3 minute read
Beyond Income, towards Self-esteem and Advocacy
When I was nominated for the position of the chair of the board of the Finnish Agri-agency for Food and Forest Development (FFD), I didn’t foresee that I’d still be in it after ten years. But the years pass rapidly when you are involved in something interesting and rewarding. FFD continued the solidarity work initiated by The Central Union of Agricultural Producers and Forest Owners (MTK), in the 80s. MTK is committed to the UN’s sustainable development goals (SDG), and we believe that this is the one form of work for an organization of our size and scope in our international network. FFD has continued our work started in the 80s providing us with a concrete and successful channel to share solidarity not only for the Finnish farmers but also for their peers in the global South. Sustainable food security, the position of farmers in the food system, and sustainable forest management are our common concerns.
In ten years, FFD has managed to reach 108.000 farmers directly in 11 different countries. As in all development work, not all the projects have reached all the goals that we established but many activities have left an immeasurable impact on people’s lives and welfare. While increased income helps people to fight against poverty, I believe that increased self-esteem, confidence, and capability to defend their interests and rights that many farmers, men and women, have gained, is an even more important result. It allows people who participated in our collaboration not only to improve the livelihoods of their families but to gain a better position in society, to be heard, and to be recognized.
It has also been interesting to see how the Finnish expert twins testify systematically about their surprise at the similarities of rural concerns in different countries. People who live from soil, plants, animals, and natural resources need to respect nature while being able to deal with markets. This requires persistence, tenacity, patience, and versatility, which we recognize also as the strength of the Finnish rural society. Also, the contribution of women to family farms and overall development is something where we in Finland can show examples.
Rural and city lives seem to float apart but nature is signaling to us that we need to take better care of it. This is one of the reasons why FFD has invested largely in climate action in recent years. Naturally, millions of tree seedlings produced and planted annually in the FFD projects contribute to maintaining the forest coverage but increasingly FFD has contributed to sustainable water management, land use practices, agroecology, sustainable energy provision, and soil health. These will only grow in importance in the future.
