Regional and national consultations

Country-level consultation

At country level, consultations take place between the following parties:

• National apex farmers’ and rural producers’ organizations and local organizations active in IFAD-supported project areas;
• Managers and implementation partners of IFAD-supported projects
• Representatives of grassroots organizations supported by these projects
• IFAD in-country staff
• Representatives of ministries of agriculture or rural development

Following the principle of inclusiveness and pluralism, representatives of all national-level farmers’ and rural organizations fulfilling the criteria established for the Farmers’ Forum¹ should be invited to participate in the country-level consultations.

Depending upon the existing level of partnership with farmers’ organizations at country and project levels, the main objective of these meetings could be:   

• A simple exchange of information on respective objectives, strategies and operations as a first step in exploring potential areas of collaboration. IFAD should present its COSOP, strategic priorities for the country, projects and the existing or proposed collaboration with rural organizations at local, sectoral or national levels. On their side farmers’ organizations would present themselves, their objectives and activities and their interest in collaboration with IFAD and IFAD supported projects.         
• In countries where formal partnerships are already established, the consultation could be organized around specific operational or policy issues (capacity building, market access, engagement in PRS, COSOP, etc). New areas of collaboration should be explored and a link should be established with the subsequent regional or global level consultation. 

These meetings could be associated with or followed by joint field visits to project areas. In many cases, grassroots organizations working with IFAD-supported projects are not aware of national federations and vice versa.  National consultations could contribute to bridging this gap.

Regional consultations 

At regional level, two to four national leaders consulted at country level should be invited to participate in the regional consultation, which will bring together leaders from as many countries of the region as possible.

The agenda of the regional consultations will have to be jointly agreed upon by the participating national farmers’ organizations, the regional federations and IFAD. These may vary from one region to another (for instance regional family farming policy and access to land in MERCOSUR, regional agricultural trade policy in ECOWAS), but in all cases the regional strategy of IFAD and the approaches to capacity building of farmers’ organizations could be a common item on the agenda. One outcome of the regional meetings should be the selection of themes and participants for the Forum at the Governing Council. 

Toward the end of the year, an Asia-Pacific regional consultation was held that included representatives of farmers’ organizations from ten countries.