March25-28, 2019, Bilbao, Spain
The General Assembly of theUnited Nations adopted the Decade of Family Farming 2019-2028 on 20 December2017 in order to improve the position of family farmers in all five continents. The declaration of the Decade ensures the continuity of the successfulIYFF-2014 process by advancing the implementation of public policies andfacilitating the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development andits SDGs. Now, it is up to us to successfully implement the Decade by seizingthis enormous opportunity, the fruit of our labour.
The Decade for Family Farmingis our opportunity to, collectively, achieve more and better public policiesfor Family Farming and defend existing ones; to be a major force behind theimplementation of said policies; to make sure Family Farming is understood andrecognized for its worth; to put people ahead of major interests; to build abetter future in our rural areas and, also, in our cities.
Within this context, theVI Global Conference on Family Farming entitled: “A Decade to improve thelives of Family Farmers” was organised between 25 and 29 March 2019 in thecity of Derio-Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain. The conference brought togetherrepresentatives from Farmers Organisations and other Civil Societyorganisations, Governments, International Organisations, Research Centres andCooperatives from across the five continents. The VI Global Conference onFamily Farming was a preparatory event of the launching of the Decade, to beheld in Rome in May, 2019. Both occasions are part of a process to build asolid, multi-stakeholder and participatory Agenda for the Decade of FamilyFarming.
The days 25, 26, 27 and 28 ofMarch were days of intense joint work, and thanks to the participanscommitment, dedication and knowledge of the realities of family farming weachieved that what was worked during the VI Conference was fully considered inthe final design of the UNDFF (United Nations Decade for Family Farming) GlobalAction Plan which was embodied into the document called GlobalConclusions .
