Participation of pastoralist networks in policy processes
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http://www.fao.org/pastoralist-knowledge-hub/pastoralist-networks/regional-networks/europe/en/ This presentation by Irene Hoffmann from FAO was held at the European pastoralist gathering on June 27th 2015 in Koblenz, Germany. It deals with how pastoralist civil society organizations can participate in political policy processes through the Pastoralist Knowledge Hub. © FAO: http://www.fao.org
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Participation of pastoralist networks in policy processes
- 1. Conference on protecting natural resources through extensive pastoral use • 26-28 June 2015, Ehrenbreitstein, Germany 1 Pastoralist networks Irene Hoffmann, Pablo ManzanoBaena Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
- 2. Conference on protecting natural resources through extensive pastoral use • 26-28 June 2015, Ehrenbreitstein, Germany 2 Civil society organizations and NGOs Pastoralist Knowledge Hub and regional networks Examples of policy processes to engage in Content
- 3. Conference on protecting natural resources through extensive pastoral use • 26-28 June 2015, Ehrenbreitstein, Germany 3
- 4. Conference on protecting natural resources through extensive pastoral use • 26-28 June 2015, Ehrenbreitstein, Germany 4 Difference between NGOs and CSOs • NGOs are usually a tool to support a given group • CSO is composed by members of the group it is supposed to benefit Dynamics between NGOs and CSOs – empowerment 1. community invests in training and educating one/few members - open an NGO to support the community 2. CSOs need freedom of association, empowerment, advocacy or training activities 3. when CSOs are more empowered, NGOs can either collaborate or compete with them Who is the civil society?
- 5. Conference on protecting natural resources through extensive pastoral use • 26-28 June 2015, Ehrenbreitstein, Germany 5 Capture and use traditional/indigenous knowledge Improve practices - stakeholders in the field – real change happens through them Participatory identification of real issues Importance of civil society
- 6. Conference on protecting natural resources through extensive pastoral use • 26-28 June 2015, Ehrenbreitstein, Germany 6 Advocacy • Motor for policy development and change Inclusion • Balanced development that reaches all members of society What can Civil Society do and achieve?
- 7. Conference on protecting natural resources through extensive pastoral use • 26-28 June 2015, Ehrenbreitstein, Germany 7 Pastoralists have been more independent than other groups Living in remote areas Having own strong governance structures Being self sufficient In a more connected world, this poses a challenge as participation is increasingly required Challenges for pastoralist CSOs
- 8. Conference on protecting natural resources through extensive pastoral use • 26-28 June 2015, Ehrenbreitstein, Germany 8 Networks are not cheap to maintain Advocacy only brings change in the long term Short term benefits are needed Needs for structuring networks in support of CSO
- 9. Conference on protecting natural resources through extensive pastoral use • 26-28 June 2015, Ehrenbreitstein, Germany 9 Income-based approaches Around products marketed Around (ecosystem) services marketed Around other sources of income (subsidies, etc.) Service provision Veterinary services Legal advice Strategies for pastoralist associations – how to attract members?
- 10. Conference on protecting natural resources through extensive pastoral use • 26-28 June 2015, Ehrenbreitstein, Germany 10 Policy change is a logical “next step” Logic of networking in an interconnected world Improvements on conditions for effective networking Building networks
- 11. Conference on protecting natural resources through extensive pastoral use • 26-28 June 2015, Ehrenbreitstein, Germany 11 FAO understands the importance of pastoralist voice Need to empower this voice Need to capture local knowledge FAO’s support to pastoralist networks
- 12. Conference on protecting natural resources through extensive pastoral use • 26-28 June 2015, Ehrenbreitstein, Germany 12
- 13. Conference on protecting natural resources through extensive pastoral use • 26-28 June 2015, Ehrenbreitstein, Germany 13
- 14. Conference on protecting natural resources through extensive pastoral use • 26-28 June 2015, Ehrenbreitstein, Germany 14 The Pastoralist Knowledge Hub Latin Am Centr Asia North Afr Central Afr South Asia East Afr West Afr South Afr Oceania Pastoralist Knowledge Hub IFAD IUCN FAO UNEPAU-IBAR WB support IIED VSFILC Revision of tools Identification & analysis National / regional / global policy affecting pastoralists North Am International orgs UNCCD CBD CGRFA CFS IUCN West AsiaEurope West AsiaEurope NGO sector, etc VOICE
- 15. Conference on protecting natural resources through extensive pastoral use • 26-28 June 2015, Ehrenbreitstein, Germany 15
- 16. Conference on protecting natural resources through extensive pastoral use • 26-28 June 2015, Ehrenbreitstein, Germany 16 In Europe, pastoralist activities are widespread and take place in many countries, and pastoralist civil society organizations have been active in many countries. A strong element for common advocacy action is the Common Agricultural Policy of the EU. Main threats identified by European pastoralists include the disruption of mobility routes, the promotion of farm intensification, especially of grasslands, conflicts between nature conservation and pastoral traditional activities, and poor services delivered to rural areas. Focal points: Stéphane Verlet-Bottero and Fernando García Europe
- 17. Conference on protecting natural resources through extensive pastoral use • 26-28 June 2015, Ehrenbreitstein, Germany 17 Type of Organization What is your organisation’s focus on pastoralism? Are you Membership base organisation? • How many members? Number of members in total and by gender? What are the services provided to members? • Estimate of the number of pastoralists covered by your services in 2014 What is the geographical scope of your organization? Give names of the pastoralist communities you work with? Hub membership - Pastoralist organizations identification
- 18. Conference on protecting natural resources through extensive pastoral use • 26-28 June 2015, Ehrenbreitstein, Germany 18
- 19. Conference on protecting natural resources through extensive pastoral use • 26-28 June 2015, Ehrenbreitstein, Germany 19 • FAO CFS 42, 12-16.10.2015 • UNCCD COP 12, Turkey 12-23 October 2015 • Land management, desertification • UNFCCC COP 21, Paris, Nov/Dec 2015 • New international agreement on climate. Role of grasslands for C-sequestration? Policy processes in FAO and in MEA, examples
- 20. Conference on protecting natural resources through extensive pastoral use • 26-28 June 2015, Ehrenbreitstein, Germany 20 • FAO ITWG-AnGR, July 2016 • Review of the Global Plan of Action for Animal Genetic Resources, references to pastoralists, ecosystem services, climate change • FAO CFS 43, Oct. 2016 • HLPE - Report on Sustainable Agricultural Development for Food Security and Nutrition, including the Role of Livestock • Side event on the Hub? • CBD COP 13, Mexico, Nov. 2016 • agricultural biodiversity, drylands, climate • FAO CGRFA, January 2017 • Biodiversity for food and agriculture, ecosystem services Policy processes in FAO and in MEA, examples
- 21. Conference on protecting natural resources through extensive pastoral use • 26-28 June 2015, Ehrenbreitstein, Germany 21 Food systems • Slowfood Arc of taste, presidia • Indigenous Terra Madre (India, Nov 2016) • PDO, GI Biocultural Community Protocols • Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefits sharing • Community empowerment, rights Voluntary Guidelines on Governance of Tenure • Technical Guide to implementing the VGGT in pastoral rangelands – launch end 2015 Other processes, examples
- 22. Conference on protecting natural resources through extensive pastoral use • 26-28 June 2015, Ehrenbreitstein, Germany 22 • Grassland and forest restoration / landscape rehabilitation • Resilience, climate change adaptation, conflict resolution • VGGT implementation in pastoralist countries • Multipurpose animal identification and recording Projects, examples
- 23. Conference on protecting natural resources through extensive pastoral use • 26-28 June 2015, Ehrenbreitstein, Germany 23 • Mapping of transhumance routes, numbers and distribution of pastoralists and their livestock • improve assessment methods for the valorisation of ecosystem services provided by livestock to develop results-based incentive systems • Strengthen the link between breed conservation and nature conservation, and the collaboration of the agricultural/livestock sector with the environment/wildlife/forestry sector R&D needs
- 24. Conference on protecting natural resources through extensive pastoral use • 26-28 June 2015, Ehrenbreitstein, Germany 24 • Kiserian, Kenya 2013 - recommendations to the UN on the development of a Commission for pastoral development • UN International Year of pastoralism? • Adaptation of regulation to pastoralist context • Animal identification, recording and traceability • Commodity based trade • Advocacy • Intl. Conference on livestock, landscapes and pastoralists? Ideas and proposals, examples
- 25. Conference on protecting natural resources through extensive pastoral use • 26-28 June 2015, Ehrenbreitstein, Germany 25 Network requirements Upstream and downstream • Professionalization • Representation, delegation • Democracy • Legitimacy • Accountability
Editor's Notes
- NGOs are usually conceived as a tool to support a given group, while Civil Society organization, although having the same goal, is composed by members of the group it is supposed to benefit. Well structured CSOs are only achievable at a given level of development, because of empowerment needs for the persons that develop the advocacy or training activities and also because a certain degree in freedom of association is necessary for a CSO to be functional. As a consequence of the first limitation (empowerment), many communities invest in training and educating one or few of their community members so that they open an NGO able to support the community. Sometimes the support comes from outside, as in the example of environmentalists, ecologists and other academics supporting pastoralists in Europe because of the important role that this traditional activity has for the environment, culture, etc. At a later phase when CSOs are more empowered, NGOs can either collaborate with them or compete with them. The scenario of collaboration is desirable because it helps performing better advocacy roles and it also helps having further connection with the rest of the society.
- It is desirable to reach to the point where Civil Society organizations are empowered, because of the intimate connection that community members have about their environment. Producer groups such as pastoralists have a large wealth of Indigenous Knowledge established through try-and-error methods during centuries or even millennia in the ecosystems they occupy. An interlocutor from the community that has nevertheless been exposed to more conventional social knowledge can easily help bridging this knowledge gap. Also, when an improvement of practices is targeted, it is essential to get the buy-in from the groups that are actually going to implement these changes, i.e. the producers. Again, a direct interlocution is essential to achieve real change. Additionally, some of these change processes may be affected by factors that are not visible to external observers but are perfectly visible with producers that deal with them on a daily basis. In this sense, the active participation of the Civil Society is often essential to render development interventions (both rural development in the industral countries and cooperation for international development in poorer countries) effective
- The Civil Society has powerful tools helping in its advocacy tasks. As said, the actors at the grassroots level are the only ones with sufficient critical mass to achieve real change. Legislation or interventions will only achieve a large scale of change if they convince grassroots on their usefulness. In that sense, Civil Society organizations are a motor that can be catalytic in policy development and policy change because of their unique position to channel the worries of grassroots producers and to predict their buy-in for any proposed policy. Additionally, an inclusive participation of the Civil Society will guarantee that no groups are particularly favoured and others are not left behind. This is essential to guarantee fair interventions.
- Regarding the participation of pastoralists in policy dialogue and policy formulation, it has been more challenging than for other groups, probably because of some specific cultural characteristics. Pastoralism is a livelihood that thrives in marginal lands (drylands, mountains or cold areas) and is therefore far from the decision centres that arose after the Industrial Revolution, always in densely populated places around strong agricultural areas. Their own governance structures have proven to be strong and resilient across time, surviving up to the present despite of being disregarded or even undermined by governments that often saw them as competitors for imposing law and order. Finally, these livelihoods that have been developed in largely hostile environments where others are not able to survive have a high degree of self-sufficiency that has historically made pastoralists avoid their involvement in power discussions with other communities. The last century has given way to a more connected world, however, where pastoralists inevitably have to coexist with other groups and have to reach agreements with people that, not so long ago, seemed far away and irrelevant for them. The realization that a further and strong agreement is necessary is becoming more and more clear in the last times
- The need for CSOs and to have them established around networks that can achieve a critical mass is therefore clear, but it is not easy to answer to the question on how to structure them. Establishing and maintaining a new network of producers is usually an exercise that needs investment in terms of time and money, and whose advocacy activities do not immediately yield results for the day-by-day life of the producers that are integrated in them. It is said that for a Civil Society network to bring full results, 15 years have to pass – that can be almost a generation in many parts of the world. Sometimes, development programmes can support this process, but very often they are not available, and when they are, funding may run out before the full empowerment process has been finished. External funding factors cannot be controlled by the grassroots themselves. In this sense, if socially sustainable networks are pursued, a strategy implicating short term benefits for its members has to be included, so that they do not lose interest in being members of their network – and in investing in it!
- The strategies for keeping the interest of producers in joining associations can be based on income. In this sense, a producers’ network will be effective if it is able to provide an increase in income for its members. In this case, the members may either be compelled to pay for the maintenance of the network in order not to lose the income increase, or some of this income increase generated may be directly assigned to the maintenance of the network. Examples for this strategy include the cooperatives around certain products, as can be cheeses or meats with Controlled Denomination of Origin, or certain associations structured around sharing the paperwork load around given subventions, as can be the ones for protecting threatened breeds in the European Union. The interest to come together may also be triggered by improving the delivery of some key services. In this case, veterinarians are usually some of the best networkers among pastoralists, as veterinary services are key to keep their livelihoods. Often, receiving legal advice is also a key element around which pastoralists are willing to aggregate.
- Inevitably, once these short term benefit objectives are consolidated, producers start to realize how important a more long-term change can be beneficial for their livelihoods. In this sense, policy change is fundamental, but it can only be achieved through joining forces with other related groups in order to achieve a critical mass. As the world gets a more interconnected place, where political decisions in one side of it will have great consequences in its other side, the need for achieving an effective networking among producers becomes very clear. For policies having global consequences, global analyses and a global advocacy strategy becomes fundamental. Also, some of the strategies for increasing the producers’ income can benefit from global networking because of the opportunities to learn from experiences of other groups. Conditions are constantly improving for benefitting effective networking at a larger scale. Telecommunications tools are becoming more and more refined, and also education is bringing more and more people the opportunity to talk to distant places without mediation in international languages that are taught in schools.
- In order to contribute to this process, FAO has set up some initiatives to render networking more effective. In this sense, experience with different producers’ networks in FAO shows that consultative processes that are inclusive with the Civil Society drive to policy formulation that is fairer and more effective in achieving FAO’s strategic objectives. Also, FAO is aware of the importance of facilitating best practices among producers. An essential step for an effective role in this process is to empower those who speak with an adequate knowledge background. If e.g. pastoralist representatives attend a forum on climate change, it is essential that they have a basic knowledge on carbon dynamics if they don’t want to see themselves reduced to the role of a mere puppet. Also, training on how to deal with the complicated political negotiations in some international meetings is also needed. A very important step to highlight the relevance of producers, and pastoralists in this case, is to capture the wealth of knowledge that producers’ communities have and from which the world can learn. A higher respect and consideration is also achieved once society in general realises how immense this amount of wealth is.
- Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity CFS 2012 Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security
- Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity
- Kiserian, Kenya 2013: over 120 pastoralists representing 48 countries met to agree on recommendations for a Green Economy. One of their pledges to the UN was the development of a Commission for pastoral development – what to do?