News

Farewell message from MPS Coordinator Yuka Makino

24.06.2021

I wish to inform you that, after three years, I will be stepping down from my role as Coordinator of the Mountain Partnership Secretariat. Looking back on my time spent working with the Mountain Partnership, I would like to thank all of the partners of our vibrant and diverse membership, the Steering Committee and the staff of the Mountain Partnership Secretariat for your unwavering commitment to the mountain cause.

Since I assumed my role as Coordinator in June 2018, I have had the honour to witness our alliance grow in both size and strength. The Mountain Partnership during this time has welcomed 92 new members. We have also achieved important results. Some noteworthy ones include: expanding the Mountain Partnership Products Initiative from 8 to 12 countries, and the Initiative being selected to be featured in the Expo Dubai Best Practice Programme; beginning a new three-year project in Peru and the Philippines with Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries on enhancing the capacities of institutions and communities to apply the risk-based watershed management approach to agricultural value chains; and publishing an updated study on the state of food insecurity in rural mountain areas of developing countries and an analysis of the factors driving food insecurity.

Together, we have built upon the inclusive nature of the Partnership to broaden our outreach to new audiences. Recognizing that they are the future custodians of the world’s mountains, we have engaged youth more, involving them in our events and activities and giving them a platform to raise their voices for mountains. We also developed stronger ties with the private sector. For example, we created linkages between mountain communities and fashion through the collaboration between Stella Jean and a Kyrgyz women’s artisan group.

Each year on 11 December, I have seen the whole world come together to celebrate International Mountain Day and reflect on mountains’ role for the planet. Mountain Partnership members, together with the Mountain Partnership Secretariat, have furthermore always placed mountains high on the agenda at high-level events – such as at the Rio Conventions’ conferences of the parties as well as at regional, national and local level gatherings – to raise the voice of mountain peoples and environments and ensure that their needs are met with mountain-specific policies and programmes.

Looking ahead, there are still challenges. To achieve the goals set out by the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and ensure that mountains are not left behind, the onus is on all of us to think creatively, innovate and take urgent action together to build forward better after the COVID-19 pandemic towards a more resilient, green and inclusive future. Our dynamic network can share experiences, solutions, approaches, resources and information on mountains and their peoples.

As someone who was raised in the foothills of Garhwal Himalaya, India, I will always be part of the Mountain Partnership family, and I wish my successor the very best in further elevating mountains – the sky is the limit.