Report of the 2008 global meeting - IFAD

ural livelihoods. We also urge the members of IFAD to increase their contributions to the
Fund so that it can increase its impact, on the ground, in favour of poor rural people.
In addition, we want to stress that the Fund’s empowerment agenda and
commitment to poor rural people can be best pursued in partnership with farmers’ and
rural peoples’ organizations and with governments.
Looking back at the last two years, since the first global meeting of the Farmers’
Forum, we recognize that IFAD has made tangible efforts and achieved significant
progress in responding to the recommendations that we, the participants in the Farmers’
Forum at IFAD, presented to you in February 2006.
We see that IFAD is actually changing the way it works at country level in order to
allow for a stronger engagement of our farmers’ and rural producers’ organizations in
the development of its country strategies and projects with its member governments.
Indeed there is a growing trend that we want to see continue and accelerate.
We also acknowledge the efforts IFAD is making to help us strengthen the capacity
of our producers’ organizations through direct and demand-driven financial support to
our members and through support to policy dialogue platforms at regional levels, such
as the REAF-MERCOSUR in Latin America and the review of the Economic Partnership
Agreement between EU and ACP countries.
We furthermore acknowledge IFAD’s response to our call to increase its engagement
with the land issues facing poor rural producers. In this regard, we appreciate the draft
policy on “Promoting Equitable Access to Land and Tenure Security for Rural Poverty
Reduction” and we urge its approval and implementation by IFAD’s management and
Executive Board.
Additionally, we appreciate the report IFAD presented to us on its partnerships
with us, rural producers’ organizations, and its spirit of transparency and accountability,
which has strengthened further the trust among us and has broadened opportunities
for collaboration.
As we know each other better we are also becoming more demanding.
Indeed we, the participants in the Farmers’ Forum, believe that much more can be done
in a more systematic way and that the progress achieved so far is partial and uneven
among countries. Our collaboration needs to be institutionalized so that we can more
effectively achieve our common agenda to fight rural poverty and promote family
agriculture and other rural livelihoods, most importantly livestock and fishing.
The Farmers’ Forum process will always be guided by the principles agreed upon
three years ago: mutual respect, pluralism, openness, inclusiveness, transparency, and
promotion of mutual recognition of the autonomy and independence of farmers’
organizations. These principles should also guide the producers’ organizations in their
relation with their members, assuring their accountability to them.
Principles of engagement. On the basis of the ongoing collaboration, we believe
that the time is ripe for the development of shared and agreed-upon principles of
engagement to guide our interaction. These principles should be developed in 2008.
We the Farmers’ Forum participants recommend that these principles of engagement
be discussed and approved by the Executive Board of IFAD and be followed by the
preparation of clear operational guidelines focused on compliance with these principles
at the country and regional levels.
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