What is GFAiR Talks?

GFAiR Talks is an exciting webinar series, which puts farmers centre stage and uses GFAiR’s global platform to hold informed debates on issues of interest to platform members and hence based also on the expression of their priorities that are related to agrifood system transformation. 

GFAiR Talks will facilitate debates on often complex issues of interest to GFAiR members and seek inputs from farmers, women and indigenous and marginalized communities also in terms of themes and participants/speakers. 

GFAiR Talks will also include YPARD (Young Professionals for Agricultural Development) as a partner to ensure that young women and men are represented, that their views are heard. Youth representatives will be invited to contribute to the webinars as participants, experts, moderators or panellists. 

GFAiR Talks is convened by a Coordinator supported by a YPARD representative and GFAiR Communications Team to prepare and deliver media outputs on each topic of discussion. Whilst it will act as host, GFAiR will not endorse particular views expressed in GFAiR Talks in order to ensure wide-ranging and independent opinions from diverse invited speakers. 

Why GFAiR Talks?

The objective of GFAiR Talks is to engage GFAiR members and other stakeholders in strategic dialogues and topical debates on complex and often controversial issues related to agrifood systems. The topics of GFAiR Talks should promote and provide intellectual support for the GFAiR Collective Actions. In addition to experts and opinion makers, GFAiR Talks will give a voice to often marginalized groups to express their views, perspectives and insights on each topic. 

Format

There will be four GFAiR Talks per year, each lasting 60 minutes to include time for questions and comments. At each talk, one speaker and one respondent will be invited to speak. The speaker will be invited to provide a 10 minute perspective and a respondent will provide their views on the same topic. An independent moderator, Prof. Dr. Sayed Azam-Ali, will facilitate GFAiR Talks. 

Communication

The GFAiR communications team will send zoom invitations for the webinars, provide technical support to host each event, arrange test calls and internet connectivity. The team will also provide social media and dissemination materials. 

Media outputs will include a topical `think piece’ related to the subject of each event and a press pack for public media and wider dissemination. 

Themes

After consultation with key stakeholders, topics for discussion will be selected that are broad enough to be of interest to a cross section of the GFAiR community or related to specific global or regional events or topical actions that relate to the mandate of GFAiR. 

In 2023, GFAiR will foster a consultative process with its stakeholders/members to identify in a proactive way the themes that are of greatest interest to them and around which they are willing to provide inputs in terms of ideas for discussion and availability to take part in the debates. 

The webinars could be followed by the creation of thematic communities of practices to further elaborate on the topic, fielding ground-level dialogues that could possibly lead to the creation of multi-stakeholder alliances to conduct collaborative research and co-innovation initiatives possibly benefitting of GFAiR facilitation/seed money as new Collective Actions or expansions of the existing one.