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ARCHIVES
 Women and
Environment Programme2004  Sustainable development cannot be achieved without addressing unjust trade rules established by the WTO, bilateral free trade agreements and national policies and laws based on conditionalities that promote neo-liberal economic globalisation, particularly trade liberalisation of food and agriculture. Such conditionalities put primacy to market-driven growth over people-centred development. They run counter to the gains made at the recent World Summit for Sustainable Development and World Food Summit: Five Years Later. Such market-driven development agenda has eroded commitments made by governments on sustainable development and food security, particularly self-sufficiency of local communities in food production. It has resulted in violations of peoples’ rights to access and control over resources. Negotiations for more liberalisation of trade and services have been intense in the WTO throughout the year, more pronouncedly in the process leading towards the WTO Fifth Ministerial Meeting in Cancun last September 2003. Draft modalities on agriculture and talks on the Agreement on Agriculture have created many more tensions and resistance from social and people's movements. Neo-liberal economic globalisation, propelled by instruments such as WTO, has been blamed responsible for growing poverty, particularly among women. Hence, advocacy efforts of social movements globally have been focused on campaigning against a new round of negotiations, opposing the modalities for further liberalisation in agriculture. In Asia Pacific, a significant number of groups have focused on food sovereignty as an alternative to globalisation based on free reign of the market. The Women and Environment programme recognises that this current market-driven development model places communities and countries in Asia Pacific at a more disadvantaged position. Specifically, such situation makes women poorer, threatening their well-being and that of their families and communities. Pronouncedly, women's access to and control over resources is eroded due to continuing unequal gender relations in most societies, propped up by a neo-liberal development model that further entrenches patriarchal norms of unequal power relationships. To respond to this, the WEN Programme joins the campaign on food sovereignty. The concept of food sovereignty involves the rights of peoples’ to make decisions on food and agriculture; the right to food and its production for local consumption; and the rights of communities to land and productive resources with particular recognition of the rights of women to resources, opportunities, equality and justice. The objectives of WEN programme in 2003-2005 are:
 To advocate for food sovereignty, the WEN TF members organised a workshop on Women and Food Sovereignty at the Asian Social Forum.
The workshop aimed to explore feminist elements of food sovereignty as an alternative response to neo-liberal globalisation. There was a discussion on the situations of women in fisheries, in indigenous forest communities, and on land reform for landless peasants, including women. Women leaders from national and grassroots organisations from India, Central Asia, Philippines, Thailand shared their views. Vandana Shiva was invited to speak on the centrality of women's knowledge to food and food production which places women at the core of struggles for food sovereignty. Food sovereignty campaign continued at the national level. Members
of APWLD launched national campaigns on food sovereignty during the
International Women's Day and International Day of Peasants Struggle.
Tamil Nadu Women's Forum organised a food festival to promote local
organically grown food alternatives. Roots For Equity also organised
workshops on food sovereignty combined with anti-war protests. Signature
campaigns and rallies against free trade agreements detrimental to local
rice farmers were continued by the Korean Women Farmers Association.
Actions for the protection of local producers of vegetables were organised
by Amihan, Philippines.
There were also mobilisations at the national level on the Global Day of Action Against WTO, 9 and 13 September 2003, held simultaneously around the world. APWLD members including SRED, India; Solidaritas Perempuan, Indonesia; Roots for Equity, Pakistan, Korean Women’s Farmers Association, Korea; Amihan, Philippines and Thai NGO-COD, Thailand co-organised protest rallies against WTO, workshops on the role of WTO and free trade in agriculture and its impacts on rural, peasant women.
WEN strengthened links regionally with the People's Food Sovereignty Network (PFSN) of which many of WEN and RIW task forces are members. They also influenced the Asia Pacific Network on Food Sovereignty, another regional group, to include a feminist perspective in their Statement of Unity in the preparations for the WTO Ministerial meeting.
WEN Programme continued to build alliances and links with women’s groups, peoples’ organisations and other social movements globally working on issues of trade, agriculture and sustainable development. WEN TF Programme Officer participated in the NGO Forum and the Peasants and Indigenous People’s Forum parallel to the WTO Fifth Ministerial meeting in Cancun. Participation at the International Women’s Forum in Cancun created links with women’s groups working on trade and women’s human rights. Solidarity with peasants groups was further strengthened with the participation of WEN TF members at the workshop on the Struggles of Asian Peasants and the women’s caucus at the Peasant’s and Indigenous People’s Forum. The collapse of the negotiations at the WTO Ministerial Meeting was also due to resistance shown by developing countries supported by the global movements against neo-liberal globalisation, which includes APWLD’s network.
The WEN Task Force also organised its annual meeting back-to-back with the Asia Pacific Research Network conference on Women’s Labor and Globalisation (see section on Crosscutting Projects). At the WEN Task Force meeting, the members assessed its activities in light of the recent changes in the political, economic and social climate at the national, regional and global levels and clarified its Programme objectives, outcomes and outputs and indicators for the impacts of its activities for 2003 –2005. Task Force recommended new members from Cambodia, India, Fiji, Korea, Philippines for approval as there is need to involve more women and women’s groups to carry out the activities of the Task Force. Deepening of the women’s perspective of food sovereignty and
awareness-raising on this campaign at the national level among rural
peasant and fisherfolk women were identified as priority strategies
under the WEN Programme at this stage. Hence, the WEN Task Force decided
to shift its focus from international advocacy in venues such as WTO,
APEC, ASEAN Ministerial meetings to the development of a resource kit
on food sovereignty and an elaboration of a framework paper on food
sovereignty from women’s perspective. These resource materials
are intended to be used by APWLD members and other groups in influencing
social and people's movements to ensure that women’s perspectives
on food sovereignty are included in their advocacy. It is aimed to contribute
to building the capacity of APWLD members and peoples’ organisations
to campaign for food sovereignty at national or local levels. The resource
kit will be completed in September 2004. Headscarves, postcards and
a poster emphasizing women’s rights to land, water, seeds were
designed and produced as campaign materials.
The development of the framework paper and resource kit on food sovereignty would comprise of series of consultations and field-testing held nationally or regionally. A working group meeting was organised to agree on the structure, contents and workplan to produce the documents. The WEN Task Force has also continued to consult with key food sovereignty networks in order to deepen the concept and take practical steps towards assisting in drafting a convention on food sovereignty.
APWLD members participated in the first workshop to draft the convention organised by PAN AP. Their participation in this process is to ensure that women’s perspectives on food sovereignty are articulated clearly and distinctly. The members have contributed statements on women’s concerns in the draft based on the initial discussions on women’s perspectives on food sovereignty held during the WEN TF meeting and from the regional exchanges. It is expected that APWLD will continue to take the lead in providing legal expertise and feminist analyses in drafting the convention.
As part of the preparations for the regional consultations on women in fishing communities, and also of the Asia Pacific Research Network research project on women’s labour in fisheries sector, APWLD hosted a meeting of researchers to agree on the framework, research methodology and timeline of the coordinated research on women and food sovereignty among fisherfolk communities. The research, using feminist participatory methodology, is an organising strategy support building a women fisherfolk movement. It is intended to raise the awareness of women fisherfolk on their rights to resources and food sovereignty and mobilise women fisherfolk in communities. The research project has started in October 2003 in five participating countries - India, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Sir Lanka. It will be completed by May 2004 and used as background papers for the Asian Consultations on Women in Fishing Communities to be organised by APWLD in August 2004 in North Sumatra, Indonesia. WEN TF members also participated in the Consultations with the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to housing and adequate standard of living organised under the VAW programme in October 2003 (See section on VAW Programme). WEN members raised the issue of the rights of fisherfolk communities to land in coastal areas of Thailand which are violated by government policies that promote tourism at the expense of livelihoods of fishing communities and further undermine women’s right to access and control over resources. A hilltribe woman leader from Northern Thailand also testified to the UN Special Rapporteur on the links between the rights of indigenous women to land, forests, water and the economic, spiritual and cultural sources of their livelihoods.  In 2003, WEN programme contributed to further conceptualisation and promotion of the concept of food sovereignty at national and regional levels. It explored elements of food sovereignty from a feminist perspective in seminars and workshops organised at various fora. The Task Force members participated in the regional deliberations to draft the Convention on Food Sovereignty. It also initiated a discussion among WEN and RIW Task Forces and other APWLD members to further deepen the concept, aiming to produce an APWLD Framework Paper on Women and Food Sovereignty. The production of a resource kit as a tool for advocacy will also aid in further promoting this concept among women’s groups and other grassroots organisations and social movements. These resource materials are to be completed and distributed in 2004 and their utility to APWLD members gauged in 2005 based on the Programme indicators identified. APWLD members also continued advocacy on food sovereignty in their own countries. Coordinated actions during the International Women’s Day on March 8, International Day of Peasants, Global day of Action against WTO were organised by WEN and RIW Task Force members in the form of food festivals, workshops on food sovereignty, combined with anti-war protests. The intervention of the WEN and RIW Programmes made these coordinated national campaigns on women and food sovereignty possible. Relatedly, the WEN Programme also assisted six grassroots groups from Dalit, fisherfolk, and peasant communities in their national campaigns on food sovereignty. The Programme facilitated linkages between the grassroots organisations and major food sovereignty networks working in the region. They obtained more information on food sovereignty for their national campaigns from these regional exchanges. Since the concept of food sovereignty is new, there is a need to deepen the concept from a feminist perspective and share information on this issue, particularly among national and local groups. Hence, the WEN Programme recognised the need to raise awareness and educate grassroots organisations on food sovereignty from women’s perspectives. It identified the awareness-raising and capacity-building as priority strategies for 2004. Specific activities to build the capacity of marginalised women’s groups to advocate for food sovereignty have to be implemented in the process of developing the resource kit and framework paper, as intended by the Task Force. An advocacy plan for the women and food sovereignty campaign has to be done more strategically, targeting governments and relevant organisations for specific demands along with awareness-raising and mobilisation among women. |
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WEN Programme was created in 1999 in response to demands from the network members to address the environmental issues adversely affecting women's lives in the Asia Pacific region. The primary objectives of the WEN programme are -
Women's Participation in Environmental Management and Decision
Making
WEN Programme will organise a planning workshop for its campaign on food sovereignty on 19-21 October 2002 in Chiangmai. It will bring together APWLD WEN, RIW Task Force members and partners working on food sovereignty to plan its campaign for the next three years. Programme Officer: Amarsanaa
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For further information, Please contact :
Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD)
189/3 Changklan Road
Amphoe Muang
Chiang Mai 50101
Thailand
Tel: (66) 53 284527, 284856
Fax: (66) 53 280847
Email: apwld@apwld.org
Copyright 1999 : Chiangmai Technic Computer Co.,Ltd.