Written by Rob Arcidiacono
The Civil Society and Indigenous Peoples’ Mechanism (CSIPM) held a Coordinating Committee meeting in Brasília from June 9-14, 2025, hosted by CONTAG (National Confederation of Rural Workers and Family Farmers) with support from the Brazilian government. This five-day gathering, held at a conference venue outside Brasília, brought together representatives from across CSIPM’s 11 constituencies and 17 regions to address critical challenges facing global food governance and civil society participation.
The meeting commenced with field visits to three local agroecological initiatives that demonstrated the practical application of food sovereignty principles. These included a cooperative (40+ growers) farm supplying Brazil’s National School Feeding Program on occupied land; an agroforestry project producing for 40 families on just 2 acres; and a Ministry of Health-supported medicinal plant garden that provides traditional medicine alternatives to public health clinics. These visits were invaluable to situate us for the week in local food systems, and provided a lens to view the global policy frameworks.
In the meetings, and central to the week’s discussions, was the recognition that civil society spaces are under increasing pressure globally. Political shifts in Europe and the US, along with rising authoritarianism, are constraining meaningful participation in international food governance. This “shrinking civic space” is particularly affecting Indigenous Peoples’ rights and food sovereignty movements, requiring us to constantly reflect on how we maintain influence and fight for the rights and needs of constituents. The Brazilian government, while supporting CSIPM and civil society and agroecology more broadly, highlighted contradictions in current global policy realities. While Brazil maintains a ministry supporting family farming and agroecology, it simultaneously promotes industrial agriculture through separate institutions. The Brazilian Government is also a champion for the, and established the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty; however, we are also CSIPM raised about limited civil society engagement and rights-based approaches in this initiative.
Key policy instruments that CSIPM has helped negotiate, including the Right to Food Guidelines, Gender Guidelines, Small-scale Fisheries Guidelines, and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants, were discussed with their importance reinforced (despite them also being eroded within various forums). Core to the discussions was the need to strengthen the “Rome to Home” connection, ensuring these hard-won international frameworks are actively utilised in national approaches and policy development. Operationally, we also spent time focus on how the CFS workstreams, including urban and peri-urban food systems in 2025, and Indigenous Peoples’ knowledge systems in 2027 can be more supported by CSIPM.
Part of the week addressed our growing financial challenges. Reduced donor support and increased demands for civil society engagement across multiple international forums are straining our capacity to effectively engage. We’ve developed a philanthropic guidance tool to ensure future funding aligns with CSIPM’s values while exploring new donor relationships beyond traditional government supporters.
Moving forward, CSIPM identified several thematic priorities for the coming months: climate change impacts on territories and livelihoods, financing for food security and nutrition, Indigenous Peoples’ rights, corporate control over resources, and the weaponisation of food in conflicts. We need to strengthen inter-platform dialogues to ensure coherence across different international spaces while maintaining our primary focus on the CFS.
I left Brazil, feeling privileged for the opportunity to come together and share collective struggles, with a renewed commitment to challenging inequity and corporate control across the food system. For me, the care-centred approach that has become central to CSIPM’s working methods was valuable. Sustainable advocacy requires attention to the well-being of activists and communities.
How do I bring these learning back to AFSA? The key takeaways for me in this regard is around connecting international policy frameworks with local struggles. How do we continue to do this while building solidarity across movements facing similar challenges, in an increasingly hostile global political environment and powerful interests? The fight goes on! Viva!
