The upcoming Azerbaijani Presidency of the 2024 UN Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP 29) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) have jointly unveiled a groundbreaking initiative aimed at addressing climate challenges within agrifood systems. Known as the Harmoniya Initiative, this collaborative project will serve as a hub for aggregating efforts to tackle climate resilience in agriculture and food security. Introduced during the event ‘Harmoniya 4 Climate Resilience: Empowering Farmers, Villages, and Rural Communities’ at the Bonn Climate Change Conference, the Initiative seeks to foster dialogue, share experiences, and identify synergies to drive transformation within agrifood systems. With a focus on empowering farmers, villages, and rural communities, the Initiative aims to solicit feedback and engage stakeholders in shaping its objectives. Emphasizing the imperative for tangible outcomes, the COP 29 Lead Negotiator, Yalchin Rafiyev, stressed the importance of delivering concrete solutions that translate into real change on the ground. Highlighting the critical role of agriculture in national climate action plans, speakers underscored the need for coherence, alignment, and experience sharing to enhance resilience and drive transformation. Farmer groups and country representatives welcomed the Initiative's focus on rural communities, women, and small-scale farmers, advocating for empowerment and direct access to investments and funding. Looking ahead, the COP 29 Presidency intends to create an enabling environment for farmers and ensure broad stakeholder engagement, including civil society and the private sector, in advancing climate-resilient agrifood systems.
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https://sdg.iisd.org/news/climate-cop-29-presidency-fao-preview-hub-for-work-on-agrifood-systems/
