Meeting of the IFAP Latin America and the Caribbean Committee |
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Lima, Peru, 24-27 September 2007 |
In brief:
Hosted by Junta Nacional del Café this meeting was in three parts (with the participation of 17 representatives from farmer’s organisations, of whom 29% were women). They were: 1) a workshop to define the regional strategy in the context of IFAP’s global strategy, 2) the regional meeting to discuss policy issues, and 3) the Latin American session of IFAP’s Development Cooperation Committee (DCC).
During the workshop, participants came up with specific conclusions about what needed to be done in the region to participate more actively in the IFAP platform. They identified the following policy issues as being priorities for the region: 1) strengthening of farmers in the value chain; 2) trade negotiations and reform of agricultural policy; 3) boosting the participation of women and youth; 4) natural and environmental resources (with particular stress on access to land). Sustainability of member organizations is an important issue. |
The Committee wanted to encourage new organizations to join IFAP and proposed to start by “mapping” farmers’ organisations in MERCOSUR – especially Brazil, México, Chile, Bolivia, Venezuela and the Caribbean sub-region. Workshop participants wanted to strengthen the voice of the region in all specialized IFAP committees, particularly the commodities committees where its presence remains weak.
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During the regional meeting, there was opportunity to discuss further about policy issues like: strengthening the role of farmers in the value chain, bioenergies, trade negotiations and regional and global cooperation. It was highlighted as critical, the relevance for this region to have more opportunities to discuss those issues to contribute better and more actively to IFAP policy at the global level.
Photo - New elected Officers: Fernando Lopez (Urugay), vice-president; Carlos Simancas (Colombia), President; Lucila Quintana (Perú), vice-president. |
| The DCC meeting allowed members to learn more and discuss about "DCC's new terms of reference" but also about the role of liaison persons or focal points between the region and the DCC. The importance of complementarities and some coordination between this role and that of the new IFAP regional coordinators was highlighted. Participants agreed on the importance of encouraging farmers' organizations to get involved in the design and presentation of projects so as to build their capacities. AgriCord presented the “Farmers Fighting Poverty (FFP)” Program noting that for Latin America there is a total of 41 projects: 10 at the execution stage involving IFAP members, 1 at the definition stage and 6 that have been rejected. The strategy under the FFP Program would be to transition the national organisations from ‘project executors’ to ‘service deliverers’ to their members. |
Gabriela Quiroga, Ignace Coussement, Jack Wilkinson |
