Similar to previous years, the WRF is presenting the 2022 Annual Report on the progress in the implementation of the UNDFF 2019-2028 through National and Regional/Sub-Regional Action Plans on family farming.
2023, January 31.- In 2022, there a was remarkable advance in various UNDFF National Action Plan (NAP) processes as a result of the strong support and collaboration among key stakeholders to put the United Nations Decade of Family Farming (UNDFF) on top of the agenda. New UNDFF National Action Plans were adopted in Tunisia and Kyrgyzstan, being the first NAP in Northern Africa and Central Asia respectively.
Significant progress was achieved in other 13 NAP drafting processes (inter alia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Portugal, Spain, and Togo), and new countries connected to the UNDFF worldwide.
There are excellent examples of how the implementation of UNDFF National Action Plans is stimulating the improvement of the policy and institutional frameworks in support of family farming in various countries (e.g., Dominican Republic, Panama, among others). Thus, greater attention should also be paid to providing the NAPs with the necessary technical and financial resources and instruments for their implementation.
In coordination with governments, family farmers’ organizations, FAO, IFAD, and other agencies, the 45 National Committees of Family Farming (NCFF) keep playing a critical role in the promotion, design, and implementation of the National Action Plans and other policies to support family farming.
The progress achieved confirms the relevance of the UNDFF in the national responses to the major challenges countries and family farmers are facing today (food insecurity, poverty, the sustainability of food systems and climate change, etc.). There is a need to scale up the achievements and strengthen the commitments to accelerate the implementation of the UNDFF and reach the target of 100 NAP set out in the Decade’s Global Action Plan.
At the regional level, in 2022, 2 new UNDFF Sub-Regional Action Plans were finalized within the framework of the Central America Integration System (SICA) and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). The drafting process of the UNDFF Sub-Regional Action Plan of the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR) advanced steadily. Efforts to mobilize in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) were finally relaunched in 2022 after the COVID- 19 pandemic.
Regional family farmers’ organizations also continued to play a very active role in the promotion of regional policy dialogue and the development of UNDFF Sub-Regional Action Plans, together with regional intergovernmental organizations, FAO, and other particular partners in each region (IFAD, IICA, International Cooperative Alliance, etc.).
The institutional, technical, and financial support provided to the NCFF, family farmers’ organizations, governments, etc., through different initiatives from the European Union (EU), FAO, WRF, ILC, IFAD, IICA, and other agencies, has been catalytic to stimulate policy dialogue and National and Sub-Regional Plan processes, with great success.
Efforts should be redoubled to scale up the results achieved, with actions oriented to: i) reinforcing multistakeholder dialogue on family farming and the collaboration between governments, family farmers’ organizations, NCFF, FAO, IFAD, etc. ii) escalating technical and financial resource mobilization to support the elaboration and implementation of UNDFF Action Plans; iii) strengtheningstakeholder capacities, especially family farmers’ organizations and NCFF, to participate in the elaboration of the UNDFF Action Plans, to monitor their implementation, and to spread the Action Plans among family farmers.
For further details on the processes in the various countries and regions, as well as the relevant role of the NFFs and family farmer organizations in these processes, we invite you to read the full report.