On Saturday, the British actor Idris Elba and his wife Sabrina Dhowre Elba, who are the ambassadors of the United Nation’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), advocated for small farmers during the COP-26 panel.
The Elbas spoke on behalf of IFAD at the United Nations climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland.
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is an international financial institution and also a specialized agency of the UN (founded in 1977, with its headquarters in Rome, Italy), has been working to address poverty and hunger in rural areas in the developing countries and also empowers people to help improve their food security and nutrition.
As ambassadors of IFAD, the Elbas appeared at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) panel, raised awareness for farmers, and uphold support to them against the negative effects of global warming on their farms.
The actor highlighted that 80% of food consumed worldwide is produced by small-scale farmers and emphasized the fact that farms need more access to freshwater. “Think about what it’s like to be a farmer, working from dusk till dawn, and watching your entire year’s harvest wiped out because of, essentially, climate change. And it is deeply unfair that the people who contribute so little towards climate change are the ones who bear the brunt of it” – said the Golden Globe Award-winning actor.
Speaking for the farmers, Sabrina Elba said – “Every time we eat, we are making a conscious choice about the world that we want to live in. if we don’t fix how we grow our food, and value the people who put food on our tables, the custodians of the earth, we won’t survive.”
According to the IFAD website – “Small-scale agriculture is central to our developmental model, which connects farmers and poor rural women and men to markets and services so they can grow more and earn more.”
