RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – Farmers need to have secure land tenure, control over their own seeds, support for agro-ecological approaches, access to markets for their products, and meaningful participation in governance processes at all levels, in order to effectively play their role in ensuring food and nutrition security and reduce poverty in the countryside.
This was one of the main messages delivered by AFA during the Rio+20 UNCSD “Dialogues for Sustainable Development” held in Riocentro, in Riode Janeiro, Brazil last June 16 – 19, 2012.
Specifically, AFA directly participated in the Sustainable Development Dialogues on the topic “Food and Nutrition Security” last June 17, where Secretary General Esther Penunia was one of the panelists.
Also in the panel were:
• Mr. Paulo Prada (Brazil), Reuters, Moderator;
• Dr. Vandana Shiva (India), Director, Research Foundation for Science
• Mr. Carlo Petrini (Italy), Founder, Slow Food Movement
• Ms. Hortensia Hidalgo (Chile), Indigenous Women Network of Latin America and the Caribbean for Biodiversity (RMIB)
• Ms. Josette Sheeran (United States of America), Vice-President, World Economic Forum
• Dr. LuÃsa Dias Diogo (Mozambique), Former Prime Minister of Mozambiqu
• Mr. Marco Marzano de Marinis (Italy), Executive Director, World Farmers Organisation
• Dr. Martin Khor (Malasia), Executive-Director, South Centre
• Dr. Mary Robinson (Ireland), Director, International Institute for the Environment and Development (IIED)
• Dr. Renato S. Maluf (Brazil), Coordinator, Center for Food Security, Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ)
The Dialogue’s session on food and nutrition security dialogue came out with three recommendations that were eventually presented to the official Rio+20 Summit:
1. Promote food systems that are sustainable and contribute to improvement of health.
2. Develop policies to encourage sustainable production of food supplies directed to both producers and consumers.
3. Eliminate misery and poverty-related malnutrition. Empower women farmers, small holder farmers, young farmers and indigenous people. Ensure their access to land, water and seed as well as their full involvement in public decision making regarding food production and food and nutrition security.
The first recommendation was voted by those who participated in an online voting conducted prior to the Dialogue session; the second was voted by the audience during the Dialogue session itself while the third was the synthesized recommendations from all the panelists.
These three recommendations, along with other three recommendations for each of the nine other topics (Unemployment, decent work and migrations; Sustainable development as an answer to the economic and financial crises; Sustainable development for fighting poverty; The economics of sustainable development, including sustainable patterns of production and consumption; Forests; Sustainable energy for all; Water; Sustainable cities and innovation; Oceans) were conveyed directly to the Heads of State and Government present at the Summit.
The government of Brazil organized the four day Sustainability Development Dialogues, with the support of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). The Dialogue Initiative was launched through a digital platform in order to provide the wider public a democratic space for discussion.
The online debates on each of the ten themes of the Dialogues, facilitated by researchers from renowned academic institutions around the world, resulted in ten concrete recommendations that were viewed and voted for in a public website. The ten recommendations in each theme, ranked by the votes received in the public website, were then presented to the Panelists of each theme as well as to the audience during the face-to-face interaction.
(PHOTO CREDIT: http://www.iisd.ca)
Click here for more information on the Sustainable Development Dialogues
Click here for the fact sheet on the Sustainable Development Dialogues
Click here for the final recommendations on the ten topics of the Sustainable Development Dialogues
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