A meeting of more than 50 representatives of international, regional and national Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) based in Africa opened in Tunis today to discuss priority issues related to the development of agriculture and rural areas in Africa. Participants at the two-day consultation at Carthage Thalasso Hotel, hosted by l’Union Maghrébine et Nord Africaine des Agriculteurs (UMNAGRI), include farmers, artisanal fisherfolk, herders/pastoralists, landless, urban poor, workers in the food sector, women, youth, indigenous people, forest dwellers and other various constituencies. “It has become a tradition now in FAO, to organize consultative meetings with Non-State Actors (NSA) as an integral part of the...

Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) from Asia and the Pacific opened a two-day Consultation today to discuss their joint concerns about the future of small farmers, landless farmers, farm workers and other concerned stakeholders.  This parallel Consultation is organized just prior to FAO’s Thirty-Second Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific (APRC), also in Ulaanbaatar, 10-14 March. Forty participants representing different CSOs and their organizations from the region and Mongolia are participating in the Consultation and their conclusions will be shared with delegates through formal interventions during the APRC. In his welcome remarks as the host organization’s president, Bayartsaikhan Nadmid, of the...

FAO and the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP) have joined forces towards the establishment of a Hunger Free Community of Portuguese Language Countries. FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva and the Executive Secretary of the CPLP, Murade Isaac Miguigy Murargy, signed a Technical Cooperation Programme, uniting FAO and the CPLP today. With a total allocated contribution of $500,000 USD, the programme will support the CPLP and its governments, parliaments and non-governmental partners in implementing a Regional Strategy for Food and Nutrition Security approved in 2012. “The partnership between the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) and FAO represents a milestone for...

In the context of the 2014 International Year of Family Farming (IYFF), FAO has joined the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) to launch an awareness campaign targeted at farmers’ organizations and the rural population. The main objective is to use community radio as a platform to share information with the farming community and involve them further in the discussion regarding the key role that family farming plays in economic and social development. The campaign was launched in Montreal on 27 January and is set to continue throughout the entire 2014. It will consist of a series...

The  global campaign against hunger launched by the Caritas confederation is an important contribution to raise awareness of the plight of millions of hungry people around the globe and to work towards the elimination of hunger, said Marcela Villarreal, Director of FAO's Office for Partnerships, Advocacy and Capacity Development. The campaign ‘One Human Family, Food for All’ was launched in Rome with a video message of Pope Francis. In his message, the Pope said that “We are facing a global scandal of around one billion people who still suffer from hunger today. We cannot look the other way. The food that...