Dear Members of the HLPE,
First of all, thank you very much for allowing this broad consultation on your draft report Agroecological Approaches & Other Innovations for FSN. Secondly at Sida we appreciate being able to provide some initial thoughts on the content of the report. Please find these summarised below:
Sida welcomes the work with the report on Agroecological Approaches and other Innovations for Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems that enhance Food Security and Nutrition. It has the potential to be an important stepping stone for future work. Agroecology is more an approach and not a single system for farming per se. At the moment there is a comparison between agroecology and other ways of farming such as Sustainable intensification, Organic agriculture and Agroforestry to name a few. Sida would like the report to more clearly raise that Agroecology is an approach encompassing a number of principles (including social supportive) but not prescribing how agriculture is to be performed. This makes it hard to compare with different production systems that more clearly prescribe how farming should be undertaken and what should be used.
As agroecology is more an approach taking in a broad range of aspects of farming practices, there could be a possibility to more clearly highlight the findings written under section 4.2.1 (p. 83). As Sida has a clear mandate to work with people living in poverty, the report is very good in highlighting that there are other ways of approaching farming that is more centred around not only maximising yields and profits, but also supporting the small and medium sized farms and farmers to more sustainably produce food for consumption as well as for the market. Sida therefore welcomes an approach that centres around the farmer, recognising both farming men and women, more than the market – although we are aware there is a need for both.
Sida would like the following to be more prominent in the report:
- Access to rural financial services: A key issue for nations and governments to move towards agriculture food systems that enhance food security and nutrition is the opportunity for farmers to access rural finance and financial services. Sida would like to see this better reflected in the document.
- Social equity: In Box 4 – A consolidated set of agroecological principles, Sida would like to propose a possible change of the headline Social equity/responsibility. This describes supportive principles to the three headlines above, is more connected to the act of farming, and relate to the social dimensions of sustainable agriculture and farming practices. Perhaps ‘Social development and responsibility’ would be a better headline.
- Gender: The report would benefit from recognising to a larger extent the role of gender in agriculture, agroecology, FS and FSN throughout. Women and men have different roles within all these areas and contribute differently depending on geographical contexts, cultures, economic systems and types of farming systems. For instance, women often have less access to markets and land tenure, but may at the same time have greater responsibilities than men for food production and food security within the households. Sida would welcome such a recognition and discussion in the heart of the agroecological approach (perhaps as a principle and mainstreamed throughout the rest of the report). It is noticed that the report uses the term gender equity rather than gender equality, the latter being the preferred term used by Sida as it more truly helps eliminate all gender discrimination.
Thank you again for the opportunity to provide comments on this promising report. We very much look forward to receiving later versions of the text.
Best wishes,
Jan Wärnbeck and Esse Nilsson, Sida, Stockholm
Esse Nilsson