|
||
|
Financial crisis
makes agricultural focus more urgent - UN food rights expert The following article
was published in the South-North Development Monitor (SUNS) #6697,
11 May 2009 and is reproduced here with permission. With best wishes,
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This was one of
the key recommendations highlighted by Mr Olivier De Schutter, the UN
Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, in his submission to the current
seventeenth session of the Commission taking place in The rights expert
also underscored the importance of reforming the global governance of
the global food system. In this regard, De Schutter pointed to the multilateral
trading system as being "heavily skewed in favour of a small group
of countries, and in urgent need of reform." In particular, he
said, trade-distorting measures - obstacles to market access for developing
countries, domestic support schemes for farmers of the OECD countries,
and export subsidies - have led many small-holder farmers to deeply
unfavourable situations. It was necessary
to recognize the specificity of agricultural products, rather than to
treat them as any other commodities; and to allow more flexibilities
to developing countries, in order to shield their agricultural producers
from competition from industrialized countries' farmers. It was also necessary
to consider the role of the transnational corporations in the food trade,
and the international community should adopt incentives and regulations
to ensure that transnational agri-food companies contribute to the sustainable
development of the countries they source from, and to the realization
of the human right to food. In his submission
to the CSD on Thursday, the UN rights expert outlined some of the crucial
choices that must be made to design more sustainable food systems in
a world facing climate change and declining natural resources. De Schutter said
that only by considering food as a human right, and looking at agricultural
development through that perspective, could the correct choices be made.
It was urgent that governments make the connection between sustainable
development and a rights-based approach to food. "In responding
to the global food crisis, it is easy to move from the symptom - prices
which have suddenly peaked - to a possible cure - produce more, and
remove as soon as possible all supply-side constraints," he said.
But if we think of food as a human right, "we must ask a very different
set of questions." Will the measures
we adopt to boost production benefit those who are food insecure? Or
will they simply mean a return to low prices and only further discourage
small-scale farmers and marginalise them further, he asked. Are these
measures addressing the needs of all those who are in a situation of
food insecurity and vulnerability? Will these measures reduce, or instead
increase, the dualization of the farming sector? "The right
to food framework can assist in guiding governments towards making the
right choices" by prioritizing the needs of the most vulnerable,
he said. It could also improve government accountability, by "ensuring
their policies remain constantly guided by the need to alleviate hunger
and malnutrition - and by building the resilience of the most vulnerable,
whether against policy changes or internal or external shocks." In his submission,
the rights expert noted that there are clear gaps in the global governance
of the global food system, which needs strong re-orientation in order
to become sustainable and fulfill the human right to food for all. "Sustainable
development and the rights-based approach go hand in hand. Connecting
them is urgent. 2009 should be remembered as the starting point of a
new decline in the number of the hungry, and the CSD session of May
2009 should be a milestone in this shift," he said. Referring to recent
remarks by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in expressing the emerging
consensus that the right to food should guide reactions of the international
community to the global food crisis and serve as a basis for analysis,
action and accountability, De Schutter said that he is equally convinced
that "the right to food framework can constitute an important tool
that governments can rely on in order to meet the considerable challenge
we are currently facing." The right to food
should be seen as serving these efforts both by improving the accountability
of governments - thus ensuring that their policies remain constantly
guided by the need to alleviate hunger and malnutrition - and by building
the resilience of the most vulnerable, whether against policy changes
or internal or external shocks. The rights expert
noted that the right to adequate food is a human right stated in the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is further made explicit by
the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,
which protects the right to food as part of the right to an adequate
standard of living and guarantee a fundamental right to be free from
hunger. He stressed that
at least twenty States in the world - including The Special Rapporteur
also pointed out that re-investment by governments in agriculture is
necessary. Recent international efforts as well as the experience gained
from the crisis made it abundantly clear that the question is not merely
of increasing the budgets allocated to agriculture. The key issue is
rather, which model of agricultural development should be promoted. The nature of the
choice to be made between different models of agricultural development
must be correctly understood, said De Schutter. These different approaches
can, under certain conditions, be complementary at the crop field level:
a very careful combination of fertilizers and agro-forestry, for instance,
is successfully promoted in some regions. "At the level
of public policy, however, it is a pre-requisite for a balanced approach
that we start by acknowledging the very existence of several models.
The fact that these models lead to different development paths should
also be discussed," said the rights expert. The progressive
realization of the right to food is not merely an issue of raising the
budgetary allocation for agricultural development. It also requires
that Governments opt for the orientations more conducive to the realization
of the right to food, by carefully balancing the existing options against
one another. De Schutter noted
that almost sixty governments have approved the conclusions of the International
Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development
(IAASTD) during an intergovernmental plenary that was held in The IAASTD calls
for a fundamental paradigm shift in agricultural development, noting
that "successfully meeting development and sustainability goals
and responding to new priorities and changing circumstances would require
a fundamental shift in [agricultural knowledge, science and technology],
including science, technology, policies, institutions, capacity development
and investment." "We must therefore
consider the range of options available to us, and balance them against
each other. It is in this context that the right to food framework could
assist in guiding governments towards making the right choices. This
framework requires that we prioritize the needs of the most vulnerable;
that we define our benchmarks not only by the levels of production achieved,
but also by the impacts on the right to food of different ways of producing
food; and that we make decisions about agriculture and food based on
participatory mechanisms," said De Schutter. The rights expert
underlined that strong and well-targeted investment in agriculture will
not suffice. Small-holder farmers, which are the first vulnerable food
insecure group (50% of the hungry), will only be able to improve their
situation in a favourable economic and socio-political environment.
Efforts by agronomists will be pointless if the right institutions,
regulations and accountability mechanisms are not established and implemented. "We must build
an enabling environment which should be more about 'how to help the
world feed itself' than 'how to feed the world'". The rights expert
identified two issues, at the global level, for which improved global
governance is needed. The first is on
market access and trade. Access to markets and remunerative prices are
a crucial condition for small-holder farmers and their communities to
escape hunger. "The current multilateral trading system is heavily
skewed in favour of a small group of countries, and is in urgent need
of reform," De Schutter said. In agriculture,
in particular, trade-distorting measures - obstacles to market access
for developing countries, domestic support schemes for OECD countries'
farmers, and export subsidies - have led many small-holder farmers to
deeply unfavourable situations. Yet, said the rights
expert, simply removing the existing distortions will not suffice. If
trade is to work for development and to contribute to the realization
of the right to adequate food, it needs to recognize the specificity
of agricultural products, rather than to treat them as any other commodities;
and to allow more flexibilities to developing countries, in order to
shield their agricultural producers from competition from industrialized
countries' farmers. The second issue
highlighted by De Schutter is regulation of global food chains. Noting
that trade is mostly done not between States, but between transnational
corporations, he said: "If our collective aim is a trading system
that works for development, including the human right to food, the role
of these actors also must be considered." The expansion of
global supply chains shall only work in favour of human development
if this does not pressure States to lower their social and environmental
standards in order to become "competitive States", attractive
to foreign investors and buyers. All too often, said
De Schutter, at the end of agri-food supply chains, agricultural workers
do not receive a wage enabling them to a decent livelihood. The ILO
estimates that the waged work force in agriculture is made up of 700
million women and men producing the food we eat but who are often unable
to afford it. "This is unacceptable,"
the rights expert told the Commission. "We should ask ourselves,
for instance, how the relevant ILO conventions could be better implemented
in the rural areas - which all too often labour inspectorates are unable
to monitor effectively - and how those working on farms, often in the
informal sector, can be guaranteed a living wage, and adequate health
and safety conditions of employment." Consequently, the
international community should aim to adopt incentives and regulations
to ensure that transnational agri-food companies contribute to the sustainable
development of the countries they source from, and to the realization
of the human right to food. The Special Rapporteur
also welcomed a prior decision of the Commission in identifying access
to land and security of tenure as one of its priorities for future work. Improved security
of tenure and more equitable access to land are indispensable for the
realization of the right to food because 50% of those who are hungry
are small-holders who live on less than two hectares, and 20% are landless
labourers. Sustainable access
to land encourages more sustainable farming, particularly by the planting
of trees, and more responsible use of the soils and water resources,
said De Schutter. This is turn results in improved nutrition and health:
fruit trees are sources of vitamins and proteins, medicine trees of
health remedies. It improves bio-diversity and facilitates adaptation
to climate change, as farming systems including trees are more resilient
to climate extremes. Providing landowners
or land users with security against eviction also enables the development
of small-scale agriculture, which is highly productive per hectare and,
because it is labour intensive, is a source of rural employment. "This should
not be underestimated in this period of economic crisis, as many countries
face waves of return of immigrants on top of important urban unemployment,"
said De Schutter. In that respect,
lessons from the past must not be forgotten. Equitable land distribution
has been proven crucial in many countries for the long periods of stable
economic growth and poverty alleviation. Land reform with a strong re-distributive
component has been an important element of the development path of several
countries. The Special Rapporteur
made a series of recommendations for the CSD, which in his view, has
a unique contribution to make to the current discussions about the future
of agricultural development. The CSD could consider,
in its vision statement, amongst others, reaffirming the conclusions
of the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and
Technology for Development (IAASTD) on the need for a paradigm shift
in agricultural science, policies and institutions. It could also consider
anticipating the effects of climate change on agricultural and agro-food
systems, and warning the international community of the need to encourage
a diversity of resilient agricultural systems able to cope with climate
disruptions, including agro-ecological systems. The CSD could also
consider calling for a World Food Summit with a comprehensive agenda
in order to encourage the international community to address the structural
causes of food insecurity and fill in the gaps of the currently fragmented
global governance (including the issues of insufficient or inadequately
targeted investments in agriculture; unregulated markets which do not
guarantee stability and remunerative prices; speculation on the futures
markets of agricultural commodities; weak protection of agricultural
workers; and adequate regulation of the agri-food chain). In its negotiated
policy decisions, the CSD could also promote the adoption of national
right to food strategies, following the FAO Voluntary Guidelines on
the progressive realization of the right to adequate food, in order
to design and implement at national level comprehensive strategies aiming
at sustainable food systems, including production, transformation and
consumption. It could also take
leadership by encouraging States and international organizations to
implement the conclusions of the International Assessment of Agricultural
Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD); and explore
the options to equip the international community with a permanent independent
expert body which could regularly update the IAASTD conclusions, De
Schutter recommended. +
|
||
