Possible

Possible Joint Stakeholder Action Towards Implementation
(Type 2)

1. Legally secure access to and control of financial resources

Barriers:

·       Inequitable wealth distribution

·       Declining ODA levels, despite expanding populations in developing countries.

·       High transaction costs for access to credit

·       International financial institutions and bilateral assistance tied to sovereign states – makes it difficult for developing country producers to economically engage in economic activity throughout product cycle and benefit appropriately.

·       Poor governance exacerbating the high level of risks from insecure property rights, lack of titles or ability to use land and other assets as collateral.

Strategy:

·       Promotion of social and economic conditions – employment conditions for permanent and temporary workers

Catalytic / micro-credit schemes

·       Are they beneficial to all stakeholder groups

–  if not, are there more appropriate alternatives? Co-operatives, Microfinance systems for small producers, especially women.

·       Identification of successful initiatives: are lessons /outcomes transferable / adaptable?

Overseas Development Assistance

·       How can extant ODA be utilised more effectively in a globalised economy?

·       Further support for the current shift towards investment lending to offset domestic under-investment in rural public goods?

·       Support for further flexibility and unconditionality in funding allocation

·       How can donors develop and utilise more appropriate ‘objectively verifiable indicators’

Domestic investment in capacity building:

·       Support and facilitate domestic resource investment in infrastructure development through

·   Basic /applied R&D

·  Training and education

2. Legally secure access to and control of natural resources

Barriers:

·       Genetic resource ownership issues – TRIPS currently sanctions genetic resource ownership.

·       Ownership of water sources

·       Lack of appropriate legal protection of assets and formalised property right systems – (including the right to buy and sell) – often leads to poor being forced from their land

Strategies:

·       Prevention of multi-national IPR monopolisation

Stakeholder Forum is investigating the potential for joint-collaboration between Water and Food Security Issue Advisory Groups on access to water

Strengthen national and local capacity to negotiate access to and benefit sharing of natural resources

Support for the broadening of existing initiatives in relation to land. This could include:

·  Supporting the establishment of independent, accountable land commission

·  Encouraging capacity building regarding legislation and enforcement; suggested action in the women’s caucus paper (2000), e.g. training paralegal advisors; information tools for women on land & tenure rights; etc

·   Strengthening community based organisation networks, in order to identify and disseminate lessons learnt and potential best practice examples of:

·   existing systems for (collective) rights over shared land

·   formal land tenure arrangements for small scale producers, especially women

·   land registries and cadastre systems. 

Promote sui generis plant variety protection systems as an alternative to patenting genetic resources (plants, animals, micro-organisms) and natural processes

3. Sustainable natural resource management

·         Sustainable agrochemical use

·         Improved natural resource stewardship (habitat/ biodiversity management in agriculture)

·         Sustainable off-take during both land and marine harvesting.

Barriers:

·           Unsustainable land management regimes and detrimental influences on agricultural productivity (land degradation; soil nutrient depletion; pH imbalance; poor drainage; desertification; salinisation; agrochemical  misuse)

·           Displacement of rural communities through agricultural expansion, land degradation and demographic pressures.

Strategies:

·           Address how productivity can be improved on extant agricultural land

·       Utilisation of alternative crop varieties?

·       Utilisation of multiple-forest products?

·           Raise awareness of the benefits derivable from sustainable management strategies, including integrated crop/pest management, agroforestry, multi-species production systems, minimum tillage etc.

Outcomes

·           Improved integrated management of land and aquatic production systems

·           Improved agricultural productivity

·           Optimised agrochemical use

·           Reduced environmental degradation / biodiversity loss

Establish / expand upon a knowledge exchange programme

·         An on-going initiatives database for reference / potential exchange opportunities

·         A unified compendium of lessons learnt from previous projects / programmes

·         How can various media be employed to raise awareness amongst local authorities, farmers, local communities and stakeholders within the wider development community – this should include local communication networks, including radio,  internet technology (where feasible) etc.

Support for:

·   Training in sustainable management techniques for

·      Local producers, particular women

·      Agricultural extension workers

·   Sustainable management training foci to include biodiversity conservation, water management and social considerations including inter-community heterogeneity (gender, age, religion)

·  Individual capacity building:

·           Development of empowerment mechanisms for women to take on leadership and management roles in stewardship / management schemes

·           Support for individual education / training opportunities  (see also Technology section and above)

·       Development of practical, equitable mechanisms for marketing produce nationally / internationally where financial returns are

·       captured by local producers and/or

·       reinvested in national resource management (watersheds, soil conservation etc) – EXPLORE ACTION LINK TO FAIR TRADE

4. Promotion of fair / ethical trade

Barriers:

·       Distortive subsidies / tariffs that support unsustainable / unethical food production systems

·       Lack of established marketing infrastructure

·       Lack of consumer awareness of ‘Fair Trade’ product availability

·       Balance of interests between export crops as a source of income generation and crops for local consumption / markets.

·       Globalisation of agricultural commodities, resulting in continuous price depreciation

·       Rural producers have no financial returns on value added to the product through branding

·       Potential conflicting interests at regional levels – impact of tourism if production increasingly tailored to tastes of tourists.

Strategies:

·       Raise awareness and thus stimulate demand for fair trade products at national and international levels.

·       Support development and promotion of Green markets

·       Strengthen supply chains for agricultural products

Investigate the feasibility of initiating / supporting a campaign for a fair system of tariffs and subsidies internationally – focusing on:

Phasing out distortive, production based subsidies in favour of stewardship incentives

Focusing national attention on the importance of support for domestic crop production

Eliminating the subsidized supply of agricultural products to developing countries as food aid (this impedes developing country crops competition in global markets and exacerbates downward pressure on domestic prices in developing countries as surplus is dumped on local markets)

Identify and expand upon initiatives focusing upon developing integrated systems to strengthen market access for resource poor farmers

Actively identify and strengthen linkages with community based rural producer organisations to further representation of community needs within higher level decision-making processes

Investigate the feasibility of developing / promoting new financial mechanisms that invest in and support producer co-operatives

Identify and support the creation of mechanisms to strengthen farmers’ market information and power

Develop a common learning / information exchange between fair trade representatives in established sectors, e.g coffee, and other, less well advanced sectors

5. Improved access to and uptake of appropriate technologies

Barriers:

·           Local capacity limitations to drive innovation and the development of appropriate[3] (production and information) technologies

·            ‘Appropriate’ technology development (e.g new crop varieties) being predominately driven by Northern hemisphere demand and /or perceptions of ‘appropriateness’.

·           Lack of access to potentially beneficial technologies

·           Absence of an enabling environment to support technology acquisition and underpin adoption (credit/loan facilities, extension services etc.)

·           Unstained technology uptake following acquisition (exacerbated by lack of information provision on potential benefits, costs, implications etc of adoption)

Strategies:

·           Foster innovation and thus technology development on a needs / demand driven basis – with consideration for:

·           Eventual markets

·           Potential adopters

·           Improve availability of affordable, non-resource intensive technologies

Partnerships to broaden the impact of successful initiatives to-date, especially instances of innovation driven from a grass-roots level.

Partnerships to increasingly facilitate knowledge and technologies dissemination and adaptation to specific contexts?

·         Consider establishing national multi-stakeholder councils for developing strategies to transfer/ adopt knowledge and technologies ^*

·         Establish/ extend South-South community exchange programmes at a regional and potentially national level.

·         Develop / expand an information and technology bank

·         Public-private research partnerships as a means of capitalising upon institutional synergies / resource availability.

^*  Technologies should include both production and information technologies. Inexpensive, non-resource intensive technologies with potential to add value / realise benefits relatively rapidly should be key foci.

Support the development of appropriate domestic R&D infrastructures:

·         Develop recommendations for R&D programmes foci (at national/ regional levels?)

·           Broaden awareness of beneficial examples of collaborative public / private sector iniitiatives

Reaffirm long-term commitment to develop and support extension services and educational programmes to:

·       Raise producer awareness of the potential implications of adopting specific technologies (benefits and costs)

·       Advise and assist with management and implementation.

6. Improved capacity to manage risk and uncertainty

Barriers:

·       Abiotic influences on agricultural productivity, including current climatic variability, potential climate change in the future and non-climate related natural disasters

·       Cultural and political instability, resulting in a reduced workforce.

·       Lack of financial capital to take risks, for example adopting new technologies / methodologies - especially if benefits are not immediately apparent.

·       Public concerns regarding regarding GMOs (Ethical, social (and environmental concerns)) – potential costs (, undetermined impacts on human and environmental health, costs of implementing the precautionary principle) vs. potential benefits (improved productivity, nutritional content, pest/ drought resistance)

Strategies:

·            Furthering information provision as a means of enabling decision making on the basis of readily available scientific and economic evidence with respect to the potential costs and benefits of novel technology adoption.

·            Improve availability of risk management options to local communities– market / weather information, extension services, pest monitoring, crop insurance, debt restructuring

·       Encourage a shift from a disaster relief ethos amongst local communities (producers / local authorities) to mitigation / pre-emptive planning and preparation strategies

·       Promote voluntary labelling of products containing GMOs – affording individuals the right to choose

·       Establish / strengthen advisory networks to enhance domestic ability to make appropriate decisions on the implementation of appropriate regulatory frameworks

·       Strengthen local capacity for employing early warning systems and assessing potential risks through

·        increasing availability of necessary technologies

·        supporting local training in both

a) employing such technologies and

7. Governance  - encourage the development of appropriate decision making infrastructure at national and regional level

Barriers:

·         Pro-poor decision making requires political courage

·         Prioritisation of short-term economic goals over longer term social / environmental goals

·         International, national and local governance priorities may not always align

·         National government reluctance to decentralise power to empower local authorities.

Strategy:

·         Strengthen national, regional and local institutional frameworks for cross-sectoral co-operation

·         Develop a multi-stakeholder statement / campaign on good governance, transparency and accountability (towards and beyond the Summit)

·         Establish an international food security multi-stakeholder forum

·         Establish/support local multi-stakeholder councils to develop locally appropriate strategies, collaborative management mechanisms etc. Co-operative frameworks require mutual trust, codes of conduct, thematic action plans.

·         Develop decentralised, local-level consultation and support mechanisms to enable appropriate / informed decision making within the domain of local communities (goals, priorities, land ownership/demarcation, negotiation and conflict resolution capacities etc.)

·         Need to consider whether it is enough to encourage complementarity / harmonisation of customary and state laws. Will potentially marginalized groups (women, indigenous communities) receive adequate representation?