The United Nations Decade of Family Farming 2019-2028 (UNDAF), which is a continuation of the IYFF 2014 process, was unanimously declared by the UN General Assembly (A/RES/72/239), following an intensive campaign led by the World Rural Forum and various family farming organisations from all continents, in collaboration with international agencies, governments and various organisations and associations.
The Decade seeks to improve the quality of life of family farmers over the next 10 years, through the implementation of plans, policies and processes to strengthen family farming, at global and regional levels, but above all at the national level.
The UNDFF provides a concrete framework to promote the joint work of governments, civil society – especially family farming organisations – and international organisations in favour of differentiated policies for family farming.
The World Rural Forum is deeply involved in the design and implementation of the Decade, through its active participation in the UNDFF International Steering Committee, coordinating the World CSO (Civil Society Organisations) Coordinating Committee for the UNDFF, and collaborating with the Joint FAO-IFAD Secretariat of the UNDFF, governments, international organisations, etc.
In addition, it accompanies the National Committees of Family Farming (NCFFs) as key policy dialogue platforms to ensure the success of the Decade, defining the implementation of the UNDFF at country level, translating the needs and priorities identified by the different actors into actions, policies and processes of change for the benefit of family farmers and their livelihoods.
More information: www.familyfarmingcampaign.org
The World Rural Forum is leading the AgriCOOPDS initiative, which aims to promote agricultural cooperativism or associativism, especially cooperatives linked to family farming, taking advantage of the opportunity offered by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The initiative defines 5 specific objectives:
- To raise awareness of agricultural cooperativism, by disseminating good practices and clearly showing the contribution of cooperativism to the fulfilment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
- Create an enabling environment that facilitates the adoption of better public policies, including the issue in the agenda of the Decade of Family Farming.
- To improve or strengthen the services offered by Family Farming cooperatives through a programme of exchanges between cooperatives designed for this purpose.
- Encourage the incorporation of more young people and women as members in the existing cooperatives in their region.
- Promote the creation of new cooperatives linked to Family Farming.
The initiative was designed in collaboration with a number of organisations, namely LORRA, KONFEKOOP, CSCE-EKGK, Cooperativas Agro-alimentarias de España, COGECA, Agriterra, ACODEA, Kaiku Cooperativa, Laboral Kutxa, Cajamar, UDAPA S.Coop, ABERE S.Coop and ABELUR S. Coop.
More information: www.agricoopds.org
The nature and strength of the World Rural Forum lies in its broad, plural and inclusive network, composed of family farming organisations, rural development organisations, cooperatives and agricultural research centres from 5 continents.
It is of great importance for the WRF to strengthen the organisational, negotiation, advocacy and governance capacities of its members and allies.
Among other actions, the WRF has an exchange programme that aims to strengthen the WRF’s members and allies and to promote the work of the network. In this way, it stimulates the improvement of capacities and learning, the creation of alliances, and the strengthening of advocacy in favour of family farming and sustainable development in the different countries and regions.
