The 43rd Session of the Conference on World Food Security (CFS) took place at the FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy, from 17 to 21 October 2016. For the first time, the Chair of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) participated in the Conference. The UNPFII Chair, Mr. Alvaro Pop spoke on “Urbanization, rural transformation and implications for Food security and Nutrition”; and at the special event “From agreement to action towards implementing the 2030 agenda: Learning from the First Volunteer National Reviews”.

Find below both of his interventions (only available in Spanish):

• Comité de Seguridad Alimentaria Mundial
• ODS Pueblos Indígenas

The Secretariat of the CFS organized for the first time a side event on indigenous food systems, which took place on 17 October titled  “Connecting Indigenous Food Systems to markets: A Maori experience”. The event had more than 80 participants from Member States, the private sector, civil society, academia, and UN agencies. The FAO manual on how to implement Free Prior and Informed Consent, launched on October 6^th, was highlighted as a good practice and the way forward in terms of support to indigenous peoples’ rights.

At the session, Mr. Pop also had the opportunity to meet with indigenous representatives from the Civil Society Mechanism.