ASEAN-FAO Regional Conference on Food Security
Bangkok, 27 – 28 May 2009
Summary of CSO Statement
The civil society participants in this gathering are committed to work with ASEAN and member states in addressing food security concern of the poor and marginalised, especially the vulnerable landless and resource-poor women and men farmers and fishers.
Addressing serious challenges of hunger and climate change, they will help scale up and increase the proportion of organized peasant organizations that can effectively provide voice and services to their members such as securing land and water resources, establishing organic farms and sustainable agro industries and community based enterprises through exchange visits and information and other capacity building interventions.
CSO will endeavour to work for an AIFS which puts farmers and consumer-supported agriculture at the center. CSO calls on ASEAN and member states to focus investments by allocating production, processing, marketing, financial, technical and human resources on sustainable smallholder agriculture. In the spirit of principled partnership, they ask ASEAN to consider, the establishment of a more inclusive and participatory ASEAN mechanism on Food Security composed of ASEAN governments and UN agencies and regional CSOs and organizations of small-scale farmers, fishers, indigenous peoples, urban poor, and rural women