As part of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, FAO took part in a side-event on 16 May 2012 sponsored by the Permanent Mission of Bolivia on the International Year of Quinoa – 2013, and its contribution to food security and nutrition from the perspective of traditional knowledge.
Ms. Lila Hanitra Ratsifandrihamanana, Director of the FAO Liaison Office in New York, discussed the value of Quinoa and its potential to provide food security and nutrition, to help eradicate poverty and by doing so, to help achieve the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals.
The promotion of Quinoa as a food item that will help address food insecurity and undernourishment in the world is consistent with FAO policy on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples adopted in 2010. According to this policy, “FAO will approach indigenous peoples in a way that answers to, interacts with and learns from their unique food and agriculture practices, livelihood systems and specific sociocultural circumstances, thus building on their potential contributions and actively encouraging ‘development with identity.’”
Ms. Ratsifandrihamanana stated that along those lines, FAO has worked with representatives of indigenous peoples and communities to develop the Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure of the Land, Fishing and Forests in the Context of National Food Security which were adopted by the Committee on World Food Security in Rome on 11 May 2012.
