SI UN Representative to the Food and Agricultural Organisation in Rome, Cinzia Palmi, reports back from a very exciting few days, including the SI coordinated side event on rural women and agriculture.

Cinzia reports…

At this Session I was accompanied by Marie Jeanne Bosia, SI Past
International President, who was the main speaker at the SE on rural women,
Wilma Malucelli, President of the Italian Union,
and Annamaria Isastia, Deputy National President.

The Conference was chaired by Mr. Tefera Derbew from Ethiopia and it
was attended by nearly all the Members of FAO. It was considered a
landmark meeting in the history of FAO. A number of other representatives,
observers, INGOs and the private sector were also in attendance.

The SI delegation held brief meetings with several ambassadors from Italy,
the European Union, Rwanda,
Brazil,
USA,
Canada
and Tokelau, and with a number of INGO focal points such as Oxfam, The More and
Better Project and La Via Campesina. The main issues of the Conference was the
election of the new Director-General, the approval of the new budget 2012/2013
and the discussion of the ‘State of Food and Agriculture Report’: The Vital Role of Women in Agriculture and Rural Development – Closing the Gender Gap. In addition to this, the Conference
included two Commissions and a number of meetings.

It
should be pointed out that during the Conference there were only 2 side events
on women in agriculture. One was organized by Rome Women’s Network and co-hosted by USA and Kenya. I was
there and I met Agnes Kalibata, Ambassador of Rwanda and Ann Tutwiler, Deputy
Director-General.

The second was organised by our Ad Hoc Group of INGOs with
Representatives in Rome (www.ahgingos.org), and it was the only one for the Civil Society. SI played a coordinating role. The meeting focused on
microcredit, land tenure and cooperation. FAO acknowledged our issues. The
main speaker was Marcela Willarreal, Chief of the Gender Unit and responsible
for SOFA; the moderator was Mr. Thomas Price, Chief of FAO OCEP.

A number of SI colleagues of the group were on the podium; Marie Jeanne
Bosia, SI Past President, gave an excellent speech on microcredit as the Swiss Union is running a quadrennial project on microcredit.
The President of the Italian Union, Wilma
Malucelli, highlighted the official position of Soroptimist on rural women. We
had many guests, e.g. representatives of Rural Women Forum, University of
Salerno-Italy and Swedish Cooperative Center as well as the Ambassadors of
Armenia, Guatemala, Netherland, Germany, Ireland, France, Finland and Ecuador
and the USA deputy Mrs. Ertharin Cousin.

 

This Conference was a unique experience as the contents and the results
were beyond all expectation. The former UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, gave a speech
which was very moving as was the Flag-rising Ceremony – Tokelau (Associated
member) –  that is traditionally held to mark the accession of a new member. We joined
the commemorative ceremony for “Global Rinderpest Eradication”. We expected a
drastic cut of the budget, but the Conference unanimously publish an increase
of 1.4% for the next biennium. This increase and the expected voluntary
contributions from Members and Partners were considered as an expression of
confidence in the Organization by the Conference.

Ciniza Palmi

SI UN Representative to the FAO

Rome