Role of Farmer Organizations in Agri-Food Systems Innovation
In the context of COVID-19 outbreak, FAO Regional Office for Near East and North Africa (RNE) is organizing this Zoominar on Farmer organizations’ role in promoting innovation to increase food security, and sustainable rural development. Since the early spread of COVID-19, FAO underscored the crucial role of farmer organizations in increasing resilience and rethinking priorities of food security policies to keep food supply chains alive and to achieve the SDGs.
In this critical context, FAO is highlighting the merit of scaling up innovation in agriculture, including digitalization and e-commerce; producing more food, in a more sustainable way; safeguarding biodiversity and addressing environmental issues; and changing current business models, related to the food system.
Farmer organizations are playing an important role to improve access to input and output markets, access and management to natural resources and improve knowledge and information as well as advocate for policy change through engaged discussions in policy-making processes, in review of legislative frameworks; and enhancing resilience and food security by building capacities, developing agricultural information systems and generating data.
Speakers will address the following questions:
- What are your key achievements in introducing innovation in your region and engaging your community to adopt technologies?
- How you are facing the COVID 19 pandemic and what are your main challenges and needs to build resilience and to access to inputs, advise, market, etc.?
- What are your expectations from FAO and other international organizations in order to access to innovation for building resilience to shocks and improve livelihoods especially for the period post COVID 19?
HOW TO ATTEND
· Only registered participants will attend, please find the registration link here
· Please note that the session will start on time on 20 July 2020 at 14:00 – 15:30 (GMT +2)
· We invite all participants to kindly login 10 minutes before.
· We suggest using Google Chrome or the Zoom App, in order to join the session
· We suggest trying the Zoom before https://fao.zoom.us/test
· We also recommend you to check your time zone here.
For further inquiries please feel free to contact: [email protected]
Abdessalam Ould Ahmed
Assistant Director General and Regional Representative for the Near East and North Africa – FAO RNE
Antonella Cianciotta
Technical Specialist – Farmers’ Organizations for Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (FO4ACP); Sustainable Production, Markets and Institutions (PMI) at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
Ahmed Sourani
General Coordinator of Gaza Urban Agriculture Platform (GUPAP)
Ahmed holds a Master’s degree in Participation, Power, and Social Change from the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex. Currently a policy and institutional development advisor at OXFAM in Gaza, Ahmed previously managed programs at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and advised and directed the Palestinian Agriculture Relief Committee (PARC). He has participated in a number of civil society organizations and regional and international initiatives, as a member of Advisory Board of Grassroots International’s Resource Rights for All and the ESCWA Regional Expert Group on Development under Crises, founder of Gaza Urban & Peri-Urban Agriculture Platform (GUPAP), founding member of the Arab Network for Urban Agriculture, the Arab Network for Food Sovereignty, and the Palestinian Strategic Group for Conflict Transformation.
Abdelmajid Ezzar
President of The Tunisian Union of Agriculture and Fisheries (UTAP); Vice President of Pan-African Farmers’ Organisation (PAFO), Bureau of Umnagri.