Building on the Farmers' Forum

The success of the Farmers’ Forum depends on enhanced global, regional and country-level consultation with farmers’ organizations and support to their capacity-building. Potential outcomes of the Farmers’ Forum include:

• stronger partnerships and alliances for development action and policy influence
• knowledge sharing in key areas of engagement (poor people’s empowerment, access to land and productive resources, access to markets and financial services, private sector development in agricultural supply chains)
• contribution to the revision of strategies and, overall, increased effectiveness in achieving development objectives.    

In addition, the Forum process contributes substantially to IFAD’s capacity to link realities on the ground with policy processes at local, national and global levels and the micro to the macro level. This is also in line with external demand at local, national and international levels, including from governments.

Because of the “local to global” dimension and the diversity of the subjects that could be addressed through these consultations, the Farmers’ Forum requires engagement at all levels in IFAD from in-country presence to the Senior Management and from all parts of the institution. There is no doubt that the Forum process tests the capacity of IFAD to “walk its talk” and align its practice at country and field levels with its commitments at higher levels. IFAD’s involvement in the Farmers’ Forum is not only instrumental to project ends, but is a critical means of investing in long-term national capacity to internalize and sustain rural poverty reduction.     

A number of very concrete initiatives are under way in response the demands form farmers’ organizations. Most of them are currently being carried out  through direct grants to farmer organizations in the various regions.