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2 p.m.-3.30 p.m. Lunch break. CTA is organizing a side event from 2 p.m.- 3.15 p.m., information about which you can find here.
1:13 p.m. Jesús G. Regidor from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid is now presenting a proposal for a new cooperation strategy in the agro-food sector and rural development. He highlights that agro-food sovereignty efforts need to complement the scope given to food-security policies. The strategy foresses to allow countries to create their own production inputs. It also aims to get away from bilateral treaties and towards multilateral treaties.
12:15 p.m. More than 400 participants at the Rural Forum, writes europapress.es.
“About 400 delegates from around the world are gathering in Palencia to participate in the Third European Forum on Rural Development to be held from tomorrow, March 29 and April 1 and will focus on the fight against hunger and poverty. Secretary of State for International Cooperation, Soraya Rodriguez, visited the capital of Palencia to announce an event she described as “one of the most important events that have taken place in Palencia”.”
Read more here.
11:30 a.m. Coffee break. People are heading out to the public area at Plaza Major to have a coffee, a snack and to visit the market, offering a range of publications, CDs and leaflets.
10:40 a.m. Federico Mayor Zaragoza, former UNESCO Secretary General, and president of the Foundation for Peace culture, gave the keynote speech. We all know the problems and it is time for action. Mr Mayor did a review of the evolution of development policies. The core of our work is human development. Markets should serve people needs and not the opposite. Is we have funds for military costs, we can find them to reduce poverty in the world which is a collective shame. We can expand production through technology, innovation, commitment and knowledge sharing. We need above all a world governance which ensures cooperation and not exploitation. New information technologies give us hope in changing things and mobilising efforts for change.
10.33 a.m. Spain is committed with poverty reduction. Spain is the country which has made the biggest efforts in financing development cooperation in the last 7 years, although we are going through a crisis. Our participation to the world processes in development is also significant. We have a strong national rural development policy, strengthening the gender equality and empowering rural women and farmers.
10.32 a.m. Jauregui: change comes about through policies. We need to change these policies.
10.28 a.m. Minister for the Presidency Ramón Jauregui is now speaking. http://bit.ly/gL4q0k
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