January 23, 2010 * Sri Lanka

A. Background

Resolved to reclaim its thrust to do cutting-edge researches toward supporting the need for information, education and advocacy of grassroots organizations, APRN held the Research Conference on Development which resulted in the identification of topics for collaborative research. Three topics were identified and one of these is on food and climate crises.

The workshop group on food and climate crises proposed to look into the potentials of the communities for food self-sufficiency and resilience in the face of the changing climate. This research aims to (1) document the indigenous food production systems and techniques to cope with climate change; (2) identify the challenges of the communities in coping with climate change; (3) look into the impacts of climate change on other specific issues and sectors (country and group specific).

This research will be very useful for our work and other people's movements to counter the claims of TNCs, the WB and IFIs that national food self-sufficiency does not make economic sense and that the vulnerable countries will not be able to meet their development needs. It will also be useful for the communities that we serve to have a sharing of what is doable and what is not in the face of the crises and can be used for advocacy and lobbying.

To facilitate early implementation, it will be held back to back with the PCFS events in Sri Lanka. Participants will be members attending these PCFS events together with the members of the workshop group (during the research conference in Hong Kong). And to aid the members in the preparations, APRN has commissioned Ms. Rosa Bella Guzman of IBON, who was also the resource person during the Hong Kong research conference, to draft a research design and present it on the upcoming workshop.

This workshop will serve as an immediate follow-through to sustain the momentum created by the research conference in reclaiming APRN’s research thrust. It will be the start of implementation of the collaborative research on the pressing issue of food and climate.

B. Objectives and needed output:

1. To provide a space for a more in-depth discussion on and stress the urgency of producing a research on the area of food and climate, specifically on the potentials of the communities for food self-sufficiency and resilience in the face of the changing climate;

2. To come up with a clear and detailed research plan on how to implement the intended collaborative research on the said topic; and

3. To get members’ commitment to specific tasks in the research and deliver them within the agreed upon timeframe.

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