Naypyidaw, Myanmar – AsiaDHRRA, together with AFA and partner CSOs in the region, participated in the Regional Conference on “Policies to Enable Food Security, Agricultural Productivity and Improved Nutrition” organized by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) on 14-15 June 2016 at the Hotel Amara in Naypyidaw, Myanmar.
Marlene Ramirez, AsiaDHRRA’s Secretary General, presented the civil society inputs during the round-table session on Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration for Agriculture Productivity and Improved Food Security and Nutrition. She emphasized the importance of investing in strengthening the formation and organizing of smallholder farmers and food producers (as agri-cooperatives, if not associations) as an imperative to sustainable rural development and poverty eradication.
The conference was geared toward drawing together “policy research and experiences from around the region, the FAO and across the OECD countries to discuss the challenges and opportunities for policies to better enable food security, agricultural productivity and improved nutrition”, and was attended by at least 70 senior government and intergovernmental officials and civil society representatives. Oxfam and AsiaDHRRA jointly mobilized resources to support the participation of CSOs in the event.
AsiaDHRRA is an affiliate entity of ASEAN and a CSO-interlocutor of FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific.