IBON International - People's organizations demand food sovereignty on the occasion of the World Summit on Food Security

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IBON International is the international division of IBON Foundation, Inc. As an international NGO, IBON Foundation responds to international demand to provide support in research and education to peoples’ movements and grassroots empowerment and advocacy and links these to international initiatives and networks.

IBON International initiates and implements international programs, develops and hosts international networks, initiates and participates in international advocacy campaigns, and establishes regional and country offices where necessary and appropriate.

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IBON Foundation is a non-stock non-profit development institution committed to serve the Filipino people through various programs in research-education-information.

IBON Europe was set up in 2007 as the base for IBON International's program in Europe. It will initially focus on EU member states where it will develop partnerships with grassroots-based movements of marginalized peoples and sectors according to its mandate.

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The Asia Pacific Research Network (APRN) was established in 1998 as a result of networking including a number of conferences in 1997, where the objective to channel and focus the efforts of NGO research towards supporting the need for information, education and advocacy of grassroots organizations was recognized by a number of key Asian research organizations or non-government organizations with established research departments.

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The People's Movement on Climate Change is a global campaign that aims to provide venue for grassroots, especially from the South - who are the worst-affected and yet are the least empowered to adapt to climate change - to participate in the process of drawing up a post-2012 climate change framework.

The Water for the People Network (WPN) Water for the People Network (WPN) is a campaign network that supports the various water-related struggles at the grassroots in order for them to achieve national and international projection. It also serves as an information and resource center as well as a coordinating body for joint actions and campaigns on the national and international levels.

The International Initiative on Corruption and Governance (IICG) was set up in 2001 to promote interest on corruption and governance issues from a grassroots perspective that takes into account all aspects of corruption, including systemic factors and corruption in the private sector.

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People's organizations demand food sovereignty on the occasion of the World Summit on Food Security

Written by PAN AP
Monday, 16 November 2009
An Open Letter signed by 140 organizations was sent to Mr. Jacques Diouf, Director General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), on the occasion of the World Summit on Food Security in Rome to be held from the 16-18 November 2009. The letter, entitled Look Beyond Tried and Tired Strategies to People’s Solutions for Hunger and Poverty (See attached), was coordinated by the Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific (PAN AP) and signed by members of 140 organizations representing women, consumers, fisherfolk, small farmers, indigenous people, landless peasants, agricultural workers, trade unions, migrant workers and researchers from 18 countries in Asia Pacific and Africa. “The third World Summit on Food Security should not be a travesty of justice with ‘more of the same’ solutions to hunger and food insecurity,” said Sarojeni Rengam, Executive Director of PAN AP. “In the thirteen years since the first World Summit in 1996, the number of hungry and under-nourished has increased to over a billion at a rate of 40 million in each of the last two years. Continuing to pursue the same strategies is not an option; we must learn to listen to the people and implement a new system of biodiversity based ecological agriculture with small farmers at the centre.” Responding to a draft of the objectives and possible decisions of the World Summit on Food Security, the open letter makes a critical appeal to the FAO to recognize and dismantle the neo-liberalist, corporate model of agriculture in favour of a new global food production system based on food sovereignty and environmental sustainability. The people’s organizations call on the FAO to: Create a Convention on Food Sovereignty to enshrine the principles of food sovereignty and institute food sovereignty as the principal policy framework for food and agriculture; Initiate a process of implementation and monitoring of the International Conference on Agrarian Reforms and Rural Development (ICARRD) recommendations; Provide leadership by establishing mechanisms that ensure international conventions and trade agreements related to food and agriculture guarantee North-South respect and cooperation, uphold human rights, promote genuine agrarian reforms, ensure sustainability and accountability in dealing with natural resources, and reject all manner of privatisation of life-forms and the development of genetically engineered crops/food; Support research and development that is based on the needs of communities and carried out through consultative, participatory methods such that the solutions truly fit the needs of the people and are led by them; To utilize the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) report as a central tool for the future strategies of the FAO on poverty eradication and agricultural development; Provide aid free of conditionalities, and monitor philanthropy; Dismantle the Agreement on Agriculture and take the WTO out of agriculture; Support small, biodiversity based ecological agriculture and not corporate monocultures. The continuing food and financial crises offer the FAO an opportunity to break from its past shortcomings and failures and make a fresh start, beginning with a historic paradigm shift to achieve a sustainable and equitable system of food production and distribution. This can well happen if the FAO listens to the voices from the ground and provides a greater and more proactive working space for the civil society organizations and people’s movements in bringing the people’s representation and perspectives to the discussion table. Please find attached the Open Letter . It is also available at www.panap.net .