This edition opens with a report of the last session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), which has helped to ensure that gender equality and women’s empowerment feature prominently in the post-2015 Development Agenda. This will take over from the Millennium Development Goals, whose 2015 deadline is now close. Today, the post-2015 Development Agenda is at the centre
of discussions within the international community on intensifying efforts to take up the world’s major development challenges, including
reducing extreme poverty.

As always, several articles in the newsletter are given over to news from the Dimitra listeners’ clubs, particularly in Senegal, where they are
working together with Farmer Field Schools as part of the IPPM Programme, and in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where
a traditional chief made a speech. A number of articles focus on South-South cooperation, which enables countries in the South to pool
and exchange practices and knowledge, etc. The long experience of the Dimitra listeners’ clubs in Niger has benefited clubs in Senegal,
Mauritania and Ghana, while that of Sud-Kivu, in DRC, has been shared with clubs in Burundi. For the past 17 years, South-South cooperation has received support from FAO as part of its food security programmes. And for the past 15 years, FAO has been engaged in seeking funds to tackle poverty and empower rural women.

As well as our Women’s Portrait, which profiles Ruth Ojiambo Ochieng, a leader from Uganda who is campaigning for women’s rights in conflict and post-conflict settings, a number of articles highlight the contribution of family farming to food security and FAO’s work in strengthening this sector, especially through activities linked to the International Year of Family Farming and the FAO-AMARC
partnership in the field of radio and the media. This partnership has resulted in the launch of communication for development regional platforms. The one dedicated to Africa is called YenKasa.

Finally, civil society involvement in developing guidelines for sustainable small-scale fishing is described in this issue, and a new FAO
learning module for experience capitalization is presented.