Final curtain call for CFS-41

With food, agriculture and nutrition security policy having been given centre stage in Rome last week at the 41^st session of the Committee on World Food Security, the grand finale – dedicated to policy wrap-up – was drawn to a close on Friday 17^th October. To learn more about how the performers fared, we invite you to dip into the CIDSE reflections from Rome…

Here we offer insights into the key topics of debate at this year’s CFS, as well as some contextual background and food for thought:

Food Security in the spotlight: CIDSE at CFS-41 (October 13)
Food for thought; thought for action (October 14)
Right to Food Turns 10: Putting the ‘right’ solution back into Food Policy (October 15)
Signed, sealed… but fails to deliver: Responsible Agricultural Investment document is endorsed but raises alarm bells for civil society (October 17)
A stitch in time could save lives (October 17)

The CIDSE Food, Agriculture and Sustainable Trade (FAST) Working Group will certainly have their work cut out in the coming months as they strive to take on board new challenges and opportunities emerging from the CFS-41 negotiations. Will the RAI principles open the door for irresponsible, profiteering investors? Can the battle against the root causes of acute and chronic malnutrition, undernourishment and obesity be conquered on the back of a flawed Rome Political Declaration and a flimsy Framework for Action for the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2)? Will policy- makers hear our cry regarding the impact of food losses and waste to the sustainability and resilience of agricultural and food systems, and can they be spurred to take appropriate and adequate action in the necessary realm of research and data collection, information management, and awareness raising among citizens? Will hopes for accountability and transparency be realized through the implementation of an innovative monitoring mechanism in the CFS?

To keep abreast of these issues, we encourage you to stay tuned via the CIDSE website, where food news, views and more will continue to flow as and when political waves demand. In the meantime, why not join us on a quick-stop ‘Rome round-up’ tour, which offers a few bite-sized snippets of events and discussions which we hope will inspire. Enjoy!

Some of our favourite Tweets:

“The private sector happily welcomes RAI and CSOs express grave concerns and reservations about it … something’s wrong!” (@CIDSE)

“The more distant & dispersed the waste, the less our awareness & concern. We must do more.” (@EAA)

“Rights-holders can’t be put into the same basket with companies+agribusiness!” (@FIANista)
“Family farms are the custodians of about 75% of agricultural resources & produce about 80% of the world’s food – Stamoulis #SOFA2014” (@FAOnews)

Back to ‘Food security in the spotlight’

Some good videos on the CFS include

Javier Sanchez at CFS41 on rai principles