The Autonomous People's Response to the UN Food Systems Summit invites you to be part of a colourful mobilization in parallel and in the run up to the UN Food Systems Pre-Summit.
GLOBAL VIRTUAL RALLY TO TRANSFORM CORPORATE FOOD SYSTEMS | 25 July 2021
On Sunday 25 July, a global virtual rally of 8 hours opened the People’s Counter-Mobilization to Transform Corporate Food Systems. An online and offline mobilization that moved like a wave touching all continents, overcoming borders and reaffirming our unity and resistance struggle against the corporate capture of food systems. We celebrated our diversity and exposed our joy through political interventions, testimonies and visions on how to radically transform our food systems, including through artistic performances, music, poems and dance.
WATCH THE RALLY'S Video
WATCH THE SUMMARY OF THE RALLY
ROUND TABLES | 26 July 2021
This second day intends to offer a substantive space of dialogue on some of the critical fault lines of the summit, with special emphasis to the different domains where the corporate capture materializes. Representatives from Small-scale food producers, Indigenous Peoples and Civil Society’s organizations will dialogue with Member States, national governments, UN Agencies and Academia’s representatives.
Opening session - Unmasking the UN Food Systems Summit
Exposing false solutions against the responses people and communities really need.
Session’s overview
The session will feature an initial analysis and political framing on the autonomous peoples’ response to the UNFSS, followed by two shorter presentations examining some of the false solutions portrayed by the Summit, which would be then juxtaposed to a closing overview of real solutions from the ground. After these four initial interventions, a moderated panel of governmental representatives from different regions would be invited to comment and respond. General debate will follow.
Session’s provisional agenda
1. Introduction by moderators (5 min)
2. Opening presentation (7 - 10 min)
3. Exposin
g & challenges the UN FSS false solutions (15 min): Nature-positive solutions and digitalization
4. Solutions from the ground (10 min)
5. Moderated panel (30 min)
6. General debate & wrap-up of session
Panelists:
Ali
Aii Shatu, Indigenous Peoples of Africa Coordination Committee
(IPACC)
Paula
Gioia, La Vía Campesina
Tammi
Jonas, Austrian Food Sovereignty Alliance (TBC)
Chukki
Nanjundaswamy, La Vía Campesina
Marianeli
Torres, World Forum of Fisher People, WFFP
Jim
Tomas, ETC Group
Facilitators:
Svetlana
Boincean, International
Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco
and Allied Workers’ Association
(IUF)
Kirtana
Chandrasekaran, Friends of the Earth International
Dialogue – UNFSS and the Corporate Capture of Governance
Challenging multistakeholderism to reaffirm the centrality of public interest in legitimate multilateral spaces.
Session’s overview
The session will feature a panel of 6 (3 from governmental/ intergovernmental experience and 3 from social movements/civil society), divided into 3 issue blocks. Each block would be introduced with an overall framing by the co-moderators, who would then address different questions appropriate to each panelist. Space for opening up to the public after each block before moving on to the next.
Session’s provisional agenda
1. Introduction by moderators (5 min)
2. First discussion round: Multilateralism vs multistakeholderism (20 min)
3. Second discussion round: Analysis of concrete cases (30 min): The COVID-19 response & Agroecology
4. Third discussion round: Transformative measures (20 min)
5. General debate & wrap-up of session
Panelists:
Michael
Fakhri, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food
Mary
Mubi, former Permanent Representative of Zimbabwe to the RBA
Jomo Kwame Sundaram, former United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development and Senior Adviser at the Khazanah Research Institute, Malaysia
Isa Álvarez, Urgenci
Sofia
Monsalve, FIAN International
Andre
Luzzi, Habitat International Coalition, HIC
Ahmed
Sourani, Gaza Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture Platform (GUPAP) - TBC
Facilitators:
Shalmali
Guttal, Focus on the Global South
Nora
McKeon, Terra Nuova
Dialogue on UNFSS and the Corporate Capture of Science
Unveiling the political economies of science to safeguard independent evidence and multiple sources of knowledge for food systems transformation.
Session’s overview
Scientific assessments and advice are supposed to play an increasing role in the transformation of food systems, including on policy and governance matters. The session aims to discuss the political economy of science in food systems, expose and explore conflicts of interest in science, and address the critical characteristics of an adequate Science-Policy Interface (SPI) in order to strengthen the existing High-Level Panel of Experts of the CFS.
Session’s provisional agenda
1. Introduction by moderators (5 min)
2. First discussion round: The political economies of science in food systems (20 min)
3. Second discussion round: Tackling Conflicts of Interests in food science (20 min)
4. Third discussion round: Strengthening the Science-Policy Interface (SPI) (20 min)
5. General debate & wrap-up of session
Panelists:
Victor
Súarez Carrera, Vice-Minister of Self-Sufficiency, Ministry of
Agriculture and Rural Development, Mexico
Cecilia Rikap,
CONICET, the Argentinian public research system
Jennifer Clapp, HLPE
Steering Committee
Zoltán
Kalmán, Retired
Ambassador and Former Permanent Representative of Hungary to the UN
Food and Agriculture Agencies in Rome
Nettie
Wiebe, La Vía Campesina
Jones
Spartegus, World Forum of Fisher People, India
Onel
Masardule, Indigenous
Forum of Abya Yala, Executive Director of the Foundation for the
Promotion of Indigenous Knowledge (tbc)
Facilitators:
Elisabetta
Recine, Observatory of Food and Nutrition Security Policies,
University of Brasilia
Stefano
Prato, Society for International Development
OUR DIALOGUES | 27 July 2021
This third day intends to celebrate our vision for reclaiming peoples’ power and transforming the industrial food system. 12 self-organized side events and 3 self-organized autonomous regional events will shape this third day of counter-mobilization.
Organized by:
Asian-Pacific organizations participating in the Autonomous people's response to the UN Food Systems Summit
EN | FR | ES interpretation available
Moderator:
Joseph Purugannan, Focus on the Global South
Speakers:
M
r. Anwar Sastro Maruf: Konfederasi Pergerakan Rakyat Indonesia (Confederation of Indonesia People Movement)
Mr. Zainal Fuat: Serikat Petani Indonesia (SPI), LVC Southeast Asia
Mr. Herman Kumara: National Convener- National Fisheries Solidarity Organisation (NAFSO),
Ms. Kaniz Fatima- Coordinator of Right to Food Bangladesh, Bangladesh
Ms. Roma Malik, All India Union of Forest Working People, India
Mr. Pramesh Pokharel: All Nepal Peasants Federation (ANPFa)ICC youth La via Campesina South Asia
Ms. Tammi Jonas: Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance and IPC
Organized by:
African seed sovereignty networks, with coordination through The Zambia Alliance for Agroecology and Biodiversity, Haki Nawiri Afrika and Oxfam Novib
English only
Description: This session focuses on farmer managed seed systems and the realization
of farmer rights in Africa. It aims to highlight challenges and solutions posed
by farmers against the corporate capture of their seed and food systems. It
demands space for farmers’ voices that are being side-lined. African farmers’
agency and economic liberation is the starting point of a vision of achieving
sustainable and just food systems for all, especially in Africa. Seed
sovereignty is at the center of such a vision. As part of the
FoodSystems4People we seek comprehensive support for farmer managed seed
systems. This encompasses a broader set of human rights and rural development,
which are integral to the Right to Food and Nutrition, the SDGs, and treaties
and declarations like UNDROP and the ITPGRFA.
13.30-15.00(CEST) (Rome Time, check your time zone here)
Organized by:
African organizations participating in the Autonomous people's response to the UN Food Systems Summit
EN | FR | ES | PT interpretation available
Description:
We Africans reject the United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS), as a continuation of the neocolonial development and agrarian extractivist agenda on our continent.
The UNFSS paints African food systems as deficient, and in need of more Western saviour technology, productivity and competitive enhancement. Yet this will only serve to further weaken systems already eroded by decades of state neglect and economic subordination.
Strengthening African food systems, and food producers, needs to be grounded in human rights, biodiversity and broader socio-ecological wellbeing. This event brings together small-scale food producers, agricultural workers and vulnerable consumers, to collectively voice our priorities and solutions for the continent’s food systems and ecologies.
Together, we can begin to outline a people’s pan-African vision for food system transformation, from the ground up.
Moderator
s:
Mariam Mayet, African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB)
Mateus Santos, La Via Campesina (LVC)
Agenda
Introduction
Presentation of the common position
Introduction to the vision
Pastoralist Yehia Ag Mohamed Ibrahim, Association des jeunes de la commune d'Essakane (ANMATAF)
The vision we defend / Christiana Saiti Louwa, World Forum of Fisher Peoples, Lake Turkana, Kenya
What we denounce / Elizabeth Mpofu, Zimbabwe Small Holder Organic Farmers' Forum (ZIMSOFF) – LVC
What we call for / Dieudonné Pakodtogo, Réseau des Organisations Paysannes et de Producteurs de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (ROPPA)
Voices from the Ground
Fisherfolk / Christiana Saiti Louwa, World Forum of Fisher Peoples
Pastoralists / Hamadi Ag Mohamed Abba, ADJMOR
Youth and women / Nzira Deus, World March of Women
Small-scale family farmers / ROPPA
Peasants / David Otieno, Kenyan Peasant League
Video: Seed Sovereignty, La Via Campesina
Urban food insecure / Samuel Ikua, Habitat International Coalition (HIC)
Indigenous people / Ali Ali Shatu, Indigenous Peoples of Africa Co-ordinating Committee
Conclusion
Summary of elements of a Pan-African vision and demands
Discussion: Inputs from participants
Next steps
Closing performance / South African Poet Khadija Tracey Heeger
Organized by:
Transnational Institute (TNI), FIAN International, Focus on the Global South, MAB/LVC Global Campaign to Dismantle Corporate Power, Stop Impunity and for Peoples' Sovereignty, People’s Health Movement (PHM), Friends of the Earth International (FoEI)
Interpretation available in EN | ES
Description:
Multistakeholder governance and “networked multilateralism” are displacing multilateralism in key economic, social, environmental, and sustainable development policy matters. Multistakeholderism is marginalizing not only governments - especially those from the South - in making key policy and program decisions and but also civil society organizations and communities'. The center of a multistakeholder group is not the State but one or more transnational corporations joined by a group of their 'friends' from civil society, the UN system, selected government agencies, and the academy. Under “networked multilateralism”, the United Nations system is not seen as the global policy setting and leadership body but only one of many actors in globalization. For affected communities, social movements, and international civil society this shift in centrality in global governance from governments to transnational corporations is more than worrying. In this roundtable we aim at exposing with examples and cases why and how we see the new, corporate designed and dominated multilateralism a serious threat to food sovereignty, and sustainable, local food systems. Make clear what the impacts both on global governance institutions and the privatization of democracy, as well as on peoples´ lives. And sharing our visions and ideas on how to overcome Multistakeholderism and strengthen peoples’ sovereignty.
Speakers:
Harris Gleckman, (TNI)
Sofia Monsalve (FIAN International)
Kirtana Chandrasekaran, (Friends of the Earth International)
Claudio Schuftan, PHM
Tchenna Maso (MAB/LVC Global Campaign to Dismantle Corporate Power, Stop Impunity and for Peoples' Sovereignty)
Facilitators:
Gonzalo Berrón (CPTeam TNI) & Shalmali Guttal (Focus on the Global South)
Organized by:
International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF)
EN | FR | ES interpretation available
Description:
According to the ILO, 1.1 billion people work in agriculture around the world with 40 % of working as waged workers on plantations and farms. Agricultural workers help feed the world and in many countries they have been classed as “essential” during COVID-19 pandemic; however, this does not mean their conditions have improved. Many continue to work in poor health and safety conditions, receive poverty wages and remain largely unable to organize due to widespread legal exclusion from the national labour laws protection. Trade union rights are often restricted or repressed and few workers can access their fundamental right to freedom of association. Only 5% of workers in agriculture have any access to labour inspections or legal protection of their health and safety rights.The event will focus on the important role agricultural workers play in food production and on their systematic exclusions from labour law protections. The IUF will launch a report celebrating 100 years of ILO Convention 11 on the right of association in agriculture, a key instrument to ensure “all those engaged in agriculture” have “the same rights of association and combination as to industrial workers”. Convention 11 remains a key tool for agricultural workers to access their rights and to engage in collective bargaining, critical for lifting themselves out of poverty and hunger and winning safe work.
Speakers:
Session chaired by Sue Longley, IUF General Secretary
Shikha Bhattacharjee, GLJ-ILRF (India)
Baldemar Velasquez , FLOC (USA)
Frank Ulloa, REL-UITA (Costa Rica)
Mopholosi Morokong, IUF Africa (South Africa)
Concluding remarks by Sharan Burrow, ITUC General Secretary
Organized by:
Global Forest Coalition, National Forum for Advocacy (NAFAN), Friends of the Earth International (FoEI), GRAIN, ETC Group, Third World Network (TNW), World Animal Protection (WAP)
I
nterpretation available in EN | ES
Description:
We aim to show how the United Nations processes on climate, biodiversity and food taking place, which are supposed to benefit the common good, have become dominated by corporate interests looking to secure profits at the expense of people’s rights, livelihoods and animal welfare. This space will emphasize the need to put control of food production back in the hands of small food producers, the need of agroecology for food sovereignty, and improved animal welfare. Industrial livestock and feedstock production, a key driver of deforestation, still receives massive subsidies despite its role in human rights abuses, greenhouse gas emissions, and threat to public health. Yet the agro-industrial livestock model continues to gain strength through false claims of sustainability such as ‘sustainable intensification,’ or that certain meat and dairy products are not linked to deforestation. Likewise, new concepts of “nature-based solutions” and “nature positive food” perpetuate the industrial model by allowing agribusiness to continue their activities while offsetting their destruction via “nature projects”. Hence, we will present peoples’ solutions for food system change and environmental justice as well as measures to control the overexploitation of resources, respect indigenous peoples and local communities’ rights, and to end animal suffering.
Speakers:
Simone Lovera (GFC),
Henk Hobbelink (GRAIN)
Silvia Ribero (ETC),
Bhola Bhataraii (NAFAN)
Kamal Rai/ FoEI
Facilitator: Kirtana Chandrasekaran (Friends of the Earth international)
CLOSURE | 28 July 2021
28 July 2021 From 2 pm to 4 pm CEST (Rome Time, check your time zone here)
The Concluding Panel will aim at: providing a space for interregional perspectives and dialogue, present impressions and preliminary conclusions of Days 1-3 of the countermobilization, and discuss the way of the in the run-up to the Summit and beyond
Voices from the regional processes in Latin America, Africa, Asia and North America will speak about the key messages they want to share with the other regions.
Moderator: Alberta Guerra, ActionAid, member of the Liaison Group
Speakers: Musa
Sowe, ROPPA, African Regional process
Corina
Munoz, World March for Women, Latin American Regional process
Pramesh
Pokharel, All Nepal Peasants' Federation (ANPFA), International
Coordination Committee member of LVC, Asia Pacific Regional Process
Ayla
Fenton, National Farmers Union, and
Tyler Short Family Farm
Defenders, North American Regional Process
Moderator: Nzira Deus, World March of Women, member of the Liaison Group
Celebrating
the Rally. Presenter:
Magdalena Ackermann, Society for International Development
Key
elements of the policy dialogues.
Three short interventions (3 min each) on each of the policy
dialogues.
Dialogue 1 -
Capture of Narrative; False versus Real Solutions. Presenter: Paula Gioia, ECVC/LVC
Dialogue 2 -
Corporate Capture of Governance. Presenter: Shalmali Guttal, Focus on the
Global South
Dialogue 3 -
Corporate Capture of Science. Presenter:
Elisabetta Recine, Brazilian
Alliance for Healthy & Adequate Food
Word
Cloud of Day 3. Presenter:
Charlotte Dreger, FIAN International
Open
dialogue: space
for comments, reactions and additional contributions from the
audience.
Moderator:
Nzira Deus, World March of Women, member of the Liaison Group
First
intervention: Towards September:
Strategies to Challenge the Summit
Speaker:
Jordan Treakle, US National Family Farm Coalition, member of the
Liaison GroupSecond
intervention: Towards 2022 –
Announcement of Global gathering 2022
Speaker:
Saul Vicente, International Indian Treaty Council, on behalf of the
International Planning Committee on Food Sovereignty (IPC)
Closing remarks by the moderator
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