Justice, Peace, Integrity<br /> of Creation
Justice, Peace, Integrity<br /> of Creation
Justice, Peace, Integrity<br /> of Creation
Justice, Peace, Integrity<br /> of Creation
Justice, Peace, Integrity<br /> of Creation

Progress in the New Alliance? Not in support of small-scale food producers

Virtual Meeting 24.11.2014 ONG de la Sociedad Civil Translated by: Jpic-jp.org

Call of G7/G8 Civil Society Organizations to their Governments on the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition in Africa

More than two years after the launch of the G8 New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, what we have seen of its ‘progress’ does not change our assessment that the New Alliance actually undermines food security, nutrition and the progressive realization of the right to food in Africa. First on-the-ground research suggests a dramatic gap between development rhetoric and impacts. There is no sign that the New Alliance is lifting African people out of poverty[1], but the promise to “unleash the power of the private sector” [2] is very visibly being fulfilled. Although the New Alliance rhetorically refers to the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP), we clearly see that the processes and components of CAADP targeted to the benefits small-scale food producers are sidelined.

When the New Alliance was inaugurated in the US in Camp David in 2012, it immediately became obvious that this initiative essentially served to enable private corporations to influence agricultural policy to advance their own interests. It is pressuring African governments to adopt domestic policy reforms that will facilitate large corporations’ investments in agriculture and discriminate against those who actually make the bulk of the investments, namely small-scale producers themselves.

Such profound legislative and policy changes threaten small-scale farmers control over land and seeds, marginalize local markets and cause loss of biodiversity and soil fertility, to the detriment of the livelihoods of local communities. They will exacerbate future climate and economic shocks for small-scale farmers, instead of building their resilience to cope with such shocks. They are being made without national debate, thereby undermining democratic structures.

Lack of transparency in the New Alliance - where donor and corporate commitments and implementation are, as in the Progress Report 2013-14, only reported at summary level - makes it extremely difficult for civil society to get a full picture of the New Alliance implementation.[3] However, first concrete cases indicate that the New Alliance is far from serving as an effective tool to support small-scale farmers. For instance:

  • In Burkina Faso the commitment to develop and rehabilitate irrigated land in the Bagré Growth Pole Project is mostly reserved for large-scale agribusiness investors, with only 22% (2790ha) of the land available for small-scale farming. Usually these farmers are only granted 1 to 4 ha of land with hardly any opportunity to scale up.[4]
  • In Malawi, the enlargement of tobacco investments by multinational companies is presented as a contribution to food security and the commitment to improve access to land has been implemented by making 200.000 ha of land available to agribusiness;[5] meanwhile the need to adopt the Tenancy Labour Bill as a core instrument to ensure minimum tenants and worker’s rights have been ignored in the cooperation framework agreement.[6]
  • In Tanzania and Mozambique, new seed laws are going to be introduced that will criminalize farmer to farmer seed exchange in the future. In other countries, such as Ghana and Malawi, similar processes are under way.[7]

This evidence supports our analysis that the New Alliance sidelines the diverse and sustainable food systems of small-scale farmers which offer the real potential for food security and nutrition in Africa. Instead, it promotes environmentally damaging approaches to agriculture that entrench corporate power.

We therefore urge you to review your engagement in the New Alliance, and take the following steps:

  1. Stop any legal and policy changes that facilitate large-scale land investments and that impede small-scale farmers ability to save, exchange and sell their seeds.
  2. Stop any further expansion of the New Alliance. No further cooperation framework agreements should be developed.
  3. Review existing projects and policy reform indicators with the meaningful involvement of the populations most affected, and withdraw from those that fail to promote the right to food and the legitimate tenure rights of women and communities, or that prioritize business interests over vulnerable people and the environment.
  4. Make the letters of intent of the companies participating in the New Alliance public immediately in order to enable a legitimate public debate about likely impacts and assessment of the New Alliance.
  5. Support small-scale producers’ own investments as advised by the Committee on World Food Security, by putting women, small-scale farmers and other marginalised groups at the center of any future strategy and project for food security and nutrition in Africa; making sure that human rights and environmental impact assessments are carried out to ensure that projects only move forward if they are found not to have negative impacts on human rights and the environment.
  6. Support adoption of agroecological practices by small-scale farmers to build resilience through: participatory research in agroecology; dissemination of ecological farming knowledge via farmer-to-farmer networks; and capacity-building of extension services to advise farmers on how to practice ecological farming.
SIGNATORIES  
   
GERMANY Misereor
  Pesticide Action Network
  FIAN Germany
  INKOTA-Netzwerk
  Agrar Koordination
  Global Policy Forum
  Seeds Action Network Germanwatch
  German NGO Forum Environment & Development
  Brot für die Welt - Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst
UK UK Food Group
  The permaculture association
  World Development Movement
  Find Your Feet
  Farms Not Factories
  War on Want
  FIAN group UK
  Concern Universal
  Pesticide Action Network
  Send a Cow
ITALY Terra Nuova
  FIRAB (Fondazione Italiana per la RIcerca in Agricoltura Biologica e Biodinamica)
  Crocevia
  Con.Pro.Bio
  SOLIDARIETA' E COOPERAZIONE CIPSI.
  Comitato Italiano per la Sovranità Alimentare
  La Gabbianella Coordinamento per il Sostegno a distanza onlus
  CEFA – Il seme della solidarietà
  SOLIDAUNIA  ONLUS-LA DAUNIA PER IL MONDO
  Centro Mondialità Sviluppo Reciproco (CMSR)
  Forum Permanente delle Associazioni di sostegno a distanza (ForumSad)
  CNCA
  M.A.I.S
  COSPE
  ACU-Associazione Consumatori Utenti
  Focsiv
  Rete Cibopertutti -Kumida
  COCIS - Coordinamento delle Organizzazioni non governative per la Cooperazione Internazionale allo Sviluppo
  Fondazione Slow Food per la Biodiversità Onlus
  FORUM DEL TERZO SETTORE DEL LAZIO E RETE DELLE FATTORIE SOCIALI
FRANCE CCFD-Terre Solidaire
  Action contre la faim France
  Peuples Solidaires - Action Aid France
  Avocats et vétérinaires sans frontières (AVSF)
  Survie
  Collectif pour la défense des terres malgaches - TANY
  Artisans du monde - France
  Centre de Recherches et d'Appui pour les Alternatives de Developpement - Ocean Indien
  Solidarité
  FIAN France
USA Oakland Institute
  Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
  Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
  PLANT
  The Second Chance Fd
  Global Policy Forum
  Food First
  CAGJ
CANADA Union Paysanne
  National Farmers Union
JAPAN Africa Japan Forum
  No to land grab
  GCAP Japan
  Japan International Volunteer Center (JVC)
  Mura-Machi Net", Network between Village and Town"
EU EuropAfrica
  Corporate Europe Observatory
  Africa Europe Faith & Justice Network
NETHERLANDS Transnational Institute
  AUSTRIA FIAN Austria
  Arche Noah
BELGIUM Entraide et Fraternité
  Broederlijk Delen
  Pan-Africanist International
  SOS Faim
  FIAN Belgium
  CNCD-11.11.11
NORWAY FIAN Norway
SWEDEN FIAN Sweden
  Afrikagrupperna
SWITZERLAND Fastenopfer
PORTUGAL FEC - Fundação Fé e Cooperação
  AIDGLOBAL - Action and Integration for Global Development
  FUNDAÇÃO GONÇALO DA SILVEIRA
SPAIN Manos Unidas
INTERNATIONAL ActionAid International
  Greenpeace international
  FIMARC
  FIAN International
  CIDSE ACF International

[1]   Feed the Future, 2012: Five Questions about the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, http://feedthefuture.g......ood-security-and-nutrition  

[2]   Cameron, David, 2012: „A G8 Meeting that goes back to first principles, www.euobserver.com/opinion/118265   

[3]   G8 New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, Progress Report 2013-14, http://new-  alliance.org/...._FinalC_508.pdf

[4]   Oxfam 2014, For Whose Benefit? The G8 New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition in Burkina Faso. www.oxfam.org/en/grow/policy/whose-benefit  

[5]   Government of Malawi, G8 New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition: Malawi: 2014 Annual Progress Report.

[6]   De Schutter, Olivier, 2013: Mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. Mission to Malawi from 12 to 22 July 2013, End of Mission Statement. http://www.srfood.org/.....Malawi_en.pdf

[7]   See for instance: Tanzanian Civil Society Statement on Farmer’s Rights 22 March 2013, http://www.ip-watch.org/...Tanzania-CSO-Statement-1.pdf ; see also: African Center for Biosafety, 2013, Slavishly following UPOV 1991. A critique of Mozambique’s Plant Variety Protection  Law, http://www.acbio.org.za/.....following-upov-1991

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