The agreement is part of the Decade of Family Farming and was supported by FAO, Spanish Cooperation and AMEXCID.
28 May 2020, – The Parliamentary Front against Hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean (FPH-ALC) and the World Rural Forum (WRF) have signed a collaboration agreement to fight hunger and support family farming in the region.
This collaboration agreement has been supported by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and contributes to the United Nations Decade of Family Farming 2019-2028 and the fulfillment of 2030 Agenda.
“It is an alliance that offers us a collaborative working structure between parliaments, governments and civil society, in order to protect family farmers through State policies,” said Jairo Flores, General Coordinator of the FPH-LAC.
“This agreement contributes to move towards more sustainable, healthy and resilient food systems and to take safeguards to prevent the health crisis from becoming a food crisis”, he added.
The design and implementation of regulatory frameworks, including laws, policies and national action plans, as well as training and policy dialogue are part of the agreed actions.
“With this collaboration we will work together to promote the implementation of the United Nations Decade of Family Farming in Latin America and the Caribbean and, especially, accelerate the development of specific Action Plans that will improve the viability, resilience and sustainability of family farming in the countries,” said WRF Deputy Director Laura Lorenzo.
The agreement has also the support of the Spanish Cooperation and the Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation (AMEXCID), this last one through the Mesoamerica Hunger Free Program.
Family Farming and COVID -19
COVID-19 has strongly impacted millions of family farmers around the world. Despite this, they have been on the front line from the beginning, ensuring access to healthy and quality food.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, 60 million people work in family farming.
This productive activity provides between 27% and 67% of food production, using between 12% and 67% of agricultural land, depending on the country.
“Family farmers are responsible for producing the food we eat and are the base of the production chain of the food systems in the region,” said Luiz Beduschi, FAO Territorial Development Policy Officer.
“Their protection will be essential to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic and the post-pandemic period,” he added.
Parliamentarians against Hunger
The FPH brings together legislators from 21 countries and different political groups interested in the right to adequate food.
It is a regional network that has promoted more than 30 legislative initiatives to guarantee the right to food and sustainable agriculture.
World Rural Forum – WRF
The WRF is a global network that promotes family farming and sustainable rural development, composed by family farming federations and organizations, rural development organizations, agricultural cooperatives and research centers.
The WRF brings together entities representing more than 32 million family farmers on five continents. Its members include the main regional family farming organizations, such as AACARI (Caribbean), AFA (Asia), COPROFAM (Mercosur), ESAFF (East and Southern Africa), PDRR (Central America and the Dominican Republic), PIFON (Pacific Islands), PROPAC (Central Africa), REFACOF (Africa), and UMNAGRI (North Africa), which in turn have a multitude of affiliated organizations and cooperatives.
To read the agreement, click here
More info:
