Review and Finalization of the Regional Action Plan for Family Farming in South Asia

Review and Finalization of the Regional Action Plan for Family Farming in South Asia
Follow Up Regional Consultation Meeting on UN Decade of Family Farming
29 July 2021 | 13.30-18.00 UTC+7 | Zoom

REGISTER

Background

The SAARC Agriculture Centre (SAC), in collaboration with Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA), International Cooperative Alliance Asia and Pacific (ICA-AP), and with technical support from Food and Agriculture Organization Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (FAO RAP), Thailand, have organized a Regional Consultation meeting on the “UN Decade of Family Farming: Formulating Strategies and Action Plan to Strengthen Smallholder Family Farmers in South Asia”.

This event, held on the 5^th and 6^th of November 2020, was attended by 150 participants, from SAARC countries, from government, family farmers organizations, civil society, experts, professionals, research institutions, and cooperatives.

During this meeting, government officials presented the situation of family farming in their country, as well as ongoing and planned efforts to make a national action plan for the UNDFF. Firsthand experiences from Family Farmers Organizations from Nepal, India, and Sri Lanka regarding supporting National Family Farmers Committees and multi-stakeholder dialogues were also shared with participants. Regional Experts provided a South Asia contextualization of the different pillars of the Global Action Plan of the UNDFF. Break-out group discussions were held to identify key priorities in terms of policies, actions, and studies/research that need to be undertaken at the regional level, and which will further support the development and implementation of a Regional Action Plan for UNDFF, anchored in the UNDFF Global Action Plan. This 2-days consultation meeting marked an important step in elaborating jointly a regional action plan for the UNDFF in South Asia.

It contributed to formulating a draft Regional Action Plan defining the key priorities, strategies, and actions to implement the UNDFF in South Asia in a form of a book, which has been published by SAC, FAO, AFA, and ICA-AP. This Action Plan is aimed at facilitating and accelerating the process of developing national action plans through inclusive multi-stakeholder processes, not only putting family farmers at the center but recognizing them as critical partners.

This needs now to be further supported through this virtual consultation to finalize the action plan in an inclusive and participatory way prior endorsement by all relevant authorities.

Objectives

The proposed regional virtual event is a follow-up meeting with two-folded objectives:

• To launch officially the book which was produced out of the first consultation meeting, and which compile the SAARC countries’ family farming status and the recommendations for contextualizing the different pillars of the Global Action Plan for Family Farming in South Asian context.
• To present, validate and endorse the draft Regional Action Plan for Family Farming in South Asia.

Target Participants

The primary objective is to invite participants who attended already the regional virtual consultation meeting in November 2020, since this event is a follow-up meeting.

This will include representatives from SAARC Member states (Ministers / Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Countries’ Focal Point Experts for UNDFF), Farmers Organizations’ leaders, Representatives of CSOs, Organizing agencies (FAO, SAC, AFA, ICA-AP).

Proposed organization modalities

The event is expected to be organized over a half-day, virtually.

It was initially expected that SAARC Agriculture Center (SAC) would be the main host for this follow-up event given that they were the main organizer for the event in November. However, SAC requested FAO RAP to take the lead in organizing the event.

Close collaboration is anticipated with SAC, especially to reach out to all member countries. The Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA) and the International Cooperative Alliance Asia and the Pacific (ICA-AP) will also continue to play a critical role as co-organizers.

Agenda