26th FAO Regional Conference for Africa

The objective of civil society’s engagement in this process is to contribute critically and provide own perspectives informed by social organisations and communities experiences in their efforts to achieve food security and food sovereignty. The agenda of this conference is indeed rich, and the issues to be discussed are both timely and important, with some requiring immediate and urgent actions to put Africa back on growth and productivity curve.

Considering the on-going efforts both internationally and regionally that aim to address hunger and chronic food insecurity;

Appreciating the renewal of and central role given to the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) as a platform for the deliberations on global agriculture and food security policies;

Recognizing the strides already taken in some countries to formulate national and regional food security policies and laws that have the potential to foster the use of rights based approaches to create an enabling environment;

Concerned that sub-Saharan Africa is the only region in the world where per capita food production has been declining with rising numbers of people that are chronically hungry and undernourished currently estimated at more than 265 million;

Recognizing that halving hunger in Africa requires drastic increase in both quality and quantity of public and donor investments to the agricultural sector;

Concerned that about 7 out of 53 countries have met the minimum 10% budgetary target under the Maputo Declaration commitment, and that the average total governments’ investment in agricultural sector is 6.6% most of which constitutes the recurrent expenses;

Noting that some countries that have surpassed the Maputo Declaration budgetary target but have not been able to keep hunger and chronic food insecurity at bay;

Recalling that green revolution had negative effects on sustainable agriculture development in other regions of the world and noting further that increased food production in sub-Saharan Africa through the green revolution is not sufficient in eliminating chronic food insecurity;

Acknowledging the fisherfolk, indigenous people and women’s struggle to access, control and have ownership over land, water and other natural resources for sustainable food production is central to household food security;

Recognizing that achieving women’s rights to land and livelihood is key to achieving Africa’s overall food security;

Concerned that large tracks of African land have been allocated to foreign governments and multinational companies for agrofuel production and,

Recognizing that achieving food sovereignty in Africa shall require serious land reforms;

We wish to call upon FAO and African governments present here today to consider the following specifically with regard to:

a) Committee on World Food Security:
• Appeal for greater accountability from African representatives within the CFS structure.
• Call for greater involvement and commitment of African governments to the CFS.
• Urge our governments to uphold a spirit of genuine partnership and greater inclusivity of small-scale food producer organizations in food security fora at regional level (CAADP process) and CFS national and regional discussions;
• Appeal for increased awareness on CFS to facilitate wider engagement by key stakeholders particularly producer organizations and their networks and, civil society organizations in Africa;
• Call for more resource allocation to support activities of the CFS.

b) Land reform. Land grabbing and Agrofuel
• Call on governments to fully implement the International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ICARRD) recommendations that promote, among others, agrarian land reforms that empower women and farming communities, to have full control, ownership and inclusive decision making processes over land and land use policies.
• Recommend the government promotion of policies that respect the collective rights to land and protect communities against land grabbing.
• Urge the African governments to place a moratorium on further expansion of industrial agrofuel production and investment in Africa and other regions.
• Further urge the governments and relevant UN agencies to call for an end to agrofuel targets and financial incentives for industrial agrofuel in the developed countries.
• Urge governments to embrace genuine partnership with civil society and more innovative ways to stem the rise in number of people who are hungry and undernourished by respecting, protecting and promoting their right to food.

c) Access, control and ownership of natural resources
• Appeal to the government to reinforce value of small scale food producers, especially women, in achieving food security. Women provide the largest percentage of agricultural labor yet have limited access to, control and ownership of land and other natural resources;
• Urge governments to promote the approval of national laws promoting biodiversity and regulate the commercialization and use of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)
• Demand recognition of the role that indigenous people play in the conservation of environment biodiversity

d) Requisite Infrastructure and investment
• Call on governments to put in place the necessary requisite infrastructure including storage, transportation, marketing and fair pricing mechanisms in support of sustainable agricultural production, food and livelihood security;
• Urge the governments to embrace and implement the recommendations of International Agricultural Knowledge Science and Technological Development (IAASTD);
• Call for increased channeling of investments into research, rural extension, affordable rural credit, technical assistance and extension services to small-scale food producers;
Finally, we call on governments, UN agencies and all to promote food sovereignty as an approach that recognizes the centrality of small scale food producers, women’s groups, family farming, fisherfolk and pastoralists in the eradication of
chronic hunger and food insecurity.

CSO Consultation parallel to the 26 FAO Regional Conference for Africa

Luanda, Angola,
4th of May 2010

Composed by: ABN – Africa Biodiversity Network (Kenya); ACORD; ActionAid International; ADRA - Acção para o Desenvolvimento Rural e Ambiente; Africa Right to Food Network; CLUSA - Liga das Cooperativas dos Estados Unidos da América; CNOP-CAM - Concertation Nationale des Organisations Paysannes du Cameroun; Conferência Nacional da Sociedade Civil (Angola); COWFA ESAFF - East and Southem Africa Farmer's Federation (Zambia); IFSN - International Food Security Network (West Africa); Oxfam; PELUM Rede das Organizações do IFSN dos PALOPs; PROPAC - Plateforme sous-régionale des.Organisations Paysannes d’Afrique Centrale; Rede Terra; ROSA - Rede de Organizações da Sociedade Civil para a Soberania Alimentar; TWN - Third World Network; UNAC - União Nacional de Camponeses (Moçambique); UNACA - União Nacional das Associações de Camponeses de Angola; VECO (Uganda); Via Campesina África; WFF - World Forum of Fish Harvesters and Fisher Workers;
Facilitated by: IPC - International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty

For a United and Active African Civil Society fighting for Food Sovereignty