Unlocking the potential of food security for peace at the Geneva Peace Week 2022
Geneva - The 2022 Geneva Peace Week (GPW) took place from 31 October to 4 November and brought together UN agencies, NGOs and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) based in Geneva, as well as their partners, with the final goal of sharing knowledge and practice on a diverse range of topics relating to the promotion of peace across different contexts.
FAO co-organised three events, besides contributing to one of the official podcasts of Geneva Peace Week, in partnership with the Geneva Graduate Institute, CGIAR, Interpeace and the Geneva Water Hub. This podcast unpacks how agrifood systems are linked to climate and conflict dynamics and explores how food security and agricultural interventions can support building resilience to climate change while also sustaining peace. The podcast brings together the expertise and experience of interdisciplinary actors from across international Geneva, and from around the world, to examine both promising past interventions and consider lessons for the future.
Throughout the week, FAO highlighted that operating across the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus (HDP Nexus) is essential for sustaining peace, while addressing both the immediate and longer-term needs of the most vulnerable.
During the event ‘Food security for peace: Exploring pathways to build peace through food and agricultural interventions,’ the Greater Karamoja Cluster, an area of land shared by Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan and Uganda, was cited an example of the HDP Nexus in practice. FAO, through its interventions and using animal health as an entry point, demonstrated that investing in strengthening cross-border collaboration and cooperation is the answer to supporting safe pastoralist mobility, cross-border markets and trade, regional stability, integration and economic development. Together with the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), FAO helped move these community-led efforts to the political level, resulting in the adoption of a multilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cross-border natural-resource sharing and animal health between Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan and Uganda.
At the event ‘Faith-based action to foster peaceful societies affected by climate change,’ co-organised by FAO, World Vision International, World Evangelical Alliance, the King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue, creative and practical ways how to address climate change as a conflict driver and how to engage local faith actors were discussed.FAO stressed that faith-based organizations play an important role in achieving gender equality and social justice in rural communities, while fostering social cohesion and peacebuilding.
Geneva Peace Week and FAO
Geneva Peace Week is a collective initiative facilitated by the United Nations Office at Geneva, the Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies, and the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform in collaboration with the Swiss Confederation. Having started its first edition in 2014, this week is a key highlight of Geneva’s peace agenda and FAO Liaison Office in Geneva, in close coordination with FAO Emergency and Resilience Division, participates to advocate food and agriculture’s role in building peace and security.
Contact:
Patrick Jacqueson, Senior Programme Officer
Fiona Arnone, Humanitarian Liaison and Advocacy Specialist