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As we prepare position papers on a variety of topics for CSD 8, it is useful to recall preparations that preceded Rio and NGO efforts since. The following describes a conference that reviewed three historical documents developed prior to Rio and produced a "How To" Booklet for Sustainable Agriculture/Food Security recommending next steps for policy advocacy. Other postings to this listserve that follow document additional major events related to Agenda 21, Chapter 14 (SARD) and regional NGO perspectives on a variety of issues. These will also be posted on the sustainable agriculture/food systems section of our website at <www.csdngo.org/csdngo>
Other contributions both past and current are most welcome.
Linda Elswick, SAFS Caucus Co-coordinator
The essence of the meeting was to "evolve policy action strategies and concrete implementable project proposals for future actions by citizens' associations to more effectively implement the agreed NGO positions as contained in the three historical documents produced at the Roots of the Future Conference held in Paris (Agenda Ya Wananchi - Citizens' Action Plan for the 1990's); the Miami Conference (World Women's Congress for a Healthy Planet/Women's Action Agenda 21); and the International NGO Forum, Rio (Alternative NGO Treaties).
Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security was one of 10 Policy Action Working Groups convened. Nine additional capacity-building working groups, including NGO Code of Conduct, Education, Communicaton and Information Strategies, as well as NGO Financing, Media, Monitoring and Lobbying Strategies, etc..
These proposals were drawn from the draft "How To" Booklet strategy section prepared by Sue Milner, IEAN, and the input of the group attending the Policy Action Working Group on Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security (listed below).
Participants in the Sustainable Agriculture/Food Security Working Group:
Sue Milner, IEAN, Brussels, Moderator (had to leave early) Silvia Ribeiro, REDES/FOE Uruguay, Rapporteur Linda Elswick, WSAA Washington, Rapporteur Jen van de Waals, Holland Acholla Kapiyo, KENGO, Kenya Solange Fernex, France Greens Party, French Parliament Madelene Ostwald, EarthAction, Sweden Karl Alleso, Denmark Technical University Center for Developing Countries, guest observer.
We also conferred with others expressing interest in this issue area: Wong Kim Lee and Bishan Singh Bahadur, SEACON (Southeast Asia Consortium for Sustainable Development), Lisa Dacanay, Philippines Rural Reconstruction Movement; Olga Ponizova, Eco-Accord Centre, Moscow, Russia.
Several parallel inter-regional NGO activities were also held, including:
The International NGO Forum (INGOF), which presented an information paper and proposed workplan for future efforts to build on the Alternative NGO Treaty process and elaborate a forum to bring together groups who want to work together and contribute to the development of fundamental alternatives and a vision that offers credible, coherent alternatives to the current world dominant economic model. A planning process in each region leading to inter-regional meetings is proposed.
Briefings were also held on other international events such as the Commission on Sustainable Development (a CSD-NGO liaison committee) to form a facilitating structure for NGOs at the CSD has been formed), Conventions on Biodiversity, Forests, and Desertification, the Small Island States conference, the 1995 Social Summit, planning for a European follow-up to Womens's Action Agenda 21, etc.
Part of the focus of the conference was discussion on the need for NGOs to share information and coordinate more effectively cross-sectorally to effectively advance our work. In the words of the conference brochure, inter-regional citizen action called for in "Agenda Ya Wananchi: Citizens' Action Plan for the 1990's," needs to be be enhanced by concentrating on "how NGOs can better portray their role in day to day sustainable development efforts to the general public through improved media strategies, as well as how they can more effectively convey their policy positions on critical global issues to decision makers in official international negotiations through improved lobbying strategies."
What follows is the draft text of the "How To Booklet" and the two concrete actions that evolved from the group, as it was reported in the final plenary session.
HOW TO BOOKLET. Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security
Introduction
The issue of sustainable agriculture and food security is frequently viewed in the narrowest of ways; of the technical and physical viability of the food production system. This system is, however, dependent upon factors which require broader considerations to be taken note of to ensure sustainability; people and their needs. It is thus not sufficient to design an agricultural system that ignores the needs for food of all of the population, including the producers themselves. Such an approach ignores the fact that the sustainability of the system is dependent upon not just equity across generations but within generations
The aspects of unsustainable agriculture in the North that are more apparent are those related to the ecological and physical long term viability of agricultural production. The intensive monoculture model of Northern agriculture has been demonstrably shown to impoverish the environment in which it is practised. This is an intensive agriculture dependent upon specialization, heavy usage of agrochemicals, irrigation, and mechanization. This agriculture of an industrial scale has caused a number of environmental problems. These include: soil erosion; contamination of people, food, livestock, ground water and ecosystems by various agro-chemicals; new forms of livestock disease (e.g. BSE); and loss of biodiversity alongside deterioration of once beautiful landscapes.
These concerns have led to the development of ecological / biological /organic farming movements in many of countries of the North. These traditional agricultural practices preserve the resource base of productive land, maintain fertility and reduce soil erosion rates whilst ensuring that ground water is not polluted by agro-chemical inputs.
In the South, on the other hand, it is the gross social inequalitiesundermining the sustainability of agriculture which are most apparent. A lack of access to credit to secure the basic inputs necessary for production, alongside insecurity of land tenure contribute to impoverishment of both the rural population and environment. Indeed the physical survival of the rural population is threatned by unsustainable agricultural systems which are frequently imposed upon them. Chemical inputs moreover are, when available, often inappropriately used and pesticide poisoning is a major problem.
These differences in the most visible aspects of the problem in the North and the South have resulted in a heated debate over the policies that are necessary to achieve a sustainable agriculture. What is often obscured by such differences is the inter-connectedness of the systems, and the importance of both ecological and social considerations for the long term sustainability of agriculture in both hemispheres.
Indeed the concerns of the farming community of both hemispheres often centre upon survival and indipendence. Physical survival in the South and financial survival and indipendence in the North.
International Agreements on Sustainable Agriculture And Food Security.
-NGOs and governments have brokered a number of international agreements relating to sustainable agriculture and food security. These differing agreements,however, highlight a more fundamental difference relating to where the vehicle for change to sustainable agriculture lies. Governmental agreements, and thosewhich include international and multi-lateral agencies, tend to emphasise programmes and techniques alongside improvements in efficiency and productivity.International NGO agreements, however, tend to place the emphasis upon the requirement for empowerment and participation of the rural population as a precondition for sustainable agriculture The concerns of NGOs and citizens organisations will only be effectively addressed in the field of sustainable agriculture and food security when the issues of empowerment and participation are viewed as a prerequisite to the acheivment of sustainability.'
-Despite the fact that sustainable agriculture and food security are at the heart of the sustainable development debate, no specific reference is made to the topic in the Rio Declaration. Several of the principles can, however, bereadily applied to guaranteeing food security for peoples across and within generations. The principles that are of most relevance are: those relating to major target groups (20 - 23), shared differentiated national responsibilities (7), eradicating poverty (5), and the right to development and a healthy productive life (1).
-Many of the chapters in Agenda 21 have relevance to the issues of sustainable agriculture and food security. Of most direct relevance is chapter 14; Promoting Sustainable Agriculture And Rural Development, and chapter 32; Strengthening the Role of Farmers. Chapter 12 is one of the longer chapters in Agenda 21 and it provides a framework which would provide the "major adjustments [that] are needed in agricultural, environmental and macroeconomic policy, at both national and international levels, in developed as well as developing countries, to create the conditions for sustainable agriculture and rural development (SARD)."
-The policy approaches identified in chapter 12 emphasize that the "priority must be on maintaining and improving the capacity of the higher potential agricultural lands to support an expanding population." The success of the SARD policies outlined in the rest of the chapter depends on the participation of the rural community, a fact recognized in the introduction to the chapter; "The success of SARD will depend largely on the support and participation of rural people, national governments, the private sector and international cooperation, including technical and scientific cooperation." Twelve separate policy areas are outlined in chapter 12 as necessary components of SARD policies, these being:
Recognition of the role that rural peoples will play in this process is given in the second programme area. The objectives of which include: promotion of "greater public awareness of the role of people's participation and people's organization"; ensuring "equitable access of rural people to land, water and forest resources and to technologies, financing, marketing, processing and distribution"; and the strengthening and development of the "internal capacities of rural people's organizations and extension services". The focus of these objectives being "especially women's groups, youth, indigenous people, local communities and small farmers."
-In improving farm production and diversifying farming systems Agenda 21 points out that "agriculture needs to be intensified to meet future demands for commodities and to avoid further expansion onto marginal lands and encroachment on fragile ecosystems." The objectives of the programme area are to "improve farm productivity,... to enhance self reliance of farmers,... and the creation of farm and non?farm employment opportunities.
-The overall thrust of the chapter is centred on technical improvements which could enhance production. The approach advocated thus emphasizes productivity and efficiency rather than participation and democracy. This is, to some extent, mitigated against by the inclusion of some of these concerns in chapter 32: Strengthening The Role Of Farmers. These concerns, whilst addressed by Agenda 21, are thus confined to Section III - Strengthening The Role Of Major Groups, rather than being included in the substantive policy area.
NGO Policies And Positions.
Women's Action Agenda 21.
-We declare that because women and children are a majority of the one billion people in the world who go hungry every day, women's access to food, land inheritance, tenure and ownership must be regarded as a basic human right.
- We will strive to create awareness about the environmental impact of land-use technologies guided by immediate profit at the cost of long-term sustainability and productivity. Policies should encourage use of indigenous foods and invest more resources to develop local expertise in traditional production, storage, and seed protection for future crops.
- We reject as unacceptable the use of hormones, contaminants, additives, and irradiation in food production.
- We call for the transformation of development strategies and development cooperation agencies. in every new or already established aid-giving mechanism or program, policy that specifies the involvement of women on an equal basis with men in determining the allocation of funds should be enforced.
- We seek enforcement of directives specifying that every funding proposal be examined for participation of women, including grass-roots women, in design and management, and for its impact on the economic, social, health and educational status of women as well as community-level and indigenous people.
-Agenda Ya Wananchi-
- We call upon all governments to acknowledge Aboriginal Indigenous Peoples' ownership of their lands prior to colonization and to include this recognition into all government constitutions. Governments must promote and legislate Aboriginal Indigenous Peoples' rights to self determination.
- We call on Southern governments to undertake land reform. Equitable redistribution and appropriate use of land is a key measure for introducing equity into development programmes in the South and an important prerequisite for moving towards sustainable land use systems and reinhabitatory societies.
- We call upon all governments to actively promote sustainable agriculture. Application of models of organic, ecological or biological agriculture and permaculture is essential for achieving sustainable in land use. Prices should include social and environmental costs of production, processing, trade and disposals. Farmer rights need to be recognized under existing international human rights conventions.
The NGO Alternative Treaties from the Rio Earth Summit, June 1992
Food Security Treaty
- Containing an 18 Point Food Security Action Plan, including:
NGOs and Social Movements pledge to: - Advocate for food security to be a central objective in the agricultural and food policies of local and national governments, international agencies, NGOs and community groups; - Actively promote democratic and just forms of land ownership and land tenure systems, including community control over land use, access and ownership, as well as water resources, and over food related decision and strategies. - Advocate for national and local governmental agencies, intergovernmental organizations and NGOs to give priority to integrating women's roles into mainstream agricultural development and other agricultural activities, and to empowering women's capacities by ensuring their access to such resources as land, credit, appropriate technology and education. - Promote the concept that farmers receive fair income from sustainable agriculture by internalizing the environmental and social costs in all agriculture.
Sustainable Agriculture Treaty
Containing a 22 Point Action Plan, including:
NGOs and Social Movements pledge to:
- Commit to democracy and participation of NGOs and social movements,
especially peasant, family and small farmers' groups, in all levels in
order to accomplish political proposals connected with sustainable agriculture
as an essential condition to construct new patterns of social, economic
and technical organization of rural areas. - Support efforts and interaction
between people's movements, women's groups, youth, indigenous peoples,
local communities and peasant, family and small farmers' organizations
to preserve, enhance and maintain intact sustainable farming systems, to
restore degraded agro-ecological and cultural systems and to accelerate
development and implementation of sustainable agriculture practices. -
Promote new and existing popular networks among people and organizations
involved in sustainable agriculture at local, national and regional levels
to facilitate quick exchange of affordable, reliable information and to
consolidate cooperation and action.
WOMEN'S ACTION AGENDA 21 - Miami World Women's Congress for a Healthy
Planet, 1990
AGENDA YA WANANCHI - Citizens' Action Plan for the 1990's
ALTERNATIVE TREATIES - International NGO Forum, Rio de Janeiro, 1992