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ActionAid's contribution to this area is divided into following parts: * Public Policy in agriculture working for the poor * Participation in public policy * Right to food - example of holding govt to account * Making expenditure work for the poor * Development assistance to agriculture working for the poor * Access to finance * Land reform Some of these issues are relevant to the other themes as well. Public policy in agriculture working for the poor ActionAid International has been working with some of the poorest communities around the world and has often been witness to public policies failing the poor as well as public policy responding to and meeting their needs. This submission is followed by other inputs from ActionAid's experience in key areas. ActionAid International believes that public policy must have flexibility to address the needs of different countries/communities/individuals if it has to make any meaningful impact. A large part of the criticism levied at the World Trade Organisation is due to the rigidity of its policy prescriptions that tries to have uniform rules for the World (with a few flexibilities in terms of longer timeframe etc.) for developing countries. Commission on Intellectual Property Rights set up by the UK Government recognised this shortcoming of WTO Agreements in particular its agreement dealing with intellectual property rights (TRIPS Agreement) and recommended that countries should be allowed to develop their own IP policies in light of their development needs. It is critical for NGO's to engage in the development of and critique of national food security policies. ActionAid International Malawi is engaged in such an endeavour at the moment. Reproduction of traditional mechanisms of wealth and income concentration, land concentration policies, and income transfers from the countryside to the city, in addition to the socially perverse effects of adjustment policies and technological changes in productive activities, have expanded the scourge of poverty and hunger in Brazil. Predominance of an agricultural production model geared to export-oriented monocultures and 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. In addition to the policy level work, ActionAid International Brazil works with its local partner AS-PTA in Paraiba at developing family-farm agro-ecological production and promoting recognition of women's work and their active participation in community organisations. It has three specific areas of work: better use of water, setting up seed banks, and promotion of health and food security. Through those areas, the project strengthens community organisations, family-farmer unions, and networking among civil society entities, thus contributing to social and political empowering of poor rural communities. Another ActionAid partner MST, the Landless Rural Workers' Movement (MST), views the struggle for agrarian reform, with a new agro-ecological model, as the main path to solve the issues of labour, housing, education, health, and food production. The MST also mobilises against transgenic products, food imports, monopolies, and multinational corporations. Agricultural policy like other policies and practices is often gender blind or out rightly discriminates against women. It is critical that public policy in agriculture supports the endeavours of women farmers. One of the key questions to be addressed by the policy makers is whether to channel their scarce resources in this area on the majority of the poor or the poorest of the poor. ActionAid's work in this area tries to balance the need to focus on the poorest of the poor and the most vulnerable through our governance and rights based work in addition to working with the large number of smallholder farming populations in many of the countries where we work. The nature of our intervention varies depending on the group we are working with. For our work with the most marginalized groups social protection schemes and food for work programmes become more important, whereas in our dealings with smallholder farmers food support to productive resources as well as government policies/institutions is critical. DFID needs to take into account within its policy the need to reach out to the poorest of the poor through governmental provision schemes, food for work, social security schemes etc. in addition to reaching out to the smallholder farmers to ensure increased agricultural production and enhanced livelihood security. Influencing policy change: Increased funding In Pallisa, ActionAid along with other local partners lobbied the district government to increase its budgetary allocation to agriculture. The local government budget as a result has increased from 800,000 Ush in 2001/02 to 3 million confirmed expenditure (and 18m unconfirmed) in 2002/03 Putting producers first - Sugar in Kenya The Sugar Campaign for Change (Sucam), of which ActionAid is a founding member, has played a pivotal role in influencing change processes in the sugar industry since October 2001. The aim of the campaign is to ensure sugarcane farmers in Kenya have a greater say over their produce and livelihoods. The first phase of the campaign was to lobby for greater farmer representation on the Kenya Sugar Board. In 2002, seven growers were elected to sit in the apex industry institution, including one woman, out of the 14 seats. There is now a strong farmer presence in the apex body, which has induced strong debates on reforms in the industry. It has also opened up space for active discussion and dialogue between all stakeholders. Sugar issues within Kenya are now at the forefront of agricultural debate. Putting producers first -Coffee in Haiti and Guatamala ActionAid Haiti has worked with local partners in Thiotte, encouraging and supporting small-scale coffee producers in their fight to earn a decent living and sell their coffee for fair prices. ActionAid Haiti with their partners lobbied the President of the Republic, the Minister of Agriculture, and the Minister of Planning and External Cooperation to promote (and gain) the creation of a national coffee institute, and the setting aside of funds aimed at supporting national coffee production. ActionAid also worked directly with the farmers to improve the quality of their coffee - thereby allowing them access to fair trade markets - and encouraged them to set up a national congress of small-scale coffee growers, held annually in Thiotte. As a direct result of the coffee grower's and ActionAid and partners' lobbying the government, there is now an official national policy to promote and support coffee production. Coffee has officially been declared a strategic production for the Haitian economy. There has been a higher income for coffee growers as a result, and they are not able to sell directly to the fair trade market. ActionAid International Guatamala supported the Agrarian Platform whose members have been pushed into deep poverty because of the coffee price collapse. The Platform succeeded in persuading the government to declare a national emergency and to ensure that all the coffee production area was covered by national food aid. In addition to the falling international prices for exports poor farmers with tiny plots of land are suffering due to inequitable land tenure. 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 **DISCLAIMER** This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this e-mail in error please notify the postmaster at <address removed>
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