14 December 2021 – AsiaDHRRA, represented by Florante Noy Villas, Senior Program Manager, was a panel speaker in the “Mainstreaming Agrobiodiversity for Sustainable Food System in the ASEAN Region”, a regional event organized by Mekong Institute in partnership with Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), Pha Khao Lao (NAFRI).

The overall objective of the 2-day (Dec14-15) workshop and forum is to strengthen policy actions towards agro-biodiversity mainstreaming in regional gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) policies and initiatives for sustainable food systems (SFS).

Noy shared views in the inter-active panel on “Agrobiodiversity Loss and Impact on Food Security and Livelihood: in Southeast Asia”. He referred to AsiaDHRRA’s work with rural people’s organizations, as member of the AgriCord alliance, in particular its advisory services related to farm planning that incorporates bio-diversity principles, where the farm not only provide family farmers with cash, but also responds to food security, and protect natural resources. That this work is coupled with supporting family farmers participate strongly in the value-chain.

He highlighted the importance of investing in organizing/strengthening farmers cooperatives and associations to succeed in their important role in local, territorial, eco-sytem based development. He also shared how through its partnership with ASEAN thru the SOMRDPE it is able to influence policies and programming that contributes to mainstreaming agro-biodiversity for a more sustainable food system in the region, in particular its technical/financing assistance in crafting the now approved 5-year Rural Development and Poverty Eradication (RDPE) Work Plan and the on-going drafting of the Rural Development Master Plan.