What is GFAR Talks?

GFAR Talks is an exciting webinar series, which puts farmers centre stage and uses GFAR’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. 

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

GFAR 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. 

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

Why GFAR Talks?

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

Format

There will be four GFAR 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 GFAR Talks. 

Communication

The GFAR 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 GFAR community or related to specific global or regional events or topical actions that relate to the mandate of GFAR. 

In 2023, GFAR 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 GFAR facilitation/seed money as new Collective Actions or expansions of the existing one.