Proceedings
International web conference: Multidimensional Resilience - Smallholder Producers and Farmers Managing Risks, 9th – 11th June, 2020
Summary of the Web conference Proceedings
The three-day conference was co-organized by the Food and Forest Development Finland (FFD), AgriCord and FAO’s Forest and Farm Facility (FFF), in collaboration with the Asian Farmers’ Association (AFA) and the Pan-African Farmers’ Organization (PAFO). It included a series of webinars and interactive consultations, aimed to gain understanding of FFPO responses and strategies to greater resilience and to formulate common policy positions to promote pathways to resilience, both with specific focus on climate change and the Covid-19 context. On 9th and 10th June a series of technical presentations, panel discussions and consultations on country and regional level findings from FFPO resilience consultations were organized leading to a formulation of policy positions and recommendations on climate change and Covid-19. Also resilience case studies from FFPOs, and technical toolkits to strengthen FFPOs’ capacities to respond to climate change and access climate finance were presented.
Results from preliminary survey (found here in English and French) among the Asian and African farmers’ organizations shows that COVID-19 has adversely affected FFPOs in terms of marketing, input supply and production, access to finance, and processing due to disruption of markets and lack of transportation. Unequivocally, the survey demonstrated that the actions needed and the impacts expected are very similar both for Covid-19 and climate change. Consequently, the actions required to respond to Covid-19 should have a longer perspective and aim at more structural changes building resilience also for climate change. It is also important to recognize multiple dimensions of resilience.
Based on the conference, FFPOs recommended to international partners the need to mobilize direct investment and finance to support FFPOs. This will help deliver services to their constituencies, bring initiatives to the local level and to local institutions and ensure smallholders access to climate finance. FFPOs also recommended to re-build local and global food systems, innovative marketing mechanism and increase diversity and the need to highlight and recognize the multifunctional interlinkages between agriculture and forestry. Finally, yet importantly, FFPOs requested more focus on science, research and technology led by farmers to ensure access to smallholder relevant technological innovations, to build on traditional knowledge and to enhance local data collection and ownership by FFPOs.
The detailed recommendations are available here in English and French.
The recommendations elaborated during the pre-conference days, were presented by the Secretary General of AFA, Ms. Esther Penunia, in the beginning of the actual web-conference, 11th June. The synthesis of responses and policy recommendations gathered from regional (Africa and Asia) FFPOs consultations can be found here.
Resilience and its multiple dimensions were then debated in a panel consisting of:
· Mr. Paul Winters, Associate Vice President for Strategy and Knowledge Department in International Fund for Agriculture and Development (IFAD),
· Mr. Arif Husain, Chief Economist from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP)
· Ms. Carla Montesi, Director of Planet and Prosperity at the EU Commission on International Development Cooperation (EU Devco),
· Ms. Elizabeth Nsimadala, President of the Pan African Farmers Organization (PAFO),
· Ms. Hannelore Beerlandt Chief Executive Officer for AgriCord,
· Mr. Adriano Campolina, Senior Policy Officer and Coordinator in charge of collective action and producer organizations in FAO.
More details about the panelists can be found here.
It was noted that Covid-19 occurred at a time when the global food system was already in crisis and thus resilience-building was highly needed for smallholder producers and farmers to overcome the present and future crises. However, the organizing institutions highlighted that despite their efforts and initiatives, access to finance remains complicated and many instruments still exclude FFPOs for funding – either for covid-19 response or climate change. This despite that fact that as shown by the survey, FFPOs are actively supporting their members to deal with crisis.
The live panel session was followed by two registered panels: one on the Vietnamese case on the Covid-19 response by the FFPOs and the government, and one on how Covid-19 was affecting forest producers and forest value-chains in Africa, Asia and Europe. The importance of forest organizations was recalled as the main providers of precise and in-real-time information on the effects of Covid-19 crisis on forest sector to governments. FFPOs and governments can complement actions taken by both parties creating a wider and more sustainable impact.
The web conference was closed by highlighting the importance for smallholder producers and farmers and their organizations to have their voices heard. They must be recognized as central actors in policy making, in research and in climate action. It is crucial to assess both needs for constructing better resilient food system and landscapes but also the present financial and technical instruments and their relevance and accessibility for FFPOs.
