Rome, June 4th, 2019 – The Climakers are already on their way to the first Regional Consultation, that will take place from August 14th to 16th, 2019, in Saint Kitts and Nevis, Caribbean.
The event will be hosted by the Agriculture Alliance of the Caribbean (AACARI), with the support of the International Cooperation and Development Fund (ICDF).
The dates of the workshop were agreed in the framework of the second technical meeting of the members of the Farmers Driven Climate Change Alliance, that took place on May 20th in Luxembourg, within the context of WFO General Assembly.
The meeting provided a venue to further develop the points agreed during the first meeting, including the shared roles and responsibilities of the players involved, and envisage new opportunities and partnerships to make progress on the agenda, as to ensure that the initiative delivers its outcomes.
Each representative of the members of the Alliance provided valuable contributions and suggestions, thus embracing the very spirit of the Climakers, a shared alliance for climate change, characterised by an authentic bottom-up approach.
As highlighted by Elizabeth Nsimadala, President of the Eastern Africa Farmers Federation (EAFF) “Climate Change should be everyone’s social responsibility”, and we all have to join forces for our input to be valuable. This remark was echoed by the representatives of other regional farmers’ organisations. Mr Abdelmajid Ezzar, from the Maghrebian and North African Farmers Union (UNMAGRI) also stressed the major impact of the partnerships established within the Climakers to support smallholder farmers, with a particular focus on the younger generation, while Mr Errington Thompson, Chairman of the Board and President of the Agriculture Alliance of the Caribbean (AACARI), put the focus on the importance of considering regional peculiarities in this discussion, to ensure no-one is left behind.
Jannes Maes, president of the European Council of Young Farmers (CEJA) reiterated CEJA’s commitment for a joint communication campaign, not only to increase the reach out potential of the initiative, but also to ensure that results are disseminated and scaled up, while Michael Keller, Secretary General of the International Seed Federation (ISF), highlighted the integrative approach of the Climakers initiative, especially in building a bridge between the private seed sector and farmers, for both parties to be able to jointly contribute to identifying and scaling solutions to tackle climate change.
The event provided also the occasion to welcome the International Cooperation and Development Fund (ICDF), from Taiwan, as recently incorporated Technical Partner of The Farmers Driven Climate Change Alliance.
The members of the Farmers Driven Climate Change Alliance have an ambitious agenda ahead of them, with important results to achieve.
August 2019 is coming up and the Caribbean farmers are waiting to share their experience and insights on successful practices and solutions to climate change.
Stay tuned!