If you’re wondering what to do in March, here’s one idea. It’s the International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development or ICARRD, taking place in Porto Alegre, Brazil March 7 – 10.
I’ve been to an FAO-coordinated event before so I can tell you that there will be a lot of talks, some discussion and an effort to write a paper to announce some sort of consensus idea at the end. I just don’t see this as a very productive use of time and money. Basically, it’s all talk and no action. This kind of thing needs to happen with people there who can actually get something done. There’s no question that a lot of work can be done on this topic though.
Approximately 900 million people – three quarters of the world’s poor – live in rural areas and depend on access to land and other natural resources for their livelihoods. For most of them, insecure access to land is closely linked to poverty.
Since the World Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development in 1979, calls have repeatedly been made to help the poor gain secure access to land and to resources such as technology, credit, inputs and markets. Processes of agrarian reform have been implemented in many countries: some have succeeded, some have failed. But for millions of poor farmers, secure land access is still far from becoming a reality.
The time has come for a renewed commitment to agrarian reform and rural development, through the identification of new challenges and options for revitalizing rural communities. This is fundamental if we are to achieve the goal of reducing by half the number of poor and hungry people by 2015, as set out by the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is taking the lead in increasing this renewed international commitment by organizing in Porto Alegre, Brazil, from 7 to 10 March 2006, the International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development.
I guess we’ll see what they come up with and if there’s any action steps that can be implemented.