Participants come mainly from SOMRDPE focal agencies, other national agencies concerned with RDPE, and peoples’ organizations, CSOs and NGOs, resource agencies and other ASEAN national sectoral bodies.

The new RDPE FAP is subject to a regional SOMRDPE workshop at the ASEC HQ in August and for approval during the 7th AMRDPE in Nomber 2011 in Brunei Darussalam.

RDPE Consultation in Cambodia

RDPE Consultation in Malaysia

RDPE Consultation in Philippines

RDPE Consultation in Laos

RDPW Consultation in Thailand

The three workshops will be held from  09:00AM – 6:30PM at the Hotel Ciputra, Jakarta, Indonesia.

The 3 workshops are:

1. Agriculture and the Peasantry in ASEAN: Challenges and Way Forward (9:00AM – 12:30PM)
2. CSO Engagement with the ASEAN (12:30PM – 3:00PM)
3. Food Price Volatility and Food Reserves in ASEAN  (3:00PM – 6:30PM)

The workshop on Agriculture and the Peasantry in ASEAN: Challenges and Way Forward (co-organized by Asiadhrra with API, SPI, SP, BINA DESA, AFA, APNFS, LRAN) will discuss the challenges facing agriculture and peasantry in the ASEAN Region in the context of food sovereignty and land reform.

Download the Agriculture in ASEAN workshop program here…

315 farmers and rural organisations  from 60 countries covering the 5 continents have given their official support to the WRF Campaign in favour of the IYFF. See up-dated list in the WRF website: www.familyfarmingcampaign.net

WRF- who has met several times, in 2009-2010, the FAO staff in relation with our IYFF Campaign- has received, on 11th January 2011, an official letter from the FAO Director General, Mr. Jacques Diouf, granting WRF a liaison status. Taking into account the linkage between WRF and the coordination of the IYFF Campaign, it is a very positive tool to carry out our common goal with more international recognition.

In the coming days will be published the booklets related to the Africa and America continental meetings. They will be available also in the IYFF web.

Once the continental meetings have ended, the first World Consultative Committee-WCC of the IYFF Campaign will be organised with two representatives –our suggestion: to be elected, as in Asia, with gender approach and associative criteria: one woman-one man, one Farmers´ association, one rural NGO- by each Continent. At this moment, the representatives of Africa, America and Europe are undergoing the election process. We hope that, in two month, the WCC will be in place.

WRF has attended, from 5th to 11th February 2011, the World Social Forum in Dakar, Senegal. WRF representative gave a talk linking Family Farming with Food Sovereignty. It was a good opportunity to meet many of the IYFF partners and to promote the Campaign.

Ms. Miren Larrea, WRF Program Officer had a short visit at the AsiaDHRRA office on March 21, 2011 to update the secretariat on the recent activities  and news about the IYFF campaign. AFA secretariat and Pakisama also joined the lively sharing.

Visit the IYFF website at www.familyfarmingcampaign.net for the latest news on the campaign

The aim of the Continental meeting is to discuss issues related to the IYFF Campaign: how to involve more and more governments and civil society, how to reach a common understanding of the main issues and challenges of Family Farming, and the probable outstanding activities and benefits of the IYFF, once it is declared by the UN General Assembly.

About the Organizers

The Association for Development World Rural Forum –WRF-, is a worldwide network, a non-profit making entity whose main objective is the promotion of sustainable family agriculture and the rural environment in the context of globalization.

The WRF is coordinating the worldwide campaign for an International Year of Family Farming –IYFF- (www.familyfarmingcampaign.net).

AFA -Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural Development- is a regional alliance of 9 farmer federations in 8 Asian countries, representing 10 million of small men and women farmers.

AsiaDHRRA -Development of Human Resources in Rural Asia- a regional partnership of 11 social development networks and organizations in 10 Asian nations that envisions Asian rural communities that are just, free, prosperous, living in peace and working in solidarity towards self-reliance- is the Regional representative of WRF’s Asian Network in the Board of directors.

CIFA-The Consortium of Indian Farmers Associations, is an organization created to represent the farming sector, before the Government of India, the Planning Commission and other related authorities. Their aim is to promote adequate rural policies and the allocation of a significant budget for agricultural development, based on its contribution to the National GDP and also on the basis of the significance and importance of the total rural population.

AsiaDHRRA also joined the CSO strategy session on October 4, 2009 convened by Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) entitled “Agriculture in Global Climate Negotiations: Identifying Sustainable Solutions”.

IATP convened this meeting on the sidelines of the Bangkok negotiations in order for participants from different backgrounds to discuss the treatment of agriculture in the global climate negotiations. The objective of the meeting was to expand the constituency working on global climate negotiations from a sustainable agriculture perspective.

To prevent or mitigate future crises, ASEAN needs to formulate new global financial architecture that is fair and transparent, and that will narrow the widening gaps between and among economies. The mere focus on fiscal stimulus packages is not enough without the corresponding effective regulation of capital financial markets and a solid and integrated approach to addressing the complex concerns of the vulnerable sectors most affected by the crisis.

These were some of the recommendations that have emerged from the “Regional Conference on the Impact of Financial Crisis on Vulnerable Sectors of the Region: CSO Voices and ASEAN” attended by nearly 70 CSO leaders from organized groups of farmers, fishers, indigenous peoples, trade union, business/SME, as well as from the national and regional CSO networks, academe/research, donor community, and ASEAN senior officials.  These delegates came from Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia,  Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Taiwan and gathered at the Millenium Plaza in Jakarta, Indonesia  last July 28 to 29, 2009 to strengthen a constructive civil society interaction with ASEAN and policy makers in confronting the challenges of the global financial crisis.

The event, organized by AsiaDHRRA, AFA, UNI Apro/ASETUC, ASEAN, Oxfam HK, and GTZ, opened with a keynote address by Christopher NG, Regional Secretary of UNI Apro who observed that” the crisis is rooted in the global economic inequalities compounded by a global epidemic of bad corporate governance.” He explained that “like the governments and employers, the trade unions do have a stake in sustaining the viability, productivity and profitability of business, for this is central in creating decent, secure, sustainable jobs.”

Echoes of this emphasis on the role of the vulnerable sectors as equally important stakeholders in finding a regional solution to the crisis were heard from leaders representing the vulnerable sectors, namely: the farmers, represented by the Asian Farmers’ Association (AFA) ; fishers, by the Southeast Asia Fisherfolks for Justice (SEAFISH); trade union by UNI Apro/Asectuc;  women, by the  Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN); migrant workers, by the Task Force on ASEAN Migrant Workers; indigenous peoples, by the Indigenous Peoples Pact;  consumers, by the YKL1, business/SMEs by  Binasuwadaya, and development organizations, by AsiaDHRRA/InDHRRA.

Following an articulation by the sectors of the impact of the financial crisis in the region, its linkage with formal/informal sectors, food crisis, and climate change, global and regional responses to financial crisis were comprehensively discussed by representatives from ASEAN, World Bank, GTZ, TKN, UNDP, Ministry of Finance of Indonesia, and NSO. A productive exchange followed, which dealt with concerns about reducing dependence on foreign financing, failure of global governance to discipline the excesses of the corporate sector, the problem of unregulated financial market, regional economic integration and financial resilience, and the continuing impact of liberalized trading in Asia.

Among the challenges posed for CSOs, on the other hand, is in how to get a collective response inclusive of the people in the region, and in finding where it fits in the ASEAN programs and structures.  There was the positive note about the observed relative openness of ASEAN to engagement with CSOs in the past five years.

Based on these inputs, the delegates conducted workshops to define people-centered programs and policies responding to financial crisis for the agriculture sector, migrant workers and labor, consumers, and small and medium enterprises. The workshop aimed to identify the good policies and practices that are in place or that are being done, the gaps, and their recommendations to address these gaps. The workshops and the plenary discussions that followed generated policy directions and recommendations for addressing financial crisis at the national and regional levels.

The resulting draft consensus document was presented on the last day to the following representatives of regional and international regional bodies:  Dr. Aladdin Rillo, head of Finance Cooperation Division of the ASEAN Secretariat, Dr. Vivi Alatas, Senior Economist of World Bank Indonesia, Ms.Johanna Knoess of GTZ-Indonesia, Mr. Anggito Abimanyu of Indonesia’s Ministry of Finance, Mr. Sandagran Solomon Joseph Pitchay of NUBE Malaysia.

The delegates concluded with action planning to identify the most important action points to move the recommendations forward within the next three to six months at the national, regional, and international levels.

The event concluded with a press conference with reporters from Indonesia and the international media community.

Click to visit the workshop blog!!!

The regional dialogue seeks to strengthen a constructive civil society interaction with ASEAN and policy makers in confronting the challenges of the global financial crisis. At the end of the workshop, the following results are expected:

1. Improved and shared understanding of the impact and challenges of financial crisis in the region particularly to the poor and marginalized sectors.
2. Generated concrete policy recommendations and clear action points in addressing the financial crisis both for the national and regional level

This event is conducted in partnership with AFA, UNIAPRO/ASETUC, ASEAN, Oxfam HK and GTZ.