The rights and technical capacities of indigenous peoples and smallholder farmers are the focus of the three-year global program, ‘Putting lessons into practice: Scaling up People’s Biodiversity Management for Food Security’.  The programme aims to support farmers to influence policies and institutions on the sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food security in the context of climate change. Around 83,700 households have benefitted to date: including 15 532 primary target households, or 82 400 individuals, 60% of whom were women.

This briefing draws on the programme’s results to suggest a global framework and six pathways for scaling up; it includes short case studies of the programme’s innovation and learning from Peru, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe. The case studies form the basis of the local-to-global, evidence-based policy recommendations on Farmers’ Rights and the sustainable use of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA). The technical paper that forms the basis of this briefing note has been submitted to the Governing Body of the ITPGRFA for its Sixth Session, 5–9 October 2015 in Rome.

Published by Oxfam