Two intervention in the FAO Special Forum, October 30st 2006, from Aksel Naerstad, coordinator of More and Better
The fight against hunger
My name is Aksel Naerstad, I’m from the Norwegian Development Fund, and I’m the coordinator of the More and Better Campaign – an international campaign for food, agriculture and rural development to eradicate hunger and poverty. More and Better consists of the global farmers’ organisations, the fisherfolks organisations, indigenous peoples’ organisations and development organisations in about 50 countries.
1974 the UN World Food Conference agreed to end hunger in 10 years. 32 years later there are more than 850 million permanent undernourished people, and the hunger is increasing. It is totally unacceptable that about 30 000 people die every day of hunger or hunger related causes
.Hunger is a political problem, not technical. The biggest problems in the fight against hunger are policies from governments and international organisations and institutions like the World Bank, IMF and WTO serving the interest of multinational companies and the elites in stead of the majority of the people and the malnourished. So, what is needed to end this terrible situation? I will here only mention four main points:
1. Strong social movements and public pressure to change the policies
Most governments have failed. They have not fulfilled their obligations in the fight against hunger. On the contrary, many of them follow policies that lead to hunger and poverty. To change these policies, strong social movements and public pressure are needed. We cannot rely on the governemts.
2. Replace the neoliberal policies and ideology with policies to serve the people and the environment.
There is an urgent need to replace the dominating neoliberal polices and economies with policies serving people and the environment. The neoliberal policies have taken away the policy space needed for countries and societies to develop in a sustainable way and to fulfil the needs of people. I want to underline what speakers from IFAP, Via Campesina and fisherfolks organisations already have said. The farmers and artesian fisherfolks have to be in the centre of and the driving force for development policies and program for agriculture, fisheries and rural development.
3. Preserve the natural resources and biodiversityThe natural resources are the base of all food production and survival of all life.
The destruction and privatisation of these natural resources leads to new hungry people every day, and is a big threat for the future. The industrial model of farming is unsustainable. The use of huge quantities of chemical fertilizer and chemical pesticides, overuse of water, heavy machinery and monocropping dramatically reduce the capacity for food production in the future. Farming has to be ecological sustainable. The unsustainable model of industrialized farming and unsustainable farming practices have to be changed.
4. Peoples food sovereignty has to be recognised
I will underline what many other speakers from civil society already have said; It is crucial that peoples and countries have the right to decide their own sustainable policies to feed themselves and their own population, as long as this don’t violate the same right for others. To recognise and implement food sovereignty is crucial to succeed in the fight against hunger and poverty. Food sovereignty should also be the policy of FAO, and it has to be reflected in the minutes from this meeting.Thank you.
See a longer article and other materiale here (word document)
Aid and investments
My name is Aksel Naerstad, I’m from the Norwegian Development Fund, and I’m the coordinator of the More and Better Campaign – an international campaign for food, agriculture and rural development aid to eradicate hunger and poverty. More and Better consists of the global farmers’ organisations, the fisherfolks organisations, indigenous peoples’ organisations and development organisations in about 50 countries.
The share of development aid going to agriculture is chocking low, knowing that the majority of the people in developing countries, the majority of the poor and the undernourished are directly linked to agriculture and fisheries. As most of you know, the development aid for agriculture almost collapsed in the 1990, and it is only about 12 percent of the total.
My country, Norway, spend only about 3 percent of the development aid on agriculture. In the budget proposal for next year, agriculture is not even at the list of priority issues. The budget has 13 priority issues, and agriculture is not any of them, not even mentioned. We need more support for agriculture and fisheries. That is important, but unfortunately some time less aid is better, not more. We se too often that aid destroy local production and local markets, and that the farmers, fisherfolks and their organisations are not involved at all. There is a strong need to change very much of the kind of aid that is given, and the way it is given.The More and Better campaign has developed some principles on what is good aid. You will find them in the brochure we have put out and on our webpage. On Friday there will also be a side event on what is good aid.I will here just underline three points.
1. Aid should support programs and policies developed by the recipient communities and countries – not forced on them from outside.
Aid has to respect and support the sovereignty of states and peoples, and not force countries, communities and people to follow policies and development models from the donor countries, institutions and agencies.
2. Development aid has to support local communities, community organisations and the organisations of farmers, artisan fisherfolks and indigenous peoples.This was underlined many times yesterday, but it cannot be underlined enough. Without the farmers, artisan fisherfolks, indigenous people and their organisations in the centre of development, deciding the policies projects, and controlling, there cannot be a development really benefiting the majority of the people and of the poor.
3. Aid has to support sustainable development – both socially and environmentally
Much of the development aid now is supporting unsustainable models and practices in agriculture and fisheries. There has to be a shift. The support has to be given to small scale family farming, pastoralism and artisan fisheries, and to agroecology, organic farming and other kind of sustainable production.Thank you.