More and Better General Meeting, Accra, Ghana, 1st of September 2008

The global general meeting of the More and Better campaign will be held in Ghana, Accra this year prior to the 3rd High Level Conference on Aid Effectiveness, September 2nd - 4th and as a part of the Civil Society's Organizations (CSOs) Forum that will be organized from August 30 to September 1st

The general meeting of the campaign will be opened to all the CSOs taking part in the Forum on Aid Effectiveness willing to join us. Registration and subsidy request forms for the Accra meetings can be found at www.betteraid.org

More information on the Aid Effectiveness process is available in the background note we have prepared for discussions within the International Planning Committee on Food Sovereignity (www.foodsovereignty.org) and some other networks/organizations working on rural development, food and agriculture issues. The document is available for downloading here.

Criticism of the peasent movements to the final document of the FAO Summit

The FAO Summit on World Food Security: the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy, held in Rome from the 3th to the 5th of June 2008 has produced a final document that, accordingly to the social movements and peasents representatives gathered in Rome for the parallel Civil Society's Organization Forum “Terra Preta” organized by the International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty (IPC), is avoiding to face the structural issues of the worl-wide agricultural market.

Dowload the Terra Preta statement in English here
IPC website: www.foodsovereignty.org

Outcome of conferences at Nyéléni center in Selengue , Mali , November 26th  - December 2nd 2007

More than 150 participants from 25 African countries and 10 countries from other continent representing farmers’, pastoralists, environmental, women, youth and development organizations, gathered at the Nyéléni center in Selengue , Mali from November 26th to December 2nd. Different networks and organizations joined hands to cooperate and organize field trips to visit farmers and to discuss issues of crucial importance for the majority of people in Africa and the environment;

  • Climate change and agriculture, fisheries and pastoralism in Africa
  • The fight against hunger
  • Development aid for agriculture and rural development in Africa
  • African Agroecological Alternatives to the Green Revolution

Outcome document here

More information, presentations, etc here

General Meeting of MORE and BETTER

A shift in development aid is needed

A shift in the development aid is needed. Development aid has to be based on the needs of the local communities and countries, not the policies and conditions set by donors and international institutions like the world Bank, IMF and the WTO. The organisations of farmers, artisan fisherfolks, pastoralists and indigenous peoples have to play the most important role to define and steering development aid programs for agriculture, fisheries and rural development. This was the clear messange from most of the about 70 participants in the general meeting of More and Better taking place in Rome October 28th and November 1st 2006. The participants in the More and Better meeting took also part in FAO's Special Forum on World Food Security which took place in Rome October 30-31st with the participation of governments and representatives from cicil society.

More information from the meeting here.

Two interventions in the FAO Special Forum on World Food Security, here
More information about civil society can be found on the webpage for the International Planning Committee on Food Sovereignty
Links to some related documents, here.




MORE AND BETTER
Photo from Ethiopia by Aksel Naerstad / The Development Fund, NorwayThe international campaign MORE AND BETTER has been established to support and be a part of the fight to eradicate hunger and poverty. The campaign will advocate for increases to both the quantity and quality of assistance for agriculture, rural development and food as, an important part of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger. This goal links closely to the first Millennium Development Goal, which provides an important milestone for this campaign

The world has the resources and know-how to eliminate hunger and poverty. It is totally unacceptable that 30 000 people die of hunger each day, that 852 million people are severely hungry, and that 1,3 billion people live in extreme poverty.

Our shared goals: A world without hunger and poverty
Under the banner of MORE AND BETTER the campaign will lobby for vital changes in national and international policies geared towards:
- a substantial decrease in the number of hungry and undernourished people and people living in poverty
- a major increase in development aid for agriculture, rural development and food in the developing countries.
- significant improvements in the quality of aid for agriculture, rural development and food