“We are hoping that some of the discussions that will take place this week will contribute to the discussion in terms of the post 2015 agenda as well as in terms of building resilience to food and nutrition security in small island states”
Samoa’s voice will be heard loud and clear at the High Level Panel of the Global Conference on Building Resilience to Food and Nutrition Security being held at the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
Women in Business Development executive director, Adimaimalaga Tafuna’i, is part of the High Level Panel. She is speaking about linking small farmers to markets to strengthen local production.
Mrs. Tafuna’i is among the Samoan delegation at the meeting. The voices of other Pacific countries will also be heard.
The Director for the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), Michael Hailu said the conference is an opportunity for Small Island Developing States (S.I.D.S.) to share their experiences and challenges.
Hailu said its high time issues concerning S.I.D.S. are raised in international meetings like this. He is delighted that the Caribbean and the Pacific are represented.
“Well this is a major conference on Building Resilience to Food and Nutrition Security that brings together about 850 experts from around the world,” he said.
“CTA in partnership with the European Union and the ACP group decided to bring together participants from the Caribbean and the Pacific so that they can contribute to the global discussion on building resilience and also learn from experiences from other regions.
<!-- ads-articles(24.03.14) -->
<ins class="adsbygoogle"
style="display:inline-block;width:336px;height:280px"
data-ad-client="ca-pub-9419815128221199"
data-ad-slot="2395638412"></ins>
<script>
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
</script>{/googleAds}
“What we found out is that generally most of the Caribbean and Pacific experts are not included in such international discussions and we thought that it would be useful for them to be part of this discussion.
“As part of this conference we are also organising a side event just to focus on the Caribbean and the Pacific and facilitate exchanges of lessons between the two regions.
“There are people coming from the private sectors, farmers organisation, regional institutions and other groups so they can share challenges, especially challenges of resilience in each of these regions and what practical solutions that have worked for them that they can share with other regions.”
Hailu also explained that outcomes of the discussion would be fed to the upcoming S.I.D.S. conference in Samoa in September.
“As you know every 10 years there is a major UN conference on Small Developing Islands States (S.I.D.S.) and the next one will be in September in Samoa. “We are hoping that some of the discussions that will take place this week will contribute to the discussion in terms of the post 2015 agenda as well as in terms of building resilience to food and nutrition security in small island states.
“CTA is working with the UN body responsible for this meeting and the Secretary General for S.I.D.S. is also coming to our meeting and will be contributing with the discussion. He will be listening to some of the issues that will be coming out of our discussions. We hope whatever that comes out of this meeting will be fed into the S.I.D.S. meeting in Samoa.”
More than 800 experts and practitioners from around the world including the Pacific on food, nutrition, health, agriculture, humanitarian, and related development sectors are attending the conference.
The conference is the centerpiece of a consultative process led by the Washingtonbased International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and its 2020 Vision Initiative and their partners include The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA).
The concept of resilience is currently the subject of wide attention in the development community, but resilience in the context of food and nutrition security is less widely discussed.
The conference ends today.
<!-- 336x280 (bottom-article) -->
<ins class="adsbygoogle"
style="display:inline-block;width:336px;height:280px"
data-ad-client="ca-pub-2469982834957525"
data-ad-slot="1033882026"></ins>
<script>
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
</script> {/googleAds}