Thomas Price, Senior Officer, Agricultural Innovation and Society, attended the first global meeting of the Indigenous Peoples’ Forum at IFAD. The Forum provides a voice for these peoples into IFAD activities and programmes building on the Policy on Engagement with Indigenous Peoples adopted in 2009. It will be a regular, biannual feature held in relation to the IFAD Governing Council testifying to the particular importance of Indigenous Peoples to rural society and economy as well as the particular challenges these distinctive communities face as often marginalized and vulnerable groups. IFAD will enhance focus on their priorities and needs and engage directly with them and their organizations through projects at country level.

 

The Forum participants called for recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ rights to land, territories and resources and the contributions of their traditional knowledge systems, technologies and livelihoods for ecosystem resilience and sustainable development. There was particular recognition of the potential contributions of collaborative research for documenting, highlighting and enhancing the particular value of indigenous agriculture, landscapes and food systems.

 

The theme of the IFAD’s 2013 Governing Council was “The power of partnerships: Forging alliances for sustainable smallholder agriculture”. A panel discussion was devoted to “Secrets of mutually beneficial and successful partnerships”. Panelists from Egypt, Ethiopia and Guatemala shared their experiences in overcoming constraints and the keys to success in collective organization of smallholders as agro-entrepreneurs and cooperatives. In a panel on “The power of partnerships: investing in sustainable rural development”  leaders from government, producer associations, the banking sector, agribusiness and multilateral bodies discussed ways in which smallholder farmers and rural entrepreneurs can forge alliances with the private sector to their benefit. Smallholder access to knowledge, technology and research was a leitmotif in each panel.