Announcing ICARRD E-Conference for the final preparations


This ICARRD E-conference is one of the communication means to receive inputs
from individuals, agrarian reform and rural development practitioners,
experts, researchers, policy makers, programme implementors and programme
beneficiaries, on the themes and issues that will be deliberated at ICARRD in
Porto Alegre from 7-10 March 2006. Issue Papers and CSO position papers have
been drafted and prepared which have been introduced as themes of the
E-conference discussions which began in early December 2005.

The ICARRD secretariat is continuing the hosting of this E-conference until
during the ICARRD conference itself in Porto Alegre from 7-10 March 2006 in
order to further engage participants who will be at ICARRD and also those who
cannot participate at ICARRRD. Up until ICARRD itself, we hope that your
inputs will contribute in the expected final outcomes of the Conference,
which are:

** the creation of a Lasting Platform on Agrarian Reform and Rural
Development that will promote a new way of thinking and working - based on a
meaningful social dialogue - and that will guide a new vision and  a basis
for action for agrarian reform and rural development

** the creation of an International Observatory on Agrarian Reform and Rural
Development that will periodically monitor and report progress, achievements
and setbacks

** the necessary commitment by various partners in contributing to the
achievement of agrarian reform and rural development in a form of
implementing "partnership initiatives"

Many of you might also be interested to know more about the several ICARRD
processes that have actually began at the country level. Case Studies have
been prepared and Thematic Dialogue Workshops have been organized and held
(and are still currently happening) in about 30 countries. The following are
the participating countries:

In AFRICA REGION: ALGERIA, ETHIOPIA, GHANA, MADAGASCAR, MOZAMBIQUE, NAMIBIA, NIGER, RWANDA, SOUTH AFRICA and UGANDA;
In LATIN AMERICA & CARIBBEAN: BRAZIL, CHILE, COLOMBIA, PARAGUAY and PERU;
In ASIA: CHINA, INDIA, INDONESIA, NEPAL, PHILIPPINES and SRI LANKA;
In NEAR EAST: AFGHANISTAN, IRAN, LEBANON, and SYRIA;
In EUROPE: BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA

We look forward to your contributions and participation to the ICARRD
E-conference.

Rosalud de la Rosa
Moderator
ICARRD Secretariat

ICARRD E-Conference  (December 2005 – January 2006)

The ICARRD Secretariat is hosting an electronic conference in preparation for the “International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ICARRD): New challenges and options for revitalizing rural communities ”.

This e-Conference enables practitioners, experts, researchers, policy makers, programme implementors and programme beneficiaries to exchange ideas and provides concrete cases, examples and experiences on the emerging issues that will be discussed and debated in the national level processes leading up to ICARRD.

The themes for discussion are the following:

Theme 1: Reviving agrarian reform and rural development in the international agenda

Theme 2: Policies and practices for securing and improving access to land by the poor and promoting agrarian reform to alleviate poverty and hunger

Theme 3: Building capacity to improve access to land, water and agricultural inputs and agrarian services

Theme 4: New opportunities to strengthen rural producers, rural workers and communities – facilitating people's choices in rural development

Theme 5: Agrarian reform, social justice and sustainable development

Theme 6: Food sovereignty and access to resources

These themes cover the broad scope of topics and areas that are expected to be discussed during the national processes leading up to and during the ICARRD itself. We hope that the e-Conference participants' inputs will contribute to the planned outcomes of the Conference, which are:

•  the creation of a Lasting Platform on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development that will promote a new way of thinking and working – based on a meaningful social dialogue – and that will guide a new vision and a basis for action for agrarian reform and rural development

•  the creation of an International Observatory on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development that will periodically monitor and report progress, achievements and setbacks

•  the necessary commitment by various partners in contributing to the achievement of agrarian reform and rural development in a form of implementing “partnership initiatives”

During the e-Conference participants are encouraged to submit background information and relevant documents presenting particularly relevant experiences and lessons learned about agrarian reform and rural development. These documents can then be further used and some of them posted on the ICARRD web page to stimulate the debates.

********************

If you wish to subscribe to the ICARRD E-CONFERENCE please send an E-mail message to mailserv@mailserv.fao.org leaving the subject blank and entering the following one-line message: subscribe ICARRD-E-Conference-L


January 2006 - Note from the moderator:
Many of the participants sent us their feedback on the usefulness of the background information provided in this E-Conference to understand the debates that will arise at ICARRD.

The preparations of the Draft Issues Papers by identified key authors on the six themes of the ICARRD e-conference are currently underway. The amount of work and the processes required for these Issues Papers has been immense, including identifying authors, drafting, receiving inputs and translation into English, Spanish, French and Portugese. We regret that it has caused the delay in sending and posting documents in the required languages. However, we still expect to have the translated versions of the Issues Paper posted on the ICARRD website before the end of January 2006.

In this regard, we would like to advice e-conference participants that we are we are extending the deadline for receiving inputs and contributions until 31st January 2006. In this way, we hope that we can give the opportunity, especially to those non-English speaking participants, to read the Issues Papers and send their inputs to the E-Conference. Your contributions are very valuable to us and we hope that you will continue to be encouraged to participate in the debates and deliberations leading to ICARRD and hopefully also at ICARRD in Porto Alegre!

Sincerely,

Rosalud de la Rosa
Moderator
ICARRD Secretariat