Farmers’ organizations globally are having difficulty accessing climate funds, according to a report published last month. Produced by Netherlands-based think tank Climate Focus on behalf of the Family Farmers for Climate Action, an alliance representing 50 million farmers globally, the report analyzed spending by two of the biggest U.N. funds offering finance for environment and climate-related initiatives: the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Green Climate Fund (GCF). The report reviewed 40 climate and biodiversity projects from both funds that listed farmers as beneficiaries and found that no financing went directly to small-scale family farmers or their organizations. Moreover, only 18% of the projects involved farmers in the decision-making, design and implementation of the projects. “The two big climate funds don’t recognise the value of family farmer organisations,” Esther Penunia, secretary-general of the Asian Farmers Association, said in a press release. “Their failure to work with us means they don’t benefit from our experience and expertise or our unique ability to scale up climate action across millions of family farms,” she said, adding that this is “holding back the fight against hunger and climate change.” According to the report, small-scale farmers produce 70% of the food consumed in Africa and up to 80% in Asia, making them “central to global [food] supply chains.” These farmers are also among the most affected by the impacts of climate change, especially extreme weather events, making it important for them to invest in adaptation strategies. Despite this, from 2019-2022 only a third of the…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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