During the upcoming global climate change summit in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is set to urge global leaders to urgently focus far more attention and funding to the hundreds of millions of small-scale farmers.
It said that the small-scale farmers need attention because who feed much of the world and are key to global food security and stability. “They increasingly struggle to adapt to the escalating impacts of climate change and to produce the nutritious food we all need. Small-scale farmers produce one third of the world’s food (up to 70 percent in many developing countries) yet their livelihoods and capacity to feed the planet are threatened by changing rain patterns, the deterioration of ecosystems and extreme weather events,” IFAD stated today in its press statement.
Solutions to help small-scale farmers adapt exist and provide numerous benefits in terms of emissions reduction, improved production and yields and natural resources protection, but require significant investments to implement change at a global scale.
The IFAD delegation, led by President Alvaro Lario, will be engaged during the entirety of COP28, with Lario more specifically participating at the World Climate Action Summit.
To draw attention to challenges and solutions, IFAD is organising 12 high-level events at the Food Pavilion which will feature climate experts, small-scale farmers, youth, and development partners.
IFAD will also launch its White Paper on Climate Adaptative and Water Resilient Food Systems prepared in collaboration with the NDC Partnership. The White Paper makes the business case for significant investments in food systems to ensure they are resilient to climate change and able to address water challenges.
This year, IFAD is partnering with CGIAR, FAO and the Rockefeller Foundation to jointly host the Food Pavilion – a hub for discussing how agrifood systems can be part of the solution to the climate crisis while providing nourishing and sustainable food for the world and promoting decent livelihoods for small-scale farmers and rural communities.
Among the side events scheduled during the COP28 include events at the Food Pavilion provide an opportunity to interact with small-scale farmers and climate and development experts. Events will span all aspects of climate adaptation and resilience highlighting solutions brought by farmers’ organizations, women, youth and indigenous communities; financing solutions; and the role of the private sector.
One of the major events on December 1st, 2024 is entitled: Bridging the Gap: IFAD’s Role in Climate Finance for Smallholder Farmers. This event is an opportunity to interact with Alvaro Lario, IFAD President, and Barbara Buchner, Climate Policy Initiative Managing Director.
They will present the latest data on climate finance, in particular for the agriculture sector, discuss the significant financial gap for climate-smart agriculture, and share some innovative models developed to address existing barriers to channel climate finance to small-scale farmers and agri-SMEs. IFAD will unveil a new financing model and showcase its role as an assembler of finance. Francis Njoro, a smallholder farmer from Kenya, will share his perspective via video.