Farmers’ Dialogue on Public Policy Cycle for Family Farming

On May 4, the World Farmers’ Organisation, together with IFAD and FAO as joint Secretariat of the UN Decade of Family Farming 2019-2028 (UNDFF), organised a farmers’ consultation on the Modular Training Programme for Public Policy Cycle on Family Farming (MTP). The session was repeated twice on the same day to allow the participation of as many farmers as possible from different regions of the world.

The MTP is the first global product jointly developed by IFAD and FAO within the framework of the UN Decade of Family Farming (UNDFF). The MTP intends to be a capacity development tool to assist the design, development, implementation, and review of public policies and investments to support family farming as to guide state and non-state actors to develop effective and coherent policies and programs at all levels, thus contributing to the achievement of the SDGs and the wellbeing of family farmers and their communities.

The online consultation was organised within the framework of an agreement between IFAD and WFO, aiming to collect inputs and opinions directly from the farmers on how to improve the content and methodology of the MTP and specific country-based examples on public policies targeting family farmers.

The consultations featured the participation of around 50 farmers from all over the world, including Rwanda, Kenya, Mauritius, Cambodia, Nepal, Jamaica, Italy, Norway, Belgium, France, among others. Many concrete suggestions and expectations emerged from the different farmers’ organisations, including the need for the MTP to be based on a participatory approach that includes family farmers and other actors, i.e. academia, private sector. Also, farmers underlined the need for more capacity building activities to transfer the content and use of the MTP to farmers’ communities on the ground and the need to involve cooperatives.

All these inputs have been collected by FAO and IFAD and will be used to further develop the MTP. At the same time, WFO will continue collaborating with UNDFF Joint Secretariat to make sure world farmers are engaged in the process and that the MTP and the overall Decade are farmers’ driven.