On September 25, the United Nations held a High-level meeting in New York to review progress on the road to the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs are eight goals defined in 2000 for completion by 2015. MDG1 aims at halving poverty and hunger.
As recent figures issued by the Food and Agriculture Organization show, the world is not on track to meet MDG1. Africa is especially far behind, particularly after this year's food price crisis.
In this context, Ndiogou Fall, President of the Network of Farmers' and Agricultural Producers' Organizations of West Africa (ROPPA), was invited to speak at the UN General Assembly to present African farmers' perspectives on the food and hunger crisis. Fall's speech is online here, and in two pages, provides a comprehensive and practical analysis. Foreign Policy in Focus has a good summary of the presentation.
Fall's presentation was a noteworthy event. The UN invitation for ROPPA to speak to heads of states and governments gathered in New York was a tribute to the hard and efficient work farmers' organizations have been doing over the past several decades to provide a voice for "the silent, scattered rural dwellers, some 70% of Africa's population and the majority of the region's poor," as Fall describes them.
IATP believes that farmers are essential in the fight against hunger. Too often, and for too long, their contribution has been neglected. Inviting them to speak was a first step. The UN Task Force on the Food Crisis should now follow suit and adequately include family and small-scale farm organizations in its planning.
