that can eradicate sexual and gender-based violence and discrimination of any kind during a public briefing held prior to the negotiations. During the event, women’s movements from Brazil explained why understanding the intersecting nature of different forms of discrimination is fundamental to any policy convergence process on food security and to the realisation of the right to food for all.
The first round of negotiations was held online from 4 to 6 May. Almost two months later, from 27 June to 1 July, a delegation collectively nominated by the WG met in Rome to participate in the second round of CFS GEGWE negotiations. The CSIPM working group publicly presented and discussed the priorities and expectations on the Guidelines for an ambitious document. On 28 June, during the second round of negotiations, the WG organized an action outside the FAO building and delivered a statement on the occasion of the Global Pride Day.
During the second round of negotiations, some governments strongly opposed the recognition and inclusion of gender diversity, intersectionality, and sexual- and gender-based violence in the Guidelines. But the strongest push-back came at the beginning of the closing week of the negotiations (25 to 28 July) from Indonesia, the Russian Federation, China and the Holy See and delegations from other member states who joined the negotiations in this very last moment like Egypt, Morocco and Senegal. During this third and final round of negotiations, CSIPM CC member Dee Woods rhetorically asked ‘Who is worthy of the Right to Food’, and reminded member states that the document should serve those who are most oppressed and discriminated against.
The CSIPM strongly defended intersectionality, the right to development and for the recognition of peasants as key actors! After four intense days and a clear demonstration of patriarchy in action at the CFS, the negotiations were suspended without any clarity if they can or cannot be resumed after the CFS Plenary 50.
Join the Twitter conversation with hashtag #CFSGender
3. CFS Policy Recommendations on Youth Engagement and Employment in Agriculture
On 21 June, the CSIPM Youth WG held a public briefing to share their priorities and expectations vis-à-vis the CFS Policy Recommendations on Promoting Youth Engagement and Employment in Agriculture and Food Systems for Food Security and Nutrition.
Young people coming from peasant organizations, Indigenous Peoples’ organizations, Women organizations and other CSIPM constituencies brought the voices of the WG and participated in the first online round of negotiations and the second round of negotiations held in Rome from 4 to 6 July. Participants’ positions and the voices of those most affected were not heard during the negotiations and the delegation expressed their frustration and disappointment as time constraints impeded an equal and meaningful participation of the CSIPM.
The Youth delegation strongly pushed for the inclusion of an intersectional lens and continuously criticised the narrow productivist and profit-oriented bias in the document. Young people are mainly seen as entrepreneurs and as recipients of technologies while their identity as peasants, pastoralists, fisherfolk, and small-scale producers is constantly denied. The youth of the CSIPM demanded recognition for their diversity, for food sovereignty, for dignified livelihoods and for the Rights of peasants, rural workers and Indigenous Peoples to be recognised and respected.
After three days of intense negotiations, the Youth WG delivered a final statement reflecting on the positive and disappointing parts of the process. The Youth WG of the CSIPM initiated its internal evaluation of the final version of the Policy Recommendations, and the process that led to them. Their consultation will lead up to the CFS Plenary in October, where the WG will present their final assessment.
4. The New Layer of Global Food Crisis and the struggle against false solutions
After the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, the food crisis continues to exacerbate leading to record-high food prices affecting particularly those countries which are dependent on food imports and exposing, once again, the inability of the agro-industrial food system to respond to the current interconnected crises. After the outbreak of yet another war, the UN Secretary General launched the Global Crisis Response Group (GCRG) and invited the CFS and the CSIPM to participate in the Food Network. The CSIPM is currently participating in the biweekly meetings of the GCRG to contribute and monitor its development. On 18 July, the President of the UN General Assembly and the CFS co-convened a High-Level Special Event at the UN headquarters in New York entitled “Time to Act Together: Coordinating Policy Responses to the Global Food Crisis”. Representing the Landworkers’ Alliance and CSIPM, Dee Woods delivered a statement that can be read or watched here.
Parallel to this High-Level Event, the CISPM and IPES-Food co-organised a public event entitled “Beyond the Ukraine war: the new layer of the global food crisis from a human rights approach”. A rich panel of experts, government officials, and civil society representatives urged political leaders across the world to step up their efforts to tackle hunger and malnutrition, claiming that responses promoted so far by governments, international agencies, and financial institutions, like the most recent statement of Rome-based Agencies, International Financial Institutions, and WTO fall short, as they almost exclusively address the crisis from a market and production perspective.
Some dominant economic actors have seen this catastrophic situation as an opportunity to establish and lead different alliances to respond to the crisis without addressing its root causes. The CSIPM received an invitation from the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), on behalf of the G-7 led “Global Alliance for Food Security” (GAFS), to participate in GAFS’ Steering Committee. After an internal consultation process, and measuring GAFS’ objectives against three main criteria (1. centrality of human rights, 2. profound food system transformation, 3. inclusive multilateral participation), the CSIPM declined to join GAFS.
Besides its activity at the global level, the CISPM has also been consulting with the local level to ensure that the messages it conveys on behalf of civil society and Indigenous Peoples are based on their lived experiences, knowledge and political demands. Six regional consultations were held in July: Asia and the Pacific, South and Central Asia, South East Asia and the Pacific, Africa, Latin America with civil society and social movements, and with governments, academics and agencies, and Europe, thanks to the regional task teams’ efforts.
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5. The aftermath of the UN Food Systems Summit: new publication!
In the run up to the United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) held in September 2021, social movements, academics and NGOs from the global North and South came together to contest the UNFSS under the banner of “The Autonomous People’s Response to the UN Food Systems Summit”. In May 2022, its Liaison Group, which is anchored in the CSIPM, launched an analysis document entitled “Risks of the increased systemic corporate capture fuelled by the UNFSS and its followup process“. The document reflects and draws conclusions from the key moments of the global backlash to the UNFSS: a massive global counter-mobilization that took place in July and September of 2021. This document is open for comments and additional input. For further information about corporate influence in the UNFSS please see the research report, infographics and illustrations “Exposing corporate capture of the UNFSS through multistakeholderism.”
6. CFS Advisory Group and Bureau meeting
Since the last CSIPM Update there were two Advisory Group and Bureau meetings. On 25 May, the Advisory Group and Bureau discussed the following themes: Substantive Segment a) Impacts on global food security of the conflict in Ukraine (III). Fostering coordinated global policy responses at the CFS; b) Readout of UNCCD COP15; Regular agenda items: 1) CFS 50 Planning; 2) CFS Advisory Group Reporting Exercise; 3) Workstream and Budget Updates; 4) Any other business. Here you can find the Outcomes of the CFS Bureaumeeting of 27 May.
The 29 July Joint Meeting of the Bureau and Advisory Group discussed the preparation of the CFS Plenary. Due to the failure of the Gender negotiations, an assessment process was started to evaluate how this process can be saved and what it means for the CFS. CSIPM presented specific proposals to make the CFS more responsive to the new layer of global food crisis by exercising its coordination and monitoring function. The CSIPM contributions to this meeting can be found here.
CSIPM INTERNAL NEWS
CSIPM is our new acronym!
As a consequence of internal and collaborative reflections, the current acronym has been changed:
- In English from CSM to CSIPM (Civil Society and Indigenous Peoples’ Mechanism)
- In Spanish from MSC to MSCPI (Mecanismo de la Sociedad Civil y Pueblos Indígenas)
- In French from MSC to MSCPA (Mécanisme de la Société Civile et des Peuples Autochtones)
We encourage our Delegates, as well as all the public to use our new acronym within and outside the CFS context.
Women and Gender diversity working group name change
In May 2022, the Working Group has been renamed from Women Working Group to Women and Gender Diversities Working Group to better reflect members’ experiences and needs and include the diversity of gender identities and sexual orientations. Renaming the WG is also a way to visibilize people who do not identify within binary cis-heterosexual norms and the discrimination they have faced. Gender violence and gender discrimination, be it against women or against other gender identities, is rooted in the patriarchal system. The revised name shows the CSIPM solidarity and engagement in the fight against the oppressive and violent character of patriarchy in all its forms.
(Northern hemisphere) Summer break
The CSIPM Secretariat is closed for vacation from 11 to 19 August 2022.
| Don’t forget to register for the CFS 50th Plenary Session before 9 September! |