Credit Photo @FAO
5th Day – 13 October 2017
Critical and Emerging Issues for Food Security and Nutrition
Intervention of Elenita Neth Daño, ETC Group, Philippines on behalf of the CSM
Intervention of Thierry Kesteloot, Oxfam Solidarité, Belgium on behalf of the CSM
4th Day – 12 October 2017
CFS Evaluation
Intervention of Ramona Dominicioiu, La Via Campesina, Romania on behalf of the CSM Working Group on CFS Evaluation
CSM has contributed intensively to the CFS evaluation elaboration and the discussion on how to best respond to it. We congratulate Ms. Angela Bester and her team for the report, and Egypt and Iceland for their co-facilitation work for the CFS response to it during the past months.
The CFS continues to be in a critical situation. We have seen during the past years and also during this session, that there are two possible pathways for the CFS: either it goes in the direction of erosion of the CFS Reform, or in the direction of strengthening the CFS in the spirit of its Reform.
The CSM clearly stated its expectation that the evaluation and the discussion on the response to it should be guided by the spirit of the reform and make the CFS much stronger in line with its mandate and its roles.
We welcome that the Co-Facilitators concluded the first Meeting on the Response in June this year with the explicit statement that there will be no reform of the reform. The Consultation report clearly points in this direction: it aims to further strengthen the roles and functioning of the CFS in line with its mandate and vision. Keep Reading…
Intervention of Alberto Broch, COPROFAM, Brazil on behalf of the CSM Working Group on CFS Evaluation
Positions on specific topics of the Evaluation and the Consultation report:
- We can agree with the Consultation report as presented, although we see many weaknesses in it.
- The proposal of having a strategic MYPOW is a good compromise which takes into account the fact that the CFS is not an organization, but a platform.
- The budget issue is not solved in our view, this remains as an urgent challenge to solve next year. We would like to reaffirm that the budget is not a financial but a political issue.
- On other issues like Plenary, OEWGs, Chair and Secretariat, specific follow-up steps are agreed for next year.
- The composition of the Advisory Group should reflect the principle on participation established in the CFS Reform Document, paragraph 7: “the composition will ensure that the voices of all relevant stakeholders – particularly the most affected by food insecurity – are heard”. These most affected by food insecurity are the constituencies of the CSM, according to the CFS Reform Document. Keep Reading…
Intervention of Naseegh Jaffer, WFFP, South Africa on behalf of the CSM Working Group on CFS Evaluation
Other issues of importance that should be tackled in the Follow-up to the CFS evaluation report:
- As agreed yesterday, Gender equality, women’s rights and women’s empowerment should be mainstreamed throughout the CFS. The discussion on the evaluation provide an appropriate space for this.
- One topic that should be particularly discussed is the challenge for a better use, application and monitoring of CFS Policy Outcomes: How can we better use at home what was agreed in Rome? This discussion has been significantly pushed by the CSM in 2017, together with some governments.
- How to make the CFS a truly responsive place to the global challenges of today and tomorrow? This question refers to global urgencies such as the famines and severe food crises as well as to global challenges with huge implications, such as the debate on megamergers in the agribusiness sector.
- Last but not least: the role of the Rome-based Agencies in strengthening the CFS. Keep Reading…
Urbanisation and Rural Transformation
Intervention of Elene Shatberashvili, Biological Farmer Association Elkana/LVC, Georgia, on behalf of the CSM Working Group on Urbanisation and Rural Transformation
We strongly believe that the CFS as the overarching body working across the food systems and nutrition based on the human rights approach is the best place to discuss urbanization and rural transformation in a holistic way, from the point of view of territorial approaches and overcoming rural-urban dichotomies. In this sense, it is fundamental to take into account the potential of agro ecological food systems in creating a space for youth & women employment opportunities, including resilience to climate change, use of traditional knowledge and agricultural biodiversity, giving more space for peoples innovations and autonomous production.
However, we also have to take into account, that while the UN institutions have an important role in knowledge sharing, they are not the only producers of knowledge and solutions. In this sense it is especially important to build on the knowledge from the grassroots, which have to be considered not only as the recipients of the “modern knowledge”, but the contributors and definers of both problems and solutions. Keep reading…
Intervention of Nadjirou Sall, ROPPA, Senegal, on behalf of the CSM Working Group on Urbanisation and Rural Transformation
We already said we are not comfortable with this methodology. We wouldn’t have problem to present one of our experiences if requested at due time. I am a farmer and livestock keeper from Senegal, member of Roppa (network of peasant organisation and agricultural producers from West Africa) which, in turn is member of PAFO. I have to specify that PAFO is not member of the WFO (by decision taken in Feb 2017). We have two themes selected for this workstream, now we should see how to feed them with the different existing experiences. We are worried because we are losing the control over our basic resources, as land. Keep reading…
Intervention of Emily Mattheisen, FIAN, Germany, on behalf of the CSM Working Group on Urbanisation and Rural Transformation
I first to start up by clarifying our previous unease; our seemingly boring statements come from a long process of consultations.
Urban/rural sectors have traditionally been treated separately, to the detriment of rural areas. Urbanisation has been driven by policies that have privileged urban areas and penalized rural economies, leading to deterioration of rural spaces (such as accelerated exodus from rural areas). This fragmentation tends to be perpetuated in the SDGs and Habitat III. CFS is the legitimate space in which to overcome this dichotomy, using food security and nutrition and sustainable food systems as the entry point.
- The root causes, regional specificities and localized solutions for intergenerational change in agriculture and the abandonment of rural areas by the young, which is becoming an irreparable, inadmissible trend affecting the future of the sustainable food systems; Keep reading…
Intervention of Christiane Costa, HIC, Brazil, on behalf of the CSM Working Group on Urbanisation and Rural Transformation (soon in English)
A territorial approach aims at overcoming the rural-urban dichotomy, which is one of the causes of food insecurity in both rural and rural areas, and from this perspective, particular attention should be paid to the following issues:
The need to identify strategies that view the territory in a comprehensive way. Solidarity economies and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) are significant parts of inclusive territorial food systems, and these can substantially contribute to guaranteeing socially inclusive access to fresh fruit and vegetables, which are good for our health. One case in point is the food and nutritional security system in Brazil, where local small-scale producers are actively participating in developing public policies through Food Policy Councils. Keep Reading…
3rd Day – 11 October 2017
Monitoring
Intervention of Ramona Dominicioiu, La Via Campesina, Romania on behalf of the CSM Working Group on Monitoring
We have come a long way in the past few years in moving forward the development of the innovative monitoring mechanisms for the CFS, but this mechanism is new and we still have a lot of work to do.
Together, we are still learning how to improve and continue our monitoring work, create stronger accountability, and support the implementation of CFS policy outcomes. In the same time, it is a guarantee for the states, that the decisions and work done here, is deeply validated in reality. The work of the OEWG on monitoring is a fundamental component to the structure of CFS, and is the necessary space to reflect and build up the mechanisms, which is at the heart of the CFS reform process.
The Terms of Reference for monitoring, developed here at the CFS, have proven a successful methodology for organizing monitoring exercises. Positively, we saw this last year when France and Germany used them in national monitoring events of the Tenure Guidelines. The Terms of Reference create a format in which those most affected by food insecurity and malnutrition have a central role in the process. The ToR outlines how to create spaces and platforms that protect the participation of civil society in the monitoring process, and importantly provide needed support to ensure equitable access to policy space for those marginalized communities that do not have the same capacity to engage otherwise. Keep Reading…
Global Strategic Framework
Intervention of Adwoa Sakyi, IUF, Ghana on behalf of the CSM Working Group on GSF
The CSM would like to thank the Chair, Ms. Fernanda Tansini for her leadership and role in facilitating the periodic update of the GSF, leading to a format which has retained the fundamental normative content, while also becoming more accessible and user-friendly in the new online format.
The GSF is the overarching framework and the only living document of the CFS, and is a reflection of the cumulative work achieved within the space of the CFS, contributing tools and guidance towards addressing food insecurity and malnutrition, and realizing the right to food.
Although the update has been completed, there is still much work to accomplish with regard to the GSF.
As the basis and main reference for monitoring of the use and application of CFS decisions to achieve the vision of the CFS of a world free from hunger where the right to adequate food is realized, we call upon all present in the CFS to better utilize the GSF, to collectively improve policy coordination, convergence and coherence as well as mutual accountability. Keep Reading…
CFS Multi-Year Programme of Work (MYPoW) 2018-2019
Intervention of Thierry Kesteloot, Oxfam Solidarité, Belgium on behalf of the CSM MYPoW Working Group
We welcome the decision to request an HLPE report on Agroecological approaches and other innovations for sustainable agriculture and food systems that enhance food security and nutrition. Agroecology comes with a holistic social, economic, and political dimension that respects the natural balance and guarantees the food sovereignty of the peoples, while allowing the recreation of biodiversity of native seeds, animal and plant species, soil microorganisms and pollinators, in a coevolution with the people in a dynamic management of territories. The agro-ecological transition provides an essential solution in achieving the strategy of the Decade of Nutrition and the Sustainable Development Agenda, in relation to food security, nutrition, sustainable food systems, water management, responsible consumption and production, climate change, sustainability of the oceans, and terrestrial ecosystems, to mention but a few.
The elaboration process of the MYPOW 2018/19 was not easy. We would like to underline the following elements in order to strengthen the MYPOW process. Keep Reading…
Outcomes of the Forum on Women’s Empowerment in the Context of Food Security and Nutrition
Intervention of Azra Sayeed – IWA, Pakistan on behalf of the CSM Working Group on Women
First of all we would like to convey to the CFS the huge expectation, commitment and engagement that the CSM women’s grassroots organizations of smallholders, fisherfolks, agricultural and food workerslandless, consumers, indigenous peoples, pastoralists, urban food insecure and youth demonstrated towards this process since its early beginning.
We are today facilitating, once again the voices of millions of women from all over the world that call upon the CFS to urgently recognize, fulfill and protect women’s rights, our rights, in order to finally pave the path towards the realization of the CFS vision and mandate of achieving the right to food and a world free from hunger.
Patriarchy, feudalism and the current neoliberal economic models are the three main root causes for women’s inequality and food insecurity and malnutrition. Patriarchy, feudalism and neoliberalism are grabbing our lands, water, seeds, forests and natural resources, our territories, our bodies and rights; they ignore the ancestral knowledge of our indigenous sisters, criminalise our struggles, leave violence against women unpunished while opening the door to discrimination, conflict, crises, occupation, displacement and war. Keep Reading…
Policy Convergence: Sustainable Forestry for Food Security and Nutrition
Intervention of Editrudith Lukanga – WFF, Tanzania on behalf of the CSM Working Group on Forestry
The CSM is fully committed to the CFS especially in the spirit of its reform to advance the progressive realization of the right to food and to create spaces for policy convergence and debate, with particular attention paid to the roles of small scale food producers. It is in this sprit that we engaged with the negotiations on Recommendations for Sustainable Forestry for Food Security and Nutrition.
Forests are vital to our constituencies that include indigenous peoples, small scale farmers, pastoralists, fisherfolks, rural women and workers. Our hope was to achieve recommendations focused on strengthening the rights, autonomy, capacities and protections for these constituencies. But the document falls short of our expectations. Here is our assessment followed by a concrete proposal. Keep Reading…
Intervention of Rodolfo Gonzalez Greco – CLOC, Argentina, on behalf of the CSM Working Group on Forestry
Intervention of Kirtana Chandrasekaran, Friends of the Earth International, UK, on bahlf of the CSM Working Group on Forestry
2nd Day – 10 October 2017
Launch of HLPE Report on Nutrition and Food Systems
Intervention of María Teresa Álvarez – WAMIP, Argentina, on behalf of the CSM Working Group on Nutrition
As a pastoralist woman from the Chaco ecoregion in South America, I am part of an organisation that is based on the ancestral knowledge of pastoralist livestock family herders. We re-create animal diversity, a food system which provides us with food and a livelihood – we feed and NOURISH ourselves with foods gathered from forests, pasturelands, rivers and, of course, from our livestock. As pastoralists, we exercise our right to food and nutrition thanks to our mobility, which enables us to be self-sustainable across different ecosystems.
Moving ahead: We are committed to addressing this process with a clear vision; “to guarantee NUTRITION for all”. To this end, we need to appropriate ourselves of our ancestral knowledge and ensure that it is transmitted from generation to generation, as it is underpins cultures that translate into distinct modes of production, such as agroecological systems, which guarantee nutrition in all its dimensions. Ending hunger is not simply an added value for free trade, nor about causing malnutrition by reducing real food to fun products that catch people’s attention, but rather about recognising the value of our traditional diets and guaranteeing their sustainability without interrupting natural production cycles. Keep reading…
Intervention from Isabel Álvarez Vispo – Urgenci, Spain, on behalf of the CSM Working Group on Nutrition
We, the Civil Society Mechanism, wish to comment on the Summary and Recommendations of the report, as these are the only parts that we have been able to access in different languages.
First of all, we wish to thank the HLPE for the great effort in writing this report, and in integrating nutrition in the CFS, by linking nutrition to the different dimensions of food systems. Civil society has always defended the need for a holistic human rights-based vision of nutrition that goes beyond dietary patterns, and thus we believe that it is essential to have a broader perspective that covers the life span of food: from the land and seeds with which it was produced, to the plate.
We welcome the report’s inclusion of certain aspects that we have recently been insisting on, such as the issue of conflict of interests and a focus on the most vulnerable. Nonetheless, we are concerned by other aspects of this report. Keep reading…
Good practice and Lessons sharing for improved nutrition
Intervention Ali Aii Shatou Member of the CSM Coordination Committee for the Indigenous Peoples’ Constituency – Nutrition 10 October 2017
We, the delegates of indigenous peoples who are from across the six regions recognised by the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous issues , organized here through the Civil Society Mechanism, have actively followed the process of the CFS activities and the resulted reports. We are deeply concerned by the increasing number of people who are suffering from hunger and malnutrition, majority of the cases are reported by people living in rural areas and in areas populated by indigenous peoples. At the same time, Indigenous Peoples have been among the most important providers of food security, good nutrition and healthy diets – not only today, but over generations and centuries.
The Committee on World Food Security (CFS) is the only international and intergovernmental platform in the United Nations system, where governments, representatives of Indigenous Peoples, fisherfolks, smallholder and family farmers, pastoralists, landless, women, youth, food and agricultural workers, consumers, urban food insecure, UN organizations and the private sector collaborate with the aim of ensuring the realization of the right to adequate food. Keep Reading…
Update on ICN2 Reporting
Intervention of Peggy Pascal, Action Contre Le Faim, France, on behalf of the CSM Working Group on Nutrition
Food Systems based on highly processed “industrialized” food ( empty in macronutrients and essential Vitamins) are making us sick . As the HLPE report recalls it, one out of three people on our earth are suffering from one form of malnutrition and it will be half of the humanity in 2050.
Until when are we going to tolerate that? Since the ICN2 conference in 2014, we have encouraged and welcomed commitments for nutrition from members states whether it was in the SDGs or by launching the decade.
As civil society we have been on your side to make concrete propositions and we have launched the people decade on nutrition, in 2014, during the ICN2, to highlight our determination and commitment to build good nutrition for all. Keep Reading…
1st Day – 09 October 2017
CFS & the 2030 Agenda: Reflections from HLPF 2017 and contributions to HLPF 2018
Intervention of Stefano Prato, Society for International Development, Italy on behalf of the CSM Working Group on SDG
Intervention of Elenita (Neth) Daño, ETC Group, Philippines, on behalf of the CSM Working Group on SDG
Intervention of Antonio Gonzalez, MAELA, Guatemala, on behalf of the CSM Working Group on SDG