Thank you, Makiko, for this helpful information and insider's perspective. It is greatly appreciated. My main goal in raising the topic was to advocate for a "Millets Week" over a "Day of Millets," in case a recurrent annual event is being considered at any planning level (placing that piece on the board, as it were). From your reply, it sounds like there is no such discussion, at least at this point in time. It is also important to remember the process of creating such UN observances, as you outlined for us. Proposals and support for them come from the country members of the UN, often in consultation with the relevant UN agency (correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that was the case with the International Year of Millets proposal from India and help from FAO). Time and resource requirements are also critical in consideration of the possible benefits of a particular observance. The risk of my putting forth this topic midway through the IYM is in distracting from our ongoing work. At the same time, a vision of the future is important. So, I'll take the opportunity to mention that we in NAMA recognize that promotion of millets as sustainable crops and nutritious foods is a long game, and one that connects with other ag and food dynamics (and more). So we are very interested in the development of the global network on millets that you mention. There are a couple of strands of this thread that I'll pick up under a new subject title, but for now propose that the topic of a potential "World Millets Week" be allowed to rest until some later time. Thanks again, and all the best, Don DO, EL, MI, US NAMA On Mon, May 8, 2023 at 3:14 AM Taguchi, Makiko (NSP) <Makiko.Taguchi@fao.org> wrote:
This is an interesting discussion surrounding the post-2023 millets celebration. To be extremely honest, I see this with mixed feelings. The UN Observances (Years, Months, Weeks, Days - even “Decades” exist), are adopted through a lengthy process, and it has to be proposed by a member state. https://www.un.org/en/observances/
While they can be powerful advocacy tools, they of course require resources to manage them. The resources have to come from extra-budgetary source, meaning regular UN contributions are not allowed to be used for the activities. We will need a strong country (or two or more) commitments to make this happen.
I definitely do not want to put a damper on this thread, but I just wanted to inform you that all the UN observances come with a price, and having a week of celebration translates to perhaps half a year of work for us, believe it or not. For us to organize an International year, it is at least 2 years of work. The cost of having these observances should be carefully vetted vis a vis its impact.
From FAO perspective, we hope to generate interest this year to set up a global network on millets in the coming years.
best
*Makiko Taguchi*
Agricultural Officer
Plant Production and Protection Division (NSP) <http://www.fao.org/agriculture/plant-production-and-protection/en/#_blank>
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00153 Rome, Italy
Email: makiko.taguchi@fao.org
Web: www.fao.org
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