01 Dec NGO Constituency within the Civil Society Mechanism

From Chris Leather (Oxfam):
… Be a part of the NGO Constituency within the “International Food Security and Nutrition Civil Society Mechanism (CSM) for relations with the Committee on World Food Security (CFS)“.
Please read the following background information and let us know if you would like to be a member of the NGO Constituency.
The Committee on World Food Security (CFS) was reformed in 2009, following the food price shock in 2008 and the resulting calls to improve the governance of the global food system. Among the changes are a broadened range of participants, including an active role for civil society organisations, and an ongoing programme of work and research. The new CFS is intended to be:
“the foremost inclusive international and intergovernmental platform for a broad range of committed stakeholders to work together in a coordinated manner and in support of country-led processes towards the elimination of hunger and ensuring food security and nutrition for all human beings.”
It has the potential to be an authoritative global policy forum deliberating on food issues in order to defend the Right to Food of the world’s people.
 
Civil society played a fundamentally important role in the CFS reform process, opening up a critical space for civil society to influence food, agriculture and nutrition policies. Now, civil society organisations can be formal participants in the CFS, alongside states, UN bodies, CGIAR, international financial institutions, the WTO, private sector organisation and philanthropic foundations. The civil society constituencies prioritised by the CFS are smallholder family farmers, artisanal fisherfolk, herders/pastoralists, landless, urban poor, agricultural and food workers, women, youth, consumers, Indigenous Peoples and NGOs.
 
Last month, in October 2010, the first meeting of the new CFS took place, addressing issues of ‘land grabbing’, food security in protracted crises, and vulnerability to both speculation and climate change. The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier de Schutter noted:
“The recent session of the CFS illustrates how important advances can be achieved when all stakeholders work towards finding solutions, in a spirit that places cooperation above ideological divides. … What we are seeing with the CFS is a new breed of global governance emerging, in which the NGOs are co-authors of international law with governments and international agencies.”
 
The CFS has invited civil society organisations to autonomously establish a global mechanism for food security and nutrition, which will function as a facilitating body for civil society consultation and participation in the CFS. At the Civil Society Consultation, just prior to the 36^th Session of the CFS an “International Food Security and Nutrition Civil Society Mechanism for relations with the CFS” (CSM) was endorsed. Within the Civil Society Mechanism, each of the constituencies and sub-regions have begun to organise themselves, including the NGO constituency.
 
Being apart of the NGO Constituency, would mean that your organisation would:
– participate in civil society interactions with the CFS
– receive updates and news on the work of the CFS; and
– be able to nominate NGO Constituency members of the Civil Society Mechanism Coordination Committee.
 
We will be sending out a call for nominations for NGO Constituency members of the Civil Society Mechanism Coordination Committee on the 17^th November, with a timeline to submit nominations from the 18^th November – 13^th December. The selection of the 2 NGO Coordination Committee members will then take place from the 14^th – 22^nd December.
 
If you are interested in being apart of the NGO constituency, and thereby having the opportunity to nominate NGO members of the Civil Society Mechanism Coordination Committee, please send your confirmation to ngo4cfs@gmail.com. For any further questions, clarifications or information, please visit the websites listed below or write to us.
Further information
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The CFS reform document is available at:

– english: www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/cfs/Docs0910/ReformDoc/CFS_2009_2_Rev_2_E_K7197.pdf
– español: www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/cfs/Docs0910/ReformDoc/CFS_2009_2_Rev_2_S_K7197.pdf
– français: www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/cfs/Docs0910/ReformDoc/CFS_2009_2_Rev_2_F_K7197.pdf
 
The Civil Society Mechanism document is available at:
 
– english: http://cso4cfs.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/csm-en.pdf
– español: http://cso4cfses.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/csm-sp.pdf
– français: http://cso4cfsfr.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/csm-fr.pdf
 
For all other information in relation to the NGO Constituency, including the Terms of Reference and selection process for the Coordination Committee, please visit our website at: http://foodnutgov.ning.com/
 
The Civil Society Mechanism’s website can be found at: http://cso4cfs.org