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– The WCC urges governments, international organizations and other actors to use the United Nations Decade for Family Farming 2019-2028 (UNDFF) as a response to the current and future crises, ensuring sustainable food and rural livelihoods with a future.
– The UNDFF 2019-2028 is a concrete instrument for defining short, medium and long-term measures and actions to improve the resilience, sustainability, inclusiveness and viability of family farming and provides a framework for collaboration by facilitating the implementation of these measures.
Tuesday, December 15, 2020. The organizations that organise the Global Civil Society Coordinating Committee (WCC) for the United Nations Decade of Family Farming met on December 3 to analyse the progress made to date in implementing the United Nations Decade of Family Farming 2019-2028 (UNDFF), and also define the main challenges or priorities for the coming year 2021. The WCC is made up of family farming and rural development organizations that are highly representative of all the continents and have been supporting the process of strengthening family farming for eight years.
In this virtual session, the main progress made in implementing the Decade of Family Farming Agriculture was discussed in this complicated context marked by the strong impact of the health, economic and social crisis caused by the covid-19 pandemic on food systems, family farming and their livelihoods.
The UNDFF 2019-2028 calls on the countries to build public policies and legislative frameworks in favour of family farming, in the context of the different realities. This process of defining actions at the country level is carried out especially through the definition of National Plans (NAPs) for the Decade of Family Farming and a target of 100 NAPs has been set for the year 2024.
The year 2020 began with a strong mobilization of actors to work on these National and Regional Plans of Action for the Decade of Family Farming. Although these processes were paralyzed or slowed down for a few months, they have been resumed with force to generate policies, programs and regulatory frameworks that provide a medium- and long-term response to the crisis generated by the covid-19, with a focus on viable, sustainable and resilient family farming. Seven National Plans for the Decade of Family Farming (NAP) have been approved in the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru, Indonesia, Nepal and the Gambia, while another four countries are in the process of drafting them.
The mobilization of stakeholders in more than 35 countries is very important, with more than 1500 organizations and entities involved, including family farming organizations, government institutions, academia, international organizations, etc. Many of these mobilization processes are carried out by the 35 National Committees for Family Farming (NCFFs).
Therefore, during the meeting of the WCC, the importance of continuing to strengthen the technical and financial capabilities of the NCFFs was recalled. The meeting also reviewed some global products that are being developed, such as the Family Farming Public Policy Training Program (developed jointly by FAO and IFAD) and the Road Map for the Empowerment of Women, in which many family farming organizations have participated.
The WCC organizations agreed to prioritize for next year, the third year of the Decade’s implementation, the dissemination of the UNDFF 2019-2028 among farmers themselves, accelerating the definition and broadening the means for the implementation of National and Regional Plans, and strengthening the spaces for inclusive dialogue for the construction of public policies. Similarly, it is considered a priority to hold high-level events that continue to place family farming at the top of the international agenda and position it as a response to the major challenges and commitments of humankind.
It is important to share the lessons learned in order to ensure the proper implementation of the Decade of Family Farming and thus enable knowledge among the main actors, ensuring that the Decade continues to be firmly committed to improving the quality of life in rural areas, and therefore, in urban areas.
There is a need to move from theory to concrete actions of the UNDFF 2019-2028, to be implemented in the territories, in order to ensure sustainable and viable Family Farming that is capable of responding to the crises of the present and the future. The crisis of covid-19 could lead more than 130 million people into poverty, and the concrete actions of the Decade, the commitment and political dialogue among the various actors, placing Family Farming and the UNDFF 2019-2028 as the main response to the major global challenges -such as covid-19, climate change, the sustainable food systems addressing Sustainable Development Goals of Agenda 2030 (SDGs), can make a great contribution.