The Decade of Family Farming is the result of a campaign led by family farming and other civil society organisations to improve the quality of life for family farmers around the world.
This is without doubt a great achievement by civil society organisations that called for this Decade following the success of the 2014 International Year of Family Farming (IYFF) in terms of its recognition by society as well as the initiation and revitalisation of important public policy formulation.
The International Year of Family Farming 2014 was a year of significant advances for family farming across the globe. The Year has gone down in history as one of the UN’s official years with the widest and most diverse social participation and resulted in the greatest number of substantial and positive advances for family farming, peasant farming, small-scale fishing, pastoralism and indigenous communities.
Following a campaign promoted by the WRF in 2008, and with the support of around 700 civil society organisations, along with Govenments, international organizations, especially FAO and IFAD, the IYFF 2014 was declared in December 2011 (A/RES/66/222).
The IYFF 2014 marked a before and after in terms of global awareness of the role of family farmers in the food and nutrition of the population. Furthermore, it highlighted the challenges that family farmers face and generated social and political interest to improve the quality of life for these farmers.
During the 2014 IYFF, a total of 50 National Committees for Family Farming (NCFF) were also created— led by family farmers organisations in many cases— to allow authentic platforms for dialogue and negotiation concerning national public policies. Thanks to the work of these committees, which continue to have active roles and incorporate a wide variety of stakeholders, 13 legal and budgetary reforms favourable to family farming were brought into effect during the 2014 IYFF.
Following the success of the 2014 IYFF, family farming organisations requested that the Year be extended through the IYFF+10 initiative.
Towards the end of the International Year of Family Farming 2014, farming leaders from five continents alongside representatives of rural associations, research centres and National Committees for Family Farming (NCFFs); members of the Global Advisory Committee and other actors met in Brazil on November 14th and 15th.
Based on the Brasilia Manifesto, they decided to extend the movement in support of family farming, peasant farming, small-scale fishing, pastoralism and indigenous communities for 10 additonal years.
The principal objective of the IYFF+10 initiative was to improve public policies concerning family farming. Within its comprehensive framework for action were the following three central components: i) The promotion of the National Committees for Family Farming (NCFF), ii) the elaboration of Global Guidelines for Family Farming and iii) the promotion of Participatory Research.
In addition to the three central components, the IYFF+10 demanded the international community to declare a decade to give continuity to the IYFF 2014.
In line with the 2030 Agenda that delineates the international commitment to confront the social, economic and environmental challenges facing humanity, family farming organisations— coordinated by the WRF— launched a campaign requesting the international community to focus their attention on family farming for 10 more years with the United Nations Decade of Family Farming.
The campaign for the Decade of Family Farming was widely supported by international bodies such as the FAO and IFAD, and other entities like ILC, CPLP, REAF etc.. The official process was spearheaded by Government of Costa Rica which led a group of 13 other countries (Angola, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, Philippines, Portugal, Spain, Thailand and Uruguay) and proposed the Resolution for the Decade at the 72nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly.
On December 20th 2017, the proposal was unanimously approved and supported by the following 104 countries:
This strong international support is an example of the solidarity needed to strengthen family farming and indicates that we have found ourselves with an historic opportunity to bolster family farming.
