Country: Zambia

Zambian farmers’ livelihoods threatened by German agribusiness

Posted on by fredsaxo

The company began farming operations in Zambia’s Mumbwa District in 2012 and grows soya and maize for export and domestic sale on around 40,000 hectares of land purchased from the local community. Some families say they have yet to be fully paid for their land. Amatheon also established an outgrower program for quinoa, chia seeds and chili and many local farmers who agreed to supply produce complain that the company failed to honor agreements when market prices fall.

Amatheon has built two dams in the area to irrigate the plantation, which has reportedly severely reduced water supplies to as many as 200 households downstream. This has forced farmers to reduce their livestock numbers and stop cultivating vegetables, which had provided a major source of income and nutritious meals.

One small hold farmer told FIAN Germany that the company had wrongly demarcated his land as being inside their property and had destroyed his well, forcing his family to get water two miles walking distance away. He also reported being threatened at gunpoint.

“A senior Amatheon employee came to my house and threatened me with a firearm, he later fired gunshots in the air, after that he told me to move out of (the) land,’’ he said.

Amatheon has confiscated community animals that stray onto its land and charges typically 500 Zambia Kwacha (USD 28) to return each animal, which is a large sum for the local farmers.

Local community members are demanding that the Zambian government properly regulates Amatheon’s activity in Mumbwa District and brings an end to the harassment and intimidation of local farmers. When confronted with farmers’ complaints Amatheon has denied most accusations.

In a recent meeting of community members and local officials, the District Administrator suggested that Germany had a role in regulating a German-based company in Zambia. He recommended calling on the German Embassy in Lusaka to intervene in the case. However there is no binding international legal framework governing situations like this which leaves the local people with recourse to justice.

This is yet another case which illustrates the need for a binding UN treaty with the teeth to hold transnational corporations to account in their home countries for their human rights impacts overseas.

For more information, please contact Valentin Hategekimana: hategekimana@fian.org

Zambia: Farmers challenge corporate-driven hybrid seeds policy

Posted on by fredsaxo

Peasant farmer communities are resisting the program – which promotes mono cropping and use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides – by conserving, innovating and promoting traditional eco-friendly farmer-managed seed systems.

“We realized that indigenous seeds actually evolve and they’re able to adapt to the changing climate and are actually more resistant to climate change and to the new pests that are coming on board,” says Simon Mwamba from FIAN Zambia.

 

Since 2002, Zambia’s state-run Farmer Input Support Program (FISP) has promoted farmers’ uptake of hybrid seeds, which cannot be recycled for the next farming season due to intellectual property rights and loss of vigour.

This has led many peasant farmers to focus solely on maize production and become dependent on seed and chemical production companies to replace seeds each year, increasing their food insecurity.

“The moment the government embarked on subsidies, there was no support for farmer-managed seed systems,” says Simon Mwamba. “So there’s been an erosion of the local seed systems and the local biodiversity.”

Growing numbers of communities are rejecting the FISP and focusing on traditional farming practices based on agroecology and food sovereignty as shown in this video from FIAN Zambia:

 

FIAN Zambia calls on the Zambian government to:

  • consult with different actors, including peasant farmers and their organizations, to redefine Zambia’s agricultural system for a sustainable, just and resilient seed system by emphasizing sustainable farming approaches such as agroecology which promote the production of a diverse and healthy range of food;
  • support the establishment of farmer-managed seed banks at community level for multiplication, saving, use, exchange and sale among peasant farmers. Seed banks should be managed by community-led rules and embedded in legal measures that effectively respect and protect farmers’ rights over their seeds, particularly the rules that define access to seeds that are managed collectively;
  • put in place a legal framework that promotes and protects farmers’ seed systems;
  • empower small-scale farmers through capacity building trainings for sustainable agricultural practices.

Public development banks must stop funding corporate agribusiness

Posted on by fredsaxo

There is little to suggest that the Finance in Common summit with over 450 PDBs will be any different, not least because of the failure of last year’s summit to embrace a human rights or community-led approach, but also because of longstanding human rights issues with these publically owned banks.

On the eve of the summit which will take place in Rome, FIAN International, alongside 280 other civil-society organizations and social movements, calls on governments to put an end to state-backed financial support to agribusiness companies and projects that take land, natural resources and livelihoods from local communities.

Poor track record

Public development banks are state-mandated, largely state-funded and state-controlled financial institutions that finance activities that should contribute to the improvement of people's lives, particularly in the Global South. They account for over US$2 trillion a year in financing to public and private companies for things like roads, power plants and agribusiness plantations. An estimated US$1.4 trillion goes to the agriculture and food sector.

Many PDBs have a poor track record when it comes to transparency and investments that benefit agribusiness corporations at the expense of farmers, herders, fishers, food workers and Indigenous Peoples, undermining their food sovereignty, ecosystems and human rights. They have a heavy legacy of investing in companies involved in land grabbing, corruption, violence, environmental destruction and other severe human rights violations.

Their increasing use of offshore private equity funds and complex investment webs –including financial intermediaries – to channel investments makes it very difficult to scrutinise them, as highlighted by recent revelations surrounding German development finance institution Deutsche Investitions– und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG).

Linked to human rights violations

DEG, a subsidiary of Germany’s largest state-owned development bank Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), provides billions of euros in development finance to Latin America, Asia and Africa.

FIAN Germany has monitored human violations related to investments of these banks for many years, despite major challenges with the banks’ lack of transparency. More than half of the DEG’s annual funding is channelled through financial intermediaries and other banks and funds.

Not even the German government has a clear picture of where this money hits the ground and its real impact. This makes it nearly impossible to force the banks to comply with Germany’s human rights obligations. In cases where FIAN could identify concrete investments in agribusinesses, there was also evidence of human rights violations.

In Zambia, for example, DEG continues to provide the country’s biggest agribusiness Zambeef with tens of millions of US Dollars although FIAN has documented cases of forced evictions involving Zambeef as far back as 2013. In Paraguay, DEG is co-owner of the country’s second largest landowner Paraguay Agricultural Corporation PAYCO, which buys up land on a large scale, including traditional indigenous settlements, for massive agro-industrial projects that make intensive use of pesticides.

“Those cases are emblematic of DEGs investment preferences for large-scale industrial agribusiness which foreclose instead of supporting or promoting equitable, people-centered and sustainable development rooted in the right to food,” said Roman Herre, FIAN Germany policy advisor for land and agriculture.

Unaccountable

A decision by the Belgium’s public development bank, Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries (BIO), together with other European and North American PDBs to support palm oil production by Feronia PHC in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – despite the violent repression of locally community activists – is a another example.

“Although the demands of the communities affected were relayed to the bank, there was no recourse to justice, no way to hold the bank accountable,” said Florence Kroff, coordinator of FIAN Belgium.

“Even before the decision to finance this project, we raised questions about the risks of human rights violations involved in supporting this agribusiness in the DRC, thanks to an ill-gotten concession on more than 100,000 ha of land, a legacy of the colonial era,” she added.

“In addition to environmental pollution and indecent working conditions on the plantations, Belgian – as well as German, French, Dutch and other – public money is contributing to a climate of violent criminalisation in the region, which has already led to dozens of arbitrary arrests and detentions and the deaths of several land activists.”

It is time to hold public development banks, and the governments controlling them, accountable for the human rights violations that they are fuelling and to stop all future investments that are not rooted in the right to food, a community-led approach and sustainable development.

FIAN International calls for:

  • An immediate end to the financing of corporate agribusiness operations and speculative investments by public development banks. 
  • The creation of fully public and accountable funding mechanisms that support peoples' efforts to build food sovereignty, realize the human right to food, protect and restore ecosystems, and address the climate emergency.
  • implementation of strong and effective mechanisms that provide communities with access to justice in case of adverse human rights impacts or social and environmental damages caused by PDB investments.

Zambia: UN report points to adverse effects of large-scale agricultural investment

Posted on by fredsaxo

Professor Hilal Elver, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, presented her report on the food situation in Zambia to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva this week. The report finds that large-scale agriculture promoted by the Zambian government leads to the displacement of smallholder farmers and has adverse effects for their nutrition and health. The report comes following Elver’s visit to a number of communities in Zambia, including those supported by FIAN International and its Zambian and German sections.

The report reaffirms FIAN’s analysis in relation to large-scale agricultural investments in Zambia:  access to adequate and nutritious food is indeed a challenge throughout most of the country, with women and children in rural areas faring worst. “The Government’s policy of turning export-oriented large-scale commercial agriculture into the driving engine of the national economy, in a situation where land protection is weak, runs the risk of pushing peasants off their land, which in turn could push them out of production, with a severe impact on their right to food. The impact of such polices is particularly worrying considering that smallholder farmers account for almost 60 per cent of the population and are dependent on land for their livelihoods; at the same time, they feed around 90 per cent of the Zambian population,” the report reads.

“Makeshift conditions” for affected communities

The Special Rapporteur visited the Ngambwa community in Mkushi, Central Province, where around 70 families were living in makeshift conditions. Most of the community members had been living in the area since the 1980s, and currently survived on low-income informal work, mainly as agricultural workers. In her interviews, the Special Rapporteur was informed that the people ate barely once a day, that sometimes they were forced to make soup from local green plants to feed their families and children, and that they were under the constant threat of eviction. The Special Rapporteur recommends that the authorities take all measures necessary to guarantee the human rights of affected families, including their right to land, essential for the realization of their right to food and cultural rights.

Commenting on the report, Archie Mulunda from FIAN Zambia, who was part of that visit, states: “We agree with the contents of the Special Rapporteur’s report. FIAN Zambia urges the Government of Zambia and all other stakeholders to take the conclusions seriously, especially with regard to the threatened displacement of the community in Mkushi. Food and nutrition issues are central to their health and survival.”

Extraterritorial actors involved

For years, FIAN International, particularly through its German section, has raised concerns over the financing of the largest agricultural investors in Zambia, including through German development aid. FIAN research in Zambia has repeatedly documented problematic human rights situations related to investment involving the German Development Bank (DEG) and the AATIF Development Fund launched by the German Development Ministry (BMZ) in Luxembourg. DEG also financed the German agricultural investor Amatheon Agri, which has acquired over 40,000 hectares in Zambia. 

Despite FIAN repeatedly bringing these issues to the parties involved, no effective and independent human rights assessments of those development projects have yet been carried out.

“We see the findings from our work clearly confirmed by the report. Funding to investors and agribusiness such as Agrivison from Mauritius, Zambeef or the Export Trading Group – all related to land disputes in Zambia – thwarts any rights-based development approach,” Roman Herre, agrarian expert of FIAN Germany, points out.

The Special Rapporteur recommends Zambia to prepare and adopt a human rights-based national framework law on the right to food, with effective benchmarks and implementation plans for each region; and adopt a gender-sensitive, inclusive national land policy based on human rights principles and the UN Guidelines on Responsible Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests, as well as the establishment of effective monitoring mechanisms of this policy.

For further information, please see the report of Prof. Hilal Elver here 
If you have any questions, please contact Roman Herre:

R.Herre[at]Fian.de, Tel: 01520-7067302

Highlighting land grabbing and malnourishment in Zambia

Posted on by fredsaxo

The increasing concentration of land in the hands of agribusiness hampers the access to vital resources of smallholder communities in Zambia, thereby contributing to high levels of malnutrition. The relevance and impact of European development policies around this issue will be the focus of the land rights expert Archie Mulunda, who will be paying a visit to the European capital, Brussels.

“Land that is used on the basis of customary law, is the most important resource for poor populations in Zambia […] At the same time, these plots are in the center of interest of land grabbing of large agricultural corporations from developed countries,” said Mr Mulunda. The Zambian government supports investments by foreign companies but fails to provide the necessary legal framework to prevent violations of economic, social and cultural human rights such as the right to food in this context.

Around two-thirds of the population in Zambia work in agriculture, and 78 percent of these live in rural areas, below the poverty line. According to the United Nations, the proportion of malnourished people has increased from 33.8 to 47.8 percent over the last 25 years. There is an urgent need to prevent the increase of malnourishment levels as well as any activities that violate human rights.

During his visit to Brussels, Mr Mulunda, together with FIAN Germany, and the Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development (DG DEVCO), will meet to discuss EU development policies in Zambia and the impact of European private capitals in Zambia’s food and agricultural sector.The EU-supported rehabilitation of the Great East Road, extension of the Nacala corridor, highly critized by civil society, will also be on the agenda.

For any enquiries, please contact R.herre[at]fian.de
For further information on Archie Mulunda’s work on land grabbing read “A Policy Approach to address land grabbing”

Regional workshop explores role of foreign actors in access to natural resources in Africa

Posted on by fredsaxo

Convened by the ETO Consortium – currently hosted by FIAN International – and the Public Interest Law Clinic (PILAC) of Makerere University in Uganda, the Kampala Workshop brought together participants from Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Zambia and South Africa.

Objectives of the workshop included to raise awareness about Extraterritorial Obligations of States (ETOs) among civil society and academia in (East) Africa, discuss regional human right violation cases, and come up with strategies for promoting ETOs to realize the protection of human rights in the region, including the right to food.

The workshop first explored the role of diverse foreign actors (including development agencies, transnational corporations, and multi-stakeholder initiatives) in undermining access to natural resources and realization of human rights in the region. Case studies were presented on land grabbing in Uganda and seed privatization in Kenya. Participants then split into working groups to share and analyze cases from the region with an extraterritorial dimension. This exercise not only served to get participants (more) familiar with ETOs and its relevance for their work, but also paved the way for a following strategy discussion. Furthermore, participants discussed suggestions for regional and international strategies for tackling these cases and holding duty bearers accountable.

Several ideas were explored on how to move forward with the promotion of ETOs in the region, including:

  • Participants agreed to form a sub-regional network on ETOs which would reach out to other civil society organizations and academics in the region and would provide space for continued dialogue and joint activities on ETOs;
  • the development of a joint parallel report to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights;
  • a fact finding mission to further investigate and document ETO cases in the region; and,
  • the incorporation of ETOs into human rights curricula of East African universities.

The workshop was concluded with three presentations on chapters of an upcoming book on ETOs in Africa, which looked at the extraterritorial reach of the African Human Rights System, the Mubende case in Uganda, and the application of ETOs concepts to indigenous communities in Africa displaced by climate change.

For more information, please contact Laura Michéle.

Right to food in Zambia awaits for national recognition

Posted on by fredsaxo

On June 3rd 2014, the Vice president Dr. Guy Scott made comments in Livingstone before a Patriotic Front (PF) party meeting at the Civic Centre stating that the “[Zambian] government is strongly opposed to enacting ideological fantasies from the draft constitution such as the right to food because they are unrealistic and inapplicable”. FIAN International has issued a letter in response to these comments and urged the Zambian government to recognize the fundamental right to food in the draft constitution, other national legislation and policies towards the overarching goal of achieving food security for all.

The comments made in Livingstone before a Patriotic Front (PF) party meeting at the Civic Centre contradict the state of Zambia’s human rights obligation to respect, protect and fulfill the right to food. In 2004, Zambia, as one of the 187 Member States of the General Council of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), adopted the Voluntary Guidelines to Support the Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of National Food Security, which are meant to provide guidance on adopting framework laws and integrating the right to food into economic development policies, the regulation of markets and resources such as labor, water and land, and programs that support vulnerable groups.

Accordingly, the Open Letter exhorts the Zambian government to progressively achieve the realization of the right to food by giving proper recognition of it in the national legislation to guarantee its full implementation and ensure the accountability in case of its violation. Moreover, FIAN highlights this recognition would improve the governance of natural resources such as a land, water, fisheries, forests, etc, would allow government officers to have a clear mandate in giving priority to the right to food when it is conflicting with other legal regulations, and would facilitate the work of judges in adjudicating cases related to right to food violations.

Read Open Letter to the Vice President of Zambia below

Latest study questions the role of European investments

Posted on by fredsaxo

Jointly working as the Hands Off the Land Alliance (HOTL), this publication was a project of Transnational Institute (TNI), FIAN International, FIAN Netherlands, FIAN Germany, FIAN Austria, IGO in Poland, and FDCL in Germany. They have published the study titled “Fast track agribusiness expansion, land grabs and the role of European private and public financing in Zambia: A right to food perspective” on the role finance capital from Europe plays in Zambian landgrabbing and related agribusiness expansion.

The study targeted the following questions:

– What role does finance capital from Europe play in Zambian land grabbing and related agribusiness expansion? Does this involvement have distinct features?

– Which overall development narratives are used by financial investor vis-à-vis their economic/ financial narratives targeted to the business world?

– Can we draw implications from this desk research for the right to food, especially for issues of accountability and extraterritorial human rights obligations of European states?

Download this study below

In need of a Policy Shift: Investing in Agricultural Alternatives

Posted on by fredsaxo

The policy brief “Policy Shift: Investing in Agricultural Alternatives” takes seriously the call for a paradigm shift in favour of investment in agricultural alternatives by identifying a set of ten key policy changes required to support and promote positive alternative investments. The approach adopted is both a normative one, informed by prevailing human rights norms, and an empirical one, informed by practical, on-the-ground examples of positive agricultural investments.

In order to set up the framework for such analysis, four premises or starting points are outlined at the beginning. The brief ends with a discussion as to how these recommendations can feed into existing policy initiatives and regulatory tendencies around agricultural investment, most notably the ongoing discussion on responsible agricultural investment (rai) at the Committee on World Food Security.

Read policy brief below: