“You have reflected very intensively”, said David Nabarro, UN Special Representative on Food Security and Nutrition, when participants had gathered in the plenary for the concluding session. Nabarro had been unable to come to the Forum on Rural Development in the first two days, but he was able to reach Palencia in time to chair the last session.
“Let me sum up what you have suggested throughout the breakout sessions,” Nabarro said and started with an extensive list of conference results. “Most of all, you have highlighted an absolute need for continued advocacy for agriculture, because it is underpins sustainable growth and safeguards biodiversity. You have also stressed that the focus should be on smallholder farmers, the inclusion of the private sector, women, youths and the relation between agriculture and climate change. Here, government policies need to become more consistent. It cannot be agriculture OR climate, it must be agriculture AND climate.”
An affirmative nod went through the room. “With regard to donors and investors,” Nabarro ensued, “you have made it clear that investment in agriculture from both private and public sector is necessary, and that it should be actively sought.” The UN Special Representative on Food Security and Nutrition then turned to the in-country challenges faced by most governments in the global South. “The most important point you have mentioned is to strengthen farmers’ organizations at the local level,” Nabarro told the delegates. “Farmers have an important role that goes beyond food production, but it is very time-consuming and farmers need to unite to reap sufficient benefits from their work.” Nabarro put a special emphasis on the need to tackle price volatility on local markets which hit consumers just as much as farmers and undermine food security.
The suggestions for government policies emanating from the Forum were mostly geared towards policy coherence and the need to listen to farmers at the local level. “Dialogue with farmers’ representations is crucial to allow for food security.” Nabarro also pointed to social protection and innovation and research as two aspects where delegates expect governments to be ambitious. “We need to see leadership from the governments, most of all from the agricultural ministers,” Nabarro pounded.
Regarding international organizations and international governance, the UN Special Representative on Food Security and Nutrition said that international policies should not isolate individual problems like food security or gender, but create an integrated approach that includes all stakeholders, the farmers, the private sector, the public sector and civil society. To make policies more efficient, donor countries need to coordinate their efforts more, said Nabarro. Promoting the international research agenda in the field of agriculture and food security could also have a lot of potential. “Most importantly, however,” Nabarro told the delegates assembled in the plenary, “you have stressed here in Palencia that one crucial component of agriculture and rural development most come much more into focus: the farmer.”