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 to September 2019 are equally included. The report ends with a financial report of 2019 and a brief workplan overview of 2020.
The new CC first came together in October 2019 and is composed of 41 members (24 women and 17 men). We would like to extend a special welcome to the 17 new CC members who just served their first term. And to conclude, we would like to express our heartfelt thanks once again to the CC members of the period October 2017 to October 2019 who put their heart, soul, knowledge, energy and hands into their facilitation and policy work in the CSM space. By bringing peoples’ voices to the CFS, they have made it more alive, more powerful and more dynamic.