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Dear GFAR members, partners, colleagues and friends,

Season's greetings and best wishes for the new year to you all!

The GFAR Secretariat has had a busy year and enjoyed the opportunity to e-meet many of you during the regional interactions, interregional meetings and many other (virtual) events.

As we bid farewell to 2022, we would like to give you a short update on what we have achieved this year and what we plan to do in the new year.


Steering Committee meetings

The most important event was certainly the regular Steering Committee (SC) meeting in October, where the GFAR Secretariat team together with many of GFAR's partners presented most of the work we have been doing during 2022. We are especially happy about the fact that we have now completed all the work recommended by the independent evaluation done in 2018 and grateful to Paul Engel and Nathalie Dore for their kind ongoing support.

Other (extraordinary) SC meetings took place in May and December 2022 to discuss important and urgent matters regarding GFAR's future.

The following are additional important joint achievements we undertook: Read full article here

 

Ongoing and upcoming Collective Actions

Collective Action on Forgotten Foods

 

The Global Manifesto on Forgotten Foods is now being implemented on the ground starting with a multi-stakeholder co-design consultation and farmer-led project that was launched in October in India and that will deliver an international project by February 2023. During the FAO Science and Innovation Forum in October 2022 GFAR co-organized a main stage event titled ‘Back to the roots: Transforming agrifood systems for good via Forgotten Foods and Indigenous Peoples’ knowledge’ with several international experts, Indigenous People representatives, the Asian Farmers’ Association and the Regional Research Fora of Asia-Pacific (APAARI), Near East and North Africa (AARINENA) and Africa (FARA).

 

Collective Action on Inclusive Digital Transformation on Agriculture

 

The CA is moving to other regions beyond Latin America and the Caribbean region (Asia & Pacific and NENA).

 

New Collective Actions

 

We are excited to announce that we have started two new Collective Actions, as follows.

 

  • The Second Phase of the Participatory Research and Family Farming CA, implemented with the World Rural Forum (WRF) and others.

  • The Transformational Learning and Curricula Change CA, implemented with EFARD, APAARI, GCHERA, RUFORUM, several universities and other partners.

 

GFAR's Steering Committee also agreed on a new Collective Action on Land Rights in the context of Climate Change based on a webinar co-organized with ANGOC in the summer (2022).

 

Based on requests from potential funders we are also preparing two webinars on topics of interest to our members: the first on UN Food Systems Summit follow up, focusing on national pathways and ways GFAR regional fora and members can contribute to work planned at country level in 2023 (19.1.23); and the second on regional responses to challenges to soil fertility and sustainability (27.2.23)

 

Keep an eye on our website for more information on these exciting new Collective Actions and initiatives.