Don’t globalise hunger! The Asia Pacific accounts for 40% of the world’s territory, and has 61% of the world’s population. The region has also almost two-thirds of the world’s poor, living on less than a single US dollar a day. Given the impacts of the lopsided, unfair trade agreements being entered into by national governments within this region with US and other developed countries, particularly on agriculture, this poverty level is not improving. Women from the Asian region account approximately 50% of the regional food production. However, very few transnational corporations (TNCs) have global control over the export of corn, wheat, coffee, tea. Over 5 TNCs have control over the world trade on rice, sugar, bananas and cocoa beans. The World Trade Organisation (WTO), in its 10 years of existence, has brazenly acted as an apparatus of the TNCs. The WTO has consistently pushed the corporate agenda at the expense of the already marginalised sectors of the developing countries. The Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) was designed to be an institutionalised dumping of highly subsidised agricultural products from US and EU to developing countries. We have seen the severe impacts of this, especially on women from food-producing communities – increased poverty , hunger and deaths. Concurrently, there are other trade mechanisms that are being used to aggressively push corporate interests, such as Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and Bilateral Investments Treaties (BITs). These are being used conveniently by US and other bigger economies over developing countries in food and agricultural products sectors. Trade l iberalisation has, indeed, taken different paths to enter our lives. This December, the WTO will have its 6 th Ministerial Meeting in Hong Kong . It is imperative that the momentum created in Seattle , in Cancun , and in various national and local actions against WTO and corporate globalisation should be sustained and furthered. Thus, women from the food-producing communities should strengthen their role in the global movement resisting the transnational profit-oriented forces which create and recreate poverty in our lives; they too should play an integral part in developing and recreating alternatives. This is the urgent task at hand. Don’t globalise hunger! Assert Women’s Rights to Food Sovereignty! Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD), through its two task forces, Women and Environment (WEN) and Rural and Indigenous Women (RIW), has been advocating women’s rights to food sovereignty. In recognition that WTO is one of the greatest impediments in the realization of food sovereignty, APWLD and its members are actively involved in anti-WTO campaigns, as well as awareness raising campaigns on globalisation, WTO and women’s rights. However, these links are not that clear, nor have been made with the grassroots women. The sharing of information and analysis have always been a problem – given the language, the limited and limiting opportunities to interact with the others on broader issues. Grassroots women are unfortunately experiencing yet another marginalization, by circumstance, in the international struggle against WTO and globalisation. This year, more focused campaign actions are planned among the task force members and its networks. The main objective is to put grassroots women in the forefront of the global struggle against corporate control of food and land. This is made more critical as states and corporations have used the war against terror in criminalising grassroots women’s struggle for food, land and other resources. Don’t Globalise Hunger! campaign will - : raise awareness among women from grassroots communities about the link of the role of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and other significant international and regional instruments and institutions in the current situation of hunger and poverty; : raise awareness among women from grassroots communities how the current power structures in the society make women more vulnerable and experience deeper sufferings; : contribute in mobilising and strengthening of grassroots women organisations in their struggle against corporate globalisation, in the Region in general, in participating countries in particular through; : link the promotion of corporate agenda with state violence particularly against women activists fighting for their rights to food and land; and : promote Food Sovereignty as an alternative to corporate globalisation by supporting related national campaigns. Throughout the campaign, APWLD and its partners will be calling for - : derailment of WTO 6 TH Ministerial Meeting : WTO and TNCs out of food and agriculture : Women’s Right to food and land : protection and promotion of rights of women to defend their rights to food and land : Food sovereignty as an alternative to corporate globalisation Don’t Globalise Hunger! campaign has three major components – 1 - awareness-raising : Women’s Regional Forum on Globalisation and Food Sovereignty July 18-21, 2005 / Chiang Mai , Thailand : printing and distribution of information materials on – basic information on WTO, AoA, FTAs impacts of WTO and other trade agreements on women and food Right to Food basic women’s human rights basic principles of food sovereignty : media work to expose the different impacts of the WTO, other trade agreements and TNCs on women and food; to expose the link of promoting the corporate agenda and state violence to promote the stories of struggles of grassroots women to promote the principles of food sovereignty 2 – mobilisation and strengthening of grassroots women groups : Patches of Resistance Towards Global Resistance – weaving of patches with slogans and solidarity messages throughout the campaign period in different communities, to be woven together at the WTO 6 th Ministerial Meeting : coordinate simultaneous actions in different countries on significant dates death anniversary of Mr. Lee (Sept. 10) Rural Women’s Day (Oct. 15) World Food Day (Oct. 16) International Day of Elimination of Violence against Women (Nov. 25) : supporting national/local dialogues on WTO, trade, food and women : supporting national actions to put pressure on national governments to protect and promote the rights of the women to defend their rights to food and land : supporting other relevant national actions : Women’s Tribunal on WTO – December 16, 2005 / Hong Kong in the WTO 6 th Ministerial Meeting 3 – Supporting alliance building and solidarity work with the broader peoples’ movement : providing and strengthening links with other related national and international women’s groups, as well as other anti-WTO, anti-globalisation networks (e.g. members of the Women’s Caucus, FTA Watch, APRN, Asian Social Movements Assembly, Peoples Food Sovereignty Network, IGTN) HOW TO GET INVOLVED IN THE CAMPAIGN – : organise dialogues, awareness-raising activities with grassroots women : use, reproduce and translate into your own language information materials which will be made available by APWLD : carry slogans on women’s rights to food and land in different actions and campaign activities and in every action and activities with grassroots women, bring patches of cloth, and ask women to write their slogans and solidarity messages; weave them together, until the next action. All these patches will symbolize acts of resistance happening in the local communities. These patches will be brought to Hong Kong in December for the WTO 6 th Ministerial Meeting, where all these patches from the different participating communities from different countries will be woven together. These will be the representation of the women’s struggles from all over. for more information: www.dontglobalisehunger.org (still under construction; ready by july 1, 2005 ) ACTION PLAN |