Preface
Communication is a key factor and an asset in the rural transformations currently affecting family farming and food systems. The United Nations Decade of Family Farming (UNDFF 2019–2028) Global Action Plan calls for rural communication services (RCS) to be part of family farming policies and programmes and to be delivered in a sustained and inclusive manner.
RCS is a working definition that includes a wide range of demand-led communication processes, activities, media applications and institutional arrangements utilized to respond to the communication needs of family farmers and the rural population at large in a sustained and inclusive manner. To help advance RCS, ComDev Asia (CDA) was established as a regional communication initiative promoted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), comprising farmer organizations, communication entities and networks and development institutions operating in Asia and the Pacific. In line with the UNDFF Global Action Plan, CDA implements a participatory communication plan (PCP), which includes the following lines of work: i) participatory communication, awareness-raising and engagement in family farming; ii) enhancing the communication capacity of farmer organizations; and iii) promoting rural communication services.
