Publication type: Publication

A Just Transition to Agroecology

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In a new briefing paper, “A Just Transition to Agroecology”, FIAN International examines the concept of a just transition from the right to food and nutrition perspective.

It argues that only a systemic, multisectoral and human rights-based transition can guarantee a safe, sustainable, and just future for all. A just transition must address socio-economic inequalities, including gender inequalities and transform processes of marginalization and exploitation that have always benefitted the same groups.

Drawing upon the arguments of United Nations experts and concrete experiences from diverse communities, the briefing outlines specific legal and policy actions that governments can take to facilitate a just transition to agroecology.

To support a transition to agroecology, states must adopt binding transition plans that include gender-sensitive support mechanisms for rural populations and Indigenous Peoples, in line with UNDRIP, UNDROP, CEDAW and ILO conventions. The knowledge, practices, and innovations of Indigenous Peoples, peasants, small-scale fishers, pastoralists, and other rural people must be recognized and their right to effective, meaningful and informed participation guaranteed throughout the transition process.

Advocacy Note on the Promotion and Implementation of the UNDROP

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It is time for the implementation of UNDROP (the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas) to be tackled at international level.

At the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva which began this week, the Permanent Mission of the Plurinational State of Bolivia will present a resolution to create this follow-up mechanism, described in a new advocacy note from FIAN, LVC and CETIM.

Since the UN General Assembly adopted UNDROP in 2018, peasants' and rural organizations have advocated for the adoption of the rights enshrined in this historic instrument. They have fought for the realization of peasants' rights and food sovereignty and the creation of equal and truly sustainable food systems. They have raised awareness, organized UNDROP trainings, monitored its implementation, and engaged in advocacy at different levels, including through legal avenues.

In some countries, public authorities have taken steps towards implementation of UNDROP, translating its content into national legislation or developing public policies based on the rights and provisions recognized in the declaration. However, despite these advances, peasants and other people working in rural areas continue to be systematically oppressed by an economic system created for the interests of the more aggressive agribusiness sector and transnational corporations. Much remains to be done.

There have been very few efforts to monitor the implementation of UNDROP at the international level. Thus, the nature and the root causes of systematic rights violations against rural workers and of historical asymmetries of power in rural areas have not been adequately addressed in international fora.

Download the advocacy note here, prepared with support from the Rosa-Luxemburg Foundation, and join us in mobilising for the creation of this follow-up mechanism.

Coal Power Ecological Destruction in the Western Balkans

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The Western Balkans has some of Europe‘s highest air pollution levels. Both countries source most of their energy from fossil fuels, especially domestically produced coal, with little regard for its impact on local communities.  

A recent expansion has been funded by controversial Chinese-backed investments, often without environmental impact assessments and despite China’s commitment to cease funding coal power.

This has exposed local communities and farmers to pollution, land erosion and loss of livelihood.

Many have fought for years to be re-located or fairly compensated. They have lost their land and livelihoods, seen their houses and farm buildings crumble around them and their health deteriorate.

In a new report Coal Power Ecological Destruction in the Western Balkans FIAN International and local civil society groups highlight the harm inflicted by coal power and call for justice for affected communities and for Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina to phase out coal power in line with their international human rights obligations, the Paris Agreement, and the Green Agenda for the Western Balkans. 

The report was compiled with the Center for Ecology and Sustainable Development (Centar za ekologiju i održivi razvoj, CEKOR) in Serbia, the Center for Environment (Centar za životnu sredinu, CZZS), and the Aarhus Center (Aarhus Centar) in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

English full report, Executive Summary, and Key Recommendations.

Serbian full report, Executive Summary, and Key Recommendations. 

Bosnian full report, Executive Summary, and Key Recommendations. 

Food Systems Transformation: in Which Direction?

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The lack of decisive action at global level in response to the ongoing systemic food crisis has deeply impacted communities around the world, fostering hunger and malnutrition, as well as worsening structural inequalities and systemic discrimination.

Ahead of the UN Food Systems Summit +2 Stocktaking Moment in Rome next week, a new FIAN report Food Systems Transformation: in Which Direction? calls for deep food systems change, based on full respect for human rights and care for people and planet.

On the global governance level, there is an ongoing struggle between two different approaches: attempts to further democratize multilateralism, as advanced with the reform of the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS) and attempts to replace multilateralism with multistakeholderism – where giant corporations sit around the table, with governments and food producers, to discuss the future of food systems – as advanced during the first UN Food Systems Summit (FSS) in 2021.

The FSS+2 Stocktaking Moment is poised to repeat the failures of the FSS itself and further consolidate the dominance of industrial food systems over global decision making. It will open the door of the UN to even greater influence from large private companies and their networks, ignoring the strong concerns expressed by many civil society, small-scale food producers’ and workers’ organizations, Indigenous Peoples, women, youth and academics.

The UNs Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is heading in the same direction. Despite geopolitical rivalry in other arenas, the FAO leadership from China and the US have a common agenda on corporate food systems. They have established an unprecedented open-door policy for the corporate sector, with favourable funding schemes and generous multistakeholderism policies. All of this is occurring in the absence of any serious corporate accountability framework.

However, there is a counterbalance to this creeping corporate hijack of global food governance.

This report is a FIAN contribution to the larger efforts of the Civil Society and Indigenous Peoples’ Mechanism for relations to the CFS in response to the global food crisis and the People’s Autonomous Response to the UN Food systems Summit.

Power Imbalances, Dispossession and Rising Inequality

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FIAN International releases its report Power Imbalances, Dispossession and Rising Inequality, How Digital Technologies Affect the Human Rights of Peasants and Small-scale Food Producers, on the politics of digitization of agriculture, at a seminar at the Palais des Nations at the UN in Geneva.

The way in which Human Rights institutions have looked at digital technologies has significant gaps, paving the way for violations. While attention has focused on issues such as privacy and freedom of expression, equally important economic, social, cultural and environmental rights have been neglected.

Transnational corporations capture peasant and native seeds by patenting genetic sequences. This undermines the knowledge and management practices that have nurtured humanity for millennia. Addressing structural inequalities is critical to shaping the development and use of digital technologies in ways that serve the most marginalized and oppressed peoples.

Read the report here.

Free School Meals Sourced from Small-Scale Farmers: a Win-Win for Food Systems Transformation

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A quarter of children in the EU was at risk of poverty or social exclusion and encountered barriers to performing well in school and enjoying good health in 2021. This will have long term consequences as those children face a higher risk of being unemployed, poor and socially excluded as adults.

For the 80 million school-aged children across the continent, school food can make up more than 50 percent of their daily intake.

Apart from promoting the health and development of children, free school meals can also support the transition to sustainable food systems by linking school meals to small-scale farmers using organic or agroecological production methods.

Purchasing school meals from small and medium-scale farmers is also a lever for social justice as it provides a steady source of income to those who work the land in our territories.

In new policy brief, Fian International, Urgenci and FIAN Austria, in collaboration with Coventry University, propose four policy recommendations to the EU and its Member States on how to use free school meals as a tool to implement the right to food and nutrition in the EU, and foster a transition to sustainable food systems.

This paper was developed in the EU-funded COACH project which aims to facilitate collaboration between farmers, consumers, local governments and other actors to scale up short agri-food chains and drive innovation in territorial food systems.

For more information or media interviews please contact Tom Sullivan, FIAN International Communication & Campaigns: sullivan@fian.org

EU Must Act to Stop Coal Power Ecocide in Western Balkans

Posted on by fredsaxo

The Western Balkans has some of Europe’s highest air pollution levels. Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina source most of their energy from fossil fuels, especially domestically produced coal, with little regard for its impact on local communities. 

Most of the coal power plants were constructed during the Yugoslavia era, but a recent expansion of this polluting energy source has been funded by controversial Chinese-backed investments, often without environmental impact assessments and despite China’s commitment to cease funding coal power.

Local communities have fought for years to be re-located or fairly compensated for the impact of pollution and land erosion from mines and power stations. They have lost their land and livelihoods, seen their houses crumble around them and their health deteriorate due to coal-related diseases..

In a new briefing paper for EU institutions, EU must act to stop coal power ecocide in Western Balkans, FIAN International and local civil society groups highlight the harm inflicted by coal power and call for justice for the affected communities, including resettlement, compensation and the implementation of the EU's Green Agenda for the Western Balkans.

Read the briefing paper here.

Multistakeholderism and the Corporate Capture of Global Food Governance

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The Liaison Group of the Autonomous People’s Response to the UNFSS, in which FIAN International is actively involved, has published a new analysis report in the face of the upcoming UNFSS Stocktaking Conference titled ‘Multistakeholderism and the Corporate Capture of Global Food Governance. What is at Risk in 2023?’.

The report highlights how multistakeholderism and corporate influence may deepen in 2023, potentially putting at risk the achievements of the food sovereignty movement, the reformed Committee on World Food Security (CFS), and certain democratic inroads within the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
 
The Liaison Group, formed by social movements, Indigenous Peoples, and civil society, facilitated the global counter-mobilization to challenge the UNFSS in 2021. The group continues to do so in 2022-2023 as the UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) advances its agenda, particularly in the face of the upcoming Stocktaking Moment conference that will take place in Rome from 24-26 July 2023.
 
Multistakeholderism, or “networked multilateralism,” is a governance proposal that enables the corporate capture of global decision-making. This approach blurs the distinctions between public interest and corporate profit, between the rich and the excluded, and between governments and companies. The UNFSS and its Coordination Hub are advancing this agenda despite widespread criticism from small food producers across the world and organizations representing those most affected by hunger and malnutrition.

Find the paper here.

For more information, visit this website. 

Media contacts: Marion Girard Cisneros – marion.girard.cisneros@csm4cfs.org | Betsy Díaz Millan – betsy.diaz.millan@csm4cfs.org

Agri-tech and Food Systems in Latin America: Risks and Alternatives from a Human Rights Perspective

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The article *The Big Tech Takeover of Food Systems in Latin America: Elements for a Human Rights-based Alternative” first published in IT for change, is now available in Spanish  “Agritech y sistemas alimentarios en América Latina”  and has been launched in a webinar this week.

The report portrays the risks to food systems in Latin America which face an avalanche of corporate agri-tech initiatives and proposes human rights-based alternatives. 

Large corporations, such as Microsoft, the financial sector, some states and multilateral organizations, such as the Inter-American Development Bank, promote data “solutions” and digitization technologies for use in agriculture. Through advisory services and digital financing, they are penetrating peasant agriculture and carbon trading.  

These technologies are promoted and imposed as definitive solutions to world hunger, “climate change” and the crisis in our food systems. However, there is growing evidence that their objective is in fact to deepen corporate control of food. This is an extractivist and neocolonial strategy, harnessing science and technology to further dispossession, exploitation and consolidation of a corporate agri-food system.  

FIAN is alarmed that agri-tech's proposals are being mobilized by actors responsible for planetary collapse and the systematic violation of human rights. The monopolization of collective knowledge and wisdom, and its financialization is a major concern. Instead, food sovereignty requires respect for autonomy and self-determination in technology.  

It is urgent to defend the individual and collective economic rights of peasants and indigenous peoples over their data, and to guarantee public control over digital infrastructure. In the Colombian context, the state’s perspective on digitalization as a solution has become a common mantra. But it presents serious risks, not least the loss of national sovereignty over data that can threaten national security.  

For more information contact Amanda G. Cordova: cordova-gonzales@fian.org 

The Land Struggles Series – We Belong to the Land

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A new digital publication has been launched on the occasion of the International Day of Peasant Struggle. The “Land Struggles Series” is a digital publication that aims to put the right to land back on the political agenda.

It is part of a new website “We belong to the Land” by the International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty (IPC). FIAN International is the facilitator of the IPC Working Group on Land, Forests, Water and Territory.

The Land Struggle Series consists of a set of case studies that showcase people’s struggles for their lands, fisheries and forests, and underline the international and national mechanisms and strategies that can be used to defend the right to land. They illustrate how realizing the right to land is a core part of achieving today’s most pressing larger systemic transformation.

Case Studies include