Synthesis of deliberations of the second global meeting of the Farmers’ Forum 2008

Hunger is increasing and poverty persists in the rural world. Inequality is rising together with risk and vulnerability. Extraordinarily complex challenges are emerging, from global warming to erosion of biodiversity to the depletion of natural resources and growing demand on agriculture for food and energy. A radically different approach is needed towards agricultural development – an approach that restores the regenerative capacity of nature and agriculture itself.

International prices of food and feed are rising sharply, at least partly due to expansion of bio-fuels production on an industrial scale, the impact of climate change and the exclusion of farming communities from access to land, water, the seas and seeds. At the same time, hundreds of millions of smallholder farmers, landless workers, pastoralists, fishers and indigenous people, the majority among them women, are struggling to feed their families and better their lives. Young people are given no other viable alternative than to abandon the land and agriculture.

In this context, IFAD’s mandate and goal to enable poor rural women and men to overcome poverty, through their economic, social and political empowerment, are more important and relevant than ever.

We the participants in the Farmers’ Forum, in conjunction with the Governing Council of IFAD, call upon the governments of the Fund’s member states to urgently direct their policy attention and their investments towards smallholder agriculture and rural livelihoods. We also urge the members of IFAD to increase their contributions to the Fund so that it can increase its impact in favour of poor rural people on the ground.   

In addition, we want to stress that the Fund’s empowerment agenda and commitment to poor rural people can be best pursued in partnership with farmers’ and rural peoples’ organizations and with governments.

Looking back at the last two years, since the first global meeting of the Farmers’ Forum, we recognize that IFAD has made tangible efforts and achieved significant progress in responding to the recommendations that we, the participants in the Farmers’ Forum at IFAD, presented to you in February 2006.

We see that IFAD is actually changing the way it works at country level in order to allow for a stronger engagement of our farmers’ and rural producers’ organizations in the development of its country strategies and projects with its member governments. Indeed, there is a growing trend that we want to see continue and accelerate.

We also acknowledge the efforts IFAD is making to help us strengthen the capacity of our producers’ organizations through direct and demand-driven financial support to our members and through IFAD support to policy dialogue platforms at regional levels, such as the REAF-MERCOSUR in Latin America and the review of the Economic Partnership Agreement between the European Union and the countries of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific.

We furthermore acknowledge IFAD’s response to our call to increase its engagement with the land issues facing poor rural producers.  In this regard, we appreciate the draft policy on “Promoting Equitable Access to Land and Tenure Security for Rural Poverty Reduction” and we urge its approval and implementation by IFAD’s management and Executive Board.

Additionally, we appreciate the report IFAD presented to us on its partnerships with us, rural producers’ organizations, and its spirit of transparency and accountability, which has strengthened further the trust among us and has broadened opportunities for collaboration.

As we know each other better, we are also becoming more demanding. 

Indeed we, the participants in the Farmers’ Forum, believe that much more can be done in a more systematic way and that the progress achieved so far is partial and uneven among countries. Our collaboration needs to be institutionalized so that we can more effectively achieve our common agenda to fight rural poverty and promote family agriculture and other rural livelihoods, most importantly livestock and fishing.

The Farmers’ Forum process will always be guided by the principles agreed upon three years ago: mutual respect, pluralism, openness, inclusiveness, transparency, and promotion of mutual recognition of the autonomy and independence of farmers’ organizations.  These principles should also guide the producers’ organizations in their relation with their members, assuring their accountability to them.

Principles of engagement. On the basis of the ongoing collaboration, we believe that the time is ripe for the development of shared and agreed upon principles of engagement to guide our interaction. These principles should be developed in 2008 to guide both IFAD and farmers’ organizations in this interaction.

We the Farmers’ Forum participants recommend that these principles of engagement be discussed and approved by the Executive Board of  IFAD and be followed by the preparation of clear operational guidelines focused on compliance with these principles at the country and regional levels.

Engagement with IFAD country programmes. The Farmers’ Forum recommends that IFAD staff receive clear direction for systematic involvement of farmers’ and rural producers’ organizations for the formulation, implementation and evaluation of country strategies and programmes. The way of promoting this is by providing time for interaction, relevant information, and specific resources to enable the organizations to participate effectively in IFAD country programmes and to know what IFAD does in any given country. IFAD should increase its own knowledge of farmers’ and rural producers’ organizations in each country to further promote an inclusive policy dialogue among people’s organizations, the governments and itself. In relation to IFAD programmes and projects, the participants at the Farmers’ Forum are convinced that farmers’ and rural producers’ organizations have the capacity to directly manage and assume the responsibility of projects.  

The point is not only partnership between IFAD and farmers’ organizations but also the promotion of an environment conducive to strengthening the dialogue between farmers’ organizations and governments on an equal footing.         

Focus on results and building a shared monitoring and evaluation system. One important principle to guide our collaboration will be the attention given to results in the field and to strengthened monitoring and evaluation systems which will involve farmers’  and rural producers’ organizations. Such systems will also enhance mutual accountability between IFAD and farmers’ organizations for the shared goal of fighting poverty and hunger in rural areas.

Direct financing. The participants in the Farmers’ Forum are asking IFAD to provide over the long term, and in a sustained way, direct financial support to farmers’ organizations, in particular through our apex organizations at national and regional levels.  These resources should enable farmers’ organizations to be strengthened and structured on higher levels, as well as increase their knowledge and information and their capacity to engage with policy-making and implementation processes effectively and in a flexible manner.

On their side the producers’ organizations, participants in the Forum, commit themselves to a sound management of these resources and to reporting back to IFAD, in a rigorous and timely manner, on the use of the funds and on the impact on the ground.

Support for the involvement of the young in agriculture and rural development. In its partnership with farmers’ organizations, IFAD needs to pay greater attention to young people. In this regard, partnerships must focus on their access to and control of land and other productive resources, capacity building and the provision of targeted support and the necessary incentives for them to engage in agriculture and rural livelihoods.

Support for the involvement of women in agriculture and rural development. We the participants of the Farmers’ Forum want to stress the importance of the presence and role of women both in terms of numbers and contributions. Women farmers are rarely recognized as producers in their own distinct economic and social right.  They often face difficulties in gaining access to training, credit and natural resources, especially land and water. Moreover, women farmers are under-represented at all levels of farmers organizations and thus cannot voice their own specific needs. As a result, women farmers are even more impoverished than their male counterparts.

Therefore, we ask IFAD to support farmers’ organizations to engage their women members in the management and decision-making processes of their organizations, with a minimum quota in leadership positions of 30 per cent.  We also ask IFAD to apply a significant quota of women farmers (at least 30 per cent) in all IFAD programmes, events and initiatives.

We also recommend that, in the context of the next global meeting of the Farmers’ Forum, a preparatory meeting be organized with a specially set up group to focus on the specific issues of women, which will then be brought to the Forum.

Fishers. We, participants in the Farmers’ Forum, call on IFAD to support the organizations of fisherfolk and their efforts to improve the livelihoods of their members.  More specifically, we call on IFAD to:

1. strengthen the capacity of fishing communities and their organizations to engage in sustainable exploitation and use of fishery resources and to engage in policy dialogue with governments and inter-governmental organizations at national, regional and international levels;
2. invest more resources in maintaining the biodiversity of coastal zones;
3. promote artisanal aquaculture; and
4. promote post-harvest practices and access to national and international markets.

Pastoralists. IFAD policies, programmes and projects should take into account the specific issues of pastoralists and other mobile indigenous peoples, such as their seasonal mobility, their use of multiple territories and their community-based tenure systems.  It should also take into consideration their special and unique capacities for sustainable natural resource management and their ability to cope with climate change through seasonal spatial and temporal mobility.

We, the participants of the Farmers’ Forum 2008, urge IFAD to continue and increase its collaboration with FAO, particularly in the following three areas: support to farmers’ and rural producers’ organizations; follow-up of the International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development; and the organization of the Conference on Climate Change, Food Security and Agriculture and of the Conference on Fisheries.  We also urge IFAD to support the mobilization of civil society around these two international events.

The Farmers’ Forum included three thematic working groups on three specific challenges confronting poor rural producers:

1. Access to Land: Trends, challenges and opportunities. Role and perspectives of farmers’ and rural producers’ organizations;
2. Climate Change and Smallholder Agriculture: Perspective of farmers’ and rural producers’ organizations; and
3. Access to Policy-Making Processes: Opportunities for farmers’ and rural producers’ organizations to exert power in favour of family agriculture

 Given the wealth of the discussions and the diversified positions and recommendations of these groups, the reports on them are annexed to the present document.