Agricultural organizations and other associations of the civil society join forces in Burkina Faso and Nepal to promote Family Farming.
The first National Committees to support the International Year of Family Farming IYFF-2014 in Africa and Asia started its journey during late 2012, through the commitment and dynamism of civil society in Burkina Faso (West Africa) and Nepal (Asia). Both working groups are born with the intention of becoming true epicenters of advocacy and dissemination on Family Farming in their respective countries.
The first National Committee IYFF-2014 in Africa was formally established in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) on November 28. The meeting, convened by the rural development organization Inades Formation/Burkina, was also attended by Peasants’ Confederation of Faso, as well as Sedelan and Cesao, all the entities that supported the campaign for the declaration of the International Year of Family Farming in that country.
At the meeting, which included a World Rural Forumrepresentative, it was agreed to establish the National Committee. This group is now working to develop an action plan, always opened to the possibility of bringing in new stakeholders in the future.
As in Burkina Faso, a total of six organizations held several meetings between 18 and 19 December in Kathmandu (Nepal), to finally agree on the formal creation of a National Committee in this country. These meetings occurred after the AIAF-2014 was presented as part of a workshop organized by Agriterra to various Nepalese agricultural groups and NGOs.
The Central Tea Cooperative Federation (CTCF), the Nepal Agriculture Cooperative Central Federation (NACCFL), the Nepal Land Rights Forum, Caritas Nepal, NEFSCUN and Mode Nepal / College of Development Studies are the organizations that have joined forces to promote the work of advocacy and dissemination for Family Farming. This work, which will be coordinated by NACCFL, will focus on the development of joint strategies for now.
Burkina Faso and Nepal joined the four IYFF-2014 national committees created in Latin America -Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil and Costa Rica-, as well as others that are being developed on the same continent. In Africa, various organizations also work in the same direction in Congo, Burundi, Ivory Coast and Gambia, while Europe provides for the establishment of committees in France and Switzerland, to name a few.
These big news again emphasize that the civil society is self-organizing worldwide for achieving a really important event for promoting Family Farming, to make the IYFF-2014 a global, integrative and effective celebration.