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On February 22, 2024, Fair Finance Asia (FFA) jointly with United Nations (UN) Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Regional Office for South East Asia, Food and Agriculture Organization (UN FAO), and Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP) will conduct a side event alongside the 11^th Asia Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development (APFSD) in Bangkok, Thailand, titled, “Empowering Peoples Through Human Rights to Accelerate Climate Resilience and Food Security in Asia-Pacific.” 

Session Background 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has confirmed that climate change will increase pressure on food production and access, particularly in vulnerable regions such as Asia-Pacific. Those hardest hit include Indigenous Peoples (IPs), small-scale food producers, and low-income households – particularly in developing countries. The first Global Stocktake has recognized the fundamental priority of safeguarding food security and ending hunger, and the particular vulnerabilities of food production systems to the adverse impacts of climate change.  

The side event will provide an opportunity for States in Asia-Pacific, international organizations, and other relevant stakeholders to discuss the adverse impacts of climate change on SDG Goal 1 (No Poverty) and Goal 2 (Zero Hunger). It will also provide a space to discuss the climate impacts of food systems, the food systems transformation that is needed to reduce climate impacts and safeguard the right to food through rights-based approaches to climate action, as well the role of the financial sector in accelerating commitments and actions towards these ends. 

Objectives 

Bringing together a diverse panel, this side event aims to: 

• To enhance understanding of the impacts of climate change on the right to food as well as the climate impacts of food systems in Asia-Pacific. 
• Highlight the benefits of human rights-based climate action and a food system transition from industrialized agriculture towards agroecology.  
• Identify good practices and share lessons learned in the promotion and protection of the right to food in the context of the adverse impacts of climate change, including science-based approaches and IPs’ traditional knowledge. 
• Identify opportunities for collaboration and action by States through international cooperation, and other actors such as the financial sector to support and implement rights-based climate action and a food system transition that benefits both people and the planet. 

Speakers 

This session will be moderated by Romchat Wachirarattanakornkul, UN Human Rights. Panel speakers will include Johnson Jament, BlueGreen, Mariana Bichhieri, FAO, Michael Windfuhr, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), Pirawan Wongnithisathaporn, AIPP, and Victoria Caranay, Fair Finance Asia. 

Key Questions 

The side event will aim to discuss the following guiding questions: 

1. How is climate change affecting the full realization of the right to adequate food of people in vulnerable situations, for example, Indigenous Peoples, smallholder farmers, women, and children in the Asia-Pacific?  

2. What specific measures, including public policies, legislation, practices, or strategies have  governments undertaken, in compliance with applicable international human rights law, to promote an approach to climate change mitigation and adaptation, as well as loss and damage, that ensures the full and effective enjoyment of the right to food?  

3. What mechanisms are in place (or lack thereof), such as enabling financial sector policies, to measure and monitor the impacts of climate change and climate change policy on the full realization of the right to food, especially for vulnerable communities (IPs, fisherfolk, and smallholders)? 

For more information about the side event, click here (session summary is under “Programme”). 

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