Multi-Stakeholder Action for Sustainable Livestock

SIDE-EVENT DURING THE 38TH FAO CONFERENCE

17 June, 2013 - Rome, Italy

With an increasing world population, growing scarcity of natural resources, and accelerating climate change, the road towards sustainable food security is increasingly challenging.

Given the size and complexity of the task, joining forces is a necessity. FAO and its partners are, therefore, working together in new ways to address sustainability in food and agriculture.

The livestock sector exemplifies the existing challenges towards sustainability and the necessity for joint action: it not only needs to supply growing amounts of safe food and support rural livelihoods, but it must also deal with growing resource scarcity and reduce its environmental footprint. From industrial poultry to dryland pastoralism, livestock systems face highly diverse challenges that require different responses. Such actions need to reconcile the requirements of a wide array of different stakeholders, and to provide benefits to all.

Already, stakeholders are joining hands to make livestock more sustainable. Novel forms of partnership are being developed around the world, and dialogue is at the heart of such partnerships. Capitalizing on the strength of different actors, dialogue enhances the understanding of development issues. But more importantly, consensus can be build amongst all concerned on the path towards sustainable food security. It forms the basis for stakeholder commitments to action and on-the-ground improvements.

One example of this new way of operating is the Global Agenda of Action in Support of Sustain-able Livestock Sector Development, supported by FAO. This partnership of key representa-tives from governments, the private sector, civil society and academia, aims to catalyze and guide the continuous improvement of livestock sector practices.

In delivering on its strategic objectives, FAO is eager to learn from new and existing partner-ships, and to engage in new ways. At this side-event, selected experiences on novel forms of stakeholder dialogue and action-orientated partnerships will be shared and discussed. This will help inform Conference Delegates, and assist FAO to develop more effective partnerships for sustainability in food and agriculture.

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