Responses
• FAO organized a meeting in February 2015, entitled Indigenous Food Systems, Agroecology and the Voluntary Guidelines on Tenure, with indigenous representatives from the seven socio-cultural regions. Four Permanent Forum members were present at the meeting. The suggestions emerging from the meeting link to the PFII’s recommendation, including national programs targeting food insecurity and malnutrition in indigenous communities, capacity building through FAO and addressing the issue of marginalization in the implementation of FAO’s policy. With respect to the research and promotion of indigenous peoples’ foods and seed varieties, FAO emphasizes the multidisciplinary working group managed by FAO, which is working on food composition of several indigenous foods. • There has been no major progress on the second part of the recommendation concerning the establishment of a consultative committee with indigenous pastoralists of the Sahel (Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger), for early warning systems. FAO is however working in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger in relief and humanitarian activities along with the rest of the UN system and actively participated in the Food Security cluster, which is co-chaired by WFP and FAO.