The Declaration, prepared during the VI Global Conference on Family Farming held in Bilbao in March 2019, has been signed by 96 organizations and civil society platforms, representing millions of family farmers from around the world.
We, the Farmers Organizations and other CSOs gathered in the VI Global Conference on Family Farming affirm that:
Family Farming (FF) produces over 80% of the world’s food in value terms globally, playing a vital role not only in sustainable food production, but also in rural employment and income generation, and in environmental management of rural and marine areas and their biodiversity. It is also the source of significant cultural elements for each community, and ultimately, a fundamental pillar of countries’ overall development, contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
When an appropriate enabling environment is set up in the countries, with specific public policies implemented in favour of FF, Family Farming can ensure a dignified life for family farmers, including peasants, indigenous communities, fishers and pastoralists and can meet consumers’ needs more appropriately and more effectively.
Due to the highly positive results of the International Year of Family Farming (IYFF 2014) worldwide, dozens of family farmers’ organizations and other civil society organizations called for the Declaration of the Decade of Family Farming. The process in the UN General Assembly was led by the Government of Costa Rica and supported by a group of 14 countries and international organizations, especially IFAD and FAO. Finally, in December 2017, the United Nations General Assembly, at its 72nd Session, proclaimed the UN Decade of Family Farming 2019-2028, to serve as a framework for countries to develop public policies and investments to support Family Farming, and contribute to the achievement of the SDGs by addressing Family Farming from a holistic perspective and including rural poverty eradication in all its forms and dimensions.
We are therefore pleased that the Member States of the UN join us in this vision, through their support for this global initiative.
The Decade of Family Farming was our request, our vision, but above all it is our opportunity to, collectively, achieve more and better public policies for Family Farming and defend existing ones; to be a major force behind the implementation of those policies; to make sure Family Farming is understood and recognized for its worth; to put people ahead of major interests; to build a better future in our rural areas, and, also, for our cities.
In this sense, we, the family farmers’ organizations and CSOs, meeting in Bilbao, welcomed the holding of the VI Global Conference on Family Farming that has brought together representatives from Farmers’ Organizations and other Civil Society organizations, Governments, International Organizations, Research Centres and Cooperatives from across the five continents.
We reaffirm that the improvement of the quality of life and work will depend on cooperation and joint action by the organizations representing Family Farming, the international organisations directly involved in the process (FAO and IFAD) and on governments making a commitment to implement the necessary public policies on Family Farming at national and local levels. The Action Plan for the Decade of Family Farming summons us to work together and advance Peasant Rights, to guarantee access to and control of land, water, genetic resources, territory, and markets, to ensure investment and incentives to produce, to mitigate the effects of climate change, to promote economic autonomy and empowerment of women and eliminate all forms of violence against them, and to encourage young people to remain on the land and ensure generational turnover.
We, the Farmers Organizations and other CSOs gathered in the VI Global Conference on Family Farming, commit ourselves to share the results of the VI Global Conference on Family Farming within our territories and our constituencies, and among our family farmers.
We strongly request Governments, the International Steering Committee of the Decade, its Secretariat and other stakeholders:
1. To take account of the results of our discussions in Bilbao;
2. To include Family Farmers and our organizations in the process of building a strategic agenda of a more horizontal, transparent, inclusive and participative cooperation for the implementation of the Decade at all levels (global, national, and local);
3. To consider that Family Farmers and our organisations must be recognized as fundamental key-partners participating in governance spaces – at global, national and local levels, in order to contribute to the design, coordination, monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the Decade and the national policies and actions adopted in each country;
4. To consider that Family Farmers and our organisations must benefit from all the necessary support, including direct financial and technical, in order to help us to promote sustainable food systems and diets, while making a decent living from our occupation;
5. To recognize the contribution that Family Farmers have been giving through generations, creating, maintaining and preserving ecosystems, and the crucial role we have nowadays in ensuring the survival of the humankind.
Let’s continue building the future together!
