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Following advice from the moderators of keeping inputs short ActionAid's
submission on trade is divided into 4 sections including this Introduction.
1.
Introduction
2.
Northern Influence
3.
Developing country policies and priorities
4.
The role of private sector and trade
I do hope that inspite of the late submission we will be able to contribute
positively to the discussions.
Introduction
The context of this submission, in part, is framed from an earlier ActionAid
International contribution on 'growth and poverty' and the important role of
agricultural small-holders, particularly women, as an engine of growth. This is
reproduced in Box 1. ActionAid believes that policy makers should be placing
greater emphasis on the links between trade issues at the macro-level (such as
northern subsidies, liberalisation, trade and PRSPs, structural adjustment,
oversupply and depressed prices, the increasing corporate concentration of
trade) with issues at the national level (ie supply side constraints) and at
the micro-level (water shortages, productivity, land, credit etc). Some of
these issues are covered here, whilst others are covered in other ActionAid
submissions (see for example 'land reform' and 'micro credit').
Box 1
Agro-ecological model of agriculture as a possible solution?
Mechanisms of wealth and income concentration, land concentration policies,
income transfers from the countryside to the city, the perverse effects of
adjustment policies and technological changes in productive activities, have
expanded the scourge of poverty and hunger in Brazil. The Predominance of an
agricultural production model geared to export-oriented monocultures and the
absence of land, agriculture, and credit policies geared to family farming are
the main causes of lack of food and restrictions to poor people' access to food
consumption. This model leads to the expulsion of millions of rural workers
and family farmers from the countryside, increased unemployment, and expansion
of the informal job market in urban areas, leading to the current critical
situation.
ActionAid International Brazil works in partnership with two main networks
(Trade and Regional Integration Network and the For a Brazil Free of
Transgenics) on key food security issues nationally. They hope to implement a
broad food security campaign that examines the impact of agricultural trade
policy on food security and the feasibility of family agriculture. They also
encourage the Brazilian government to design agricultural trade policies for
the domestic market and promote international agreements that favour the
food-production agro-ecological model.
Agriculture within the wider policy context
ActionAid International's concern with food and hunger amongst the most
vulnerable leads to a concern to understand and address the causes. Women are
often marginalized, with very little if any access to, and control over land,
and exploited as lowly paid seasonal wage labourers. Agriculture sector can be
an engine for growth, especially if it focuses on smallholder women farmers.
Solutions lie in broader food and agricultural systems and policies. ActionAid
International believes poverty eradication cannot be achieved without
addressing hunger and food security. Viewing the agricultural sector purely
from the perspective of a vehicle for growth, for example through market-led
privatization of land, can lead to further marginalisation of poor farmers.
Similarly concentration of market power and control of the food system by few
international and national corporations, and a bias towards 'big agriculture'
could deepen hunger.
International policies favour the large farmers and through trade
liberalization rules (at regional and global levels), can bar national policies
protecting agricultural and economic sectors judged to be in the national
interest. Improved market access generally favours those in a position to
exploit international markets, for example big landholders over the landless
and small holders. Trade of itself will not provide the solutions to hunger and
food security, neither will purely protectionist and localization policies.
Similarly agricultural policies alone will not provide answers, industrial
policy is important too.
Tim Rice
Food Rights Policy Officer
ActionAid International UK
Hamlyn House
MacDonald Road
London N19 5PG
Ph: 44 207 561 7560
ActionAid's vision is a world without poverty in which every person can
exercise their right to a life of dignity. Registered Charity No. 274467
www.actionaid.org.uk
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