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As a result of the efforts driven civil society, legislative and budgetary changes benefiting Family Farming have been achieved in eleven countries. Other 22 change initiatives are underway.
Now on the home straight, while assessing the year that is about to end, we can say that 2014 has been a year marked of great progress for Family Farming all over the world. The International Year of Family Farming IYFF-2014 will remain as one of the officially declared international years with most extensive and diverse social participation, as a milestone that has brought about a high number of breakthroughs in the promotion of Family Farming, smallholders, artisan fishing, pastoralists and indigenous communities.
About 700 worldwide institutions and organisations have been involved in the IYFF-2014, including farmers’ and rural development organisations, NGOs, consumers’ associations, research institutions, governments and international organisations. Thanks to such efforts, significant progress has been achieved on the recognition of the key role played by women and men family farmers in the sustainable supply of food.
A total of 50 IYFF-2014 National Committees have been created, most of them led by civil society organisations, as genuine and pluralistic platforms for dialogue and negotiation on national public policies related to Family Farming. The activities developed by these committees have led to eleven legal and budgetary changes benefiting Family Farming. More positive changes are expected in the coming months, since 22 similar processes have been opened during the IYFF-2014.
“The IYFF-2014 has shown that, despite the offensive of multinationals and industrial agriculture, family farming does not belong to the past but to the future. It is the sustainable model for Feeding the World, Caring for the Earth, as stated by the campaign’s official slogan,” said the Civil Society coordinator of IYFF-2014, José Antonio Osaba.
In his opinion, the IYFF-2014 has managed to “make visible the first demand” of women and men farmers’ organisations, artisanal fishers, pastoralists and indigenous communities from five continents: “The right of peoples to develop its own local food production, as the true way to eradicate Hunger and Malnutrition and an essential condition to enable the empowerment of marginalized peoples today in the distribution of global wealth”.
Among the achievements of IYFF-2014 National Committees, the Farm Bill has been signed and implemented in Uganda, public investments on Family Farming have been made by the government of Burkina Faso, laws on public procurement of food from Family Farming have been approved in Paraguay and Uruguay, and the budget related to Family Farming was increased in Slovakia and Nepal, among others.
Commitment to Family Farming, also in the future
At the recent Meeting of Men and Women Farmers Leaders held in Brasilia –organized by the WRF–, participants agreed to “continue participating and promoting these National Committees” and requested the involvement of all sectors of Civil Society, governments and national offices of specialized international institutions”.
“National Committees have played a key role in the IYFF-2014 and achieved very positive results. Therefore, the WRF would like to reiterate our commitment to continue promoting, facilitating and supporting all National Committees that want to continue working in the coming years,” confirmed Auxtin Ortiz, WRF general director.