FAO and The International Planning Committee work together to find new areas of collaboration

30 October 2014, Rome – The International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty (IPC) and FAO took another step forward in their longstanding and collaborative relationship. Representatives of the biggest small-scale producers’ platform in the world and FAO held today a technical meeting in the framework of their renewed partnership to discuss how to open up spaces for inclusive participation and dialogue in key thematic areas such as Land, Fisheries, Agroecology, Livestock, Pastoralism and Indigenous Peoples.

“IPC brings key capacities and experience in regional and global policy dialogue and normative activities, which can contribute greatly to FAO’s work,” said Yon Fernández de Larrinoa, Gender and Indigenous Peoples officer and chairperson of the meeting, on the renewed partnership formalized through an exchange of letters in May 2014.

“The purpose of today is to reach specific agreements on every topic we discuss,” added Fernández de Larrinoa. “We have come a long way where we have seen great improvement and transformation in the way FAO relates to civil society,” said Ángel Strapazzon from IPC. Jorge Stanley, also from IPC, stated that “FAO needs civil society and viceversa”.

The International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty

IPC represents more than 800 organizations and 300 millions of small-scale food producers, which self organize themselves through this platform.

The platform has had extensive involvement in key policy discussions such as the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure (VGGT) and the Voluntary Guidelines on Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries (SSF). “Many issues are included in the Voluntary Guidelines (SSF) thanks to the work of IPC and the pressure done by the civil society overall,” said Carlos Fuentevilla, Fisheries Officer. IPC said the challenge now is to implement both Voluntary Guidelines in an effective and cohesive manner, which will avoid them to become parallel tracks.

IPC also played a key role in the adoption of the FAO Strategy for Partnerships with Civil Society Organizations, approved by FAO Council, a document lauded for its inclusive consultation process. The International Planning Committee took the lead in conducting a global civil society consultation collecting key inputs to be considered in the final version of the Strategy.

Technical meeting

“Now, as we implement the strategy, we are focusing on the key areas of partnership at global level through policy dialogue and normative activities, and at regional and local levels through Field Programme activities,” said Fernández de Larrinoa.

IPC can help FAO in promoting inclusive participatory policy dialogue models at regional and sub-regional levels. In fact, IPC has already been playing an essential coordinating role in the organization of Regional Civil Society Organizations consultations, part of the FAO Regional Conferences. In order to achieve this, FAO Regional Focal Points also participated in the meeting from their offices.

Capacity building, development of indicators or awareness raising were some of the tools demanded by IPC in order to help further the collaborative activities between FAO and IPC.

In addition, both organizations agreed to continue dialogue on key issues at country level and within their respective regions, as well as to encourage inter-regional exchange of experiences from both FAO and Civil Society.