Development effectiveness in agriculture is food sovereignty. At the community, national, regional and global levels, we continue to push for food sovereignty and resist all forms of attacks from monopoly capital on land, livelihood and life.

Asia Consultation on Development Effectiveness in Food, Agriculture and Rural Development

21-22 May 2013
, Jakarta, Indonesia

We, representatives of organizations of small-scale farmers, women, indigenous peoples, agricultural workers, fisher folks, pastoralists, youth and advocates from Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Mongolia, Pakistan,Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam, gathered on May 21-22, 2013 in Jakarta, Indonesia for a CSO Partnership on Development Effectiveness (CPDE) consultation on development effectiveness in food, agriculture and rural development express that:

Asia is home to 70% of the world's rural most marginalized and vulnerable people dependent on agriculture for livelihood. Agriculture serves not only as source of livelihood but also more importantly as a way of life for the majority of people in the south which are highly impacted by the worsening neoliberal global crisis. Rural poverty rates (29% on average) are substantially higher than urban rates (13%), with South Asia having the biggest concentration of impoverished peoples (400 million).

Rural peoples – a great number of whom are women – remain the most vulnerable to food crisis, attacks on land, water, forests and seed rights, many forms of development aggression as well as the climate crisis. In the first place, the debilitating impacts of climate crisis are fueled by the agro-chemical industrial agriculture aggressively implemented by the huge corporate agriculture transnational corporations. Second, it is these corporations who by keeping their profits paramount are offering false solutions to the climate crisis which exacerbates hunger and misery in the lives of rural peoples.

We likewise continue to express concern with the setting and imposition of imperialist agenda and serious impact on agriculture, fishery and other sectors. This includes ongoing efforts of northern countries to push for more aggressive trade liberalization and commercialization of agriculture, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), discussions on responsible agricultural investments, and the post 2015 development process.

The Busan Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation outlines key
commitments among various stakeholders in which rural peoples have a direct stake.The shift from being mere aid recipients to actors defining their own development agenda has yet to be truly
realised. Development effectiveness in the agriculture sector remains a challenge even as human rights including women rights, ecological justice and food sovereignty are the core, remain under attack from corporations, governments and other drivers of monopoly capital. We condemn the ongoing and increasing political repression against the people. The application of democratic ownership whereby people's rights and welfare are paramount remains the yardstick of genuine development.

It is in this context that we demand the following recommendations and calls:

Specific Recommendations:

Development Effectiveness in the Rural Sector

1. Development effectiveness must engage in a transformative agenda to address the structural causes of poverty, inequality and marginalization;
2. Governments must fully implement their commitments under Busan High Level Forum IV and other DE processes, including accountability mechanisms;
3. Global platforms must be anchored on grassroots level advocacy, and defined by the people themselves;
4. Support for democratic ownership and human rights must be translated into an enabling environment for civil society organisations especially those at the forefront of defending and upholding the rights and welfare of marginalized, vulnerable communities. In this context, the free prior and informed consent must be upheld for the rights of the indigenous peoples for all development processes impacting them.

Food Sovereignty Agenda in Post 2015 process

1. Adopt food sovereignty as policy framework towards adequate, safe, nutritious food for all, including policies and investments to support small-scale farmers, and all other small producers;
2. Ensure trade policies facilitate developing countries safeguard domestic producers from anti-people trade policies and competition;
3. States must carry out people-oriented agrarian reform and secure workers', farmers', and rural peoples access to productive resources such as land, water resources, seeds among others as well as to finance and infrastructure;
4. Strong accountability mechanisms must be in place to penalize transnational corporations (TNCs) which violate people's rights in the conduct of their profit-driven operations. There must be an immediate END to the criminalization and repression of communities fighting for their inalienable rights.

9th Ministerial Meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO)

1. Trade liberalization in agriculture must be stopped and WTO taken out of agriculture;
2. 2. All food production, distribution, consumption and trade systems must be led through an autonomous people-led forum based on food sovereignty.

FAO and other Multilateral Institutions on Committee on World Food Security (CFS) responsible agricultural investments process (rai)

1. Engagement on responsible agricultural investments (rai) must be based on a human rights framework, gender equity and sustainable ecological systems that asserts, upholds and protects the rights including right to land and other natural resources of small-scale food producers, including women producers, indigenous peoples and all others;
2. Guidelines being developed for responsible agricultural investments must be used to stop land and other resource grabbing, and corporatization of agriculture
   Peoples' Movements

As peoples' organisations, we commit to work for the rights and interests of marginalized and vulnerable communities, especially women and children. We commit to continue organizing and strengthening our ranks at the grassroots level and forward a people-centered development agenda at various fronts. Development effectiveness in agriculture is food sovereignty. At the community, national, regional and global levels, we continue to push for food sovereignty and resist all forms of attacks from monopoly capital on land, livelihood and life.

Organisations

• Aliansi Gerakan Reforma Agraria (AGRA), Indonesia
• AMIHAN, Philippines
• Andhra Pradesh Vyavasaya Vruthidarula Union (APVVU), India
• Asian Peasant Coalition (APC), regional
• AsiaDHRRA, regional
• Asia Pacific Research Network (APRN), regional
• Cambodia Indigenous Youth Association (CIYA), Cambodia
• Centre for Research and Advocacy Manipur, India
• Center for Sustainable Research Development (SRD), Vietnam
• Fisheries and Marine Environment Research Institute (FMERI), global Helvetas, Indonesia (based)
• Indonesian People's Alliance (IPA), Indonesia
• Movement for National Land and Agricultural Reform (MONLAR), Sri Lanka Mongolia Food Sovereignty Network, Mongolia
• People's Coalition on Food Sovereignty (PCFS), global
• Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific (PAN-AP), regional
• Ponlok Khmer, Cambodia
Roots for Equity, Pakistan
• SAEDA, Laos
• Sustainable Development Foundation (SDF), Thailand
• WALHI – Friends of the Earth Indonesia, Indonesia
• YAKUM, Indonesia