Women Demand the Right to be Free from Hunger We want our voices heard, the right to govern our livelihoods, access to resources to satisfy our basic food needs, an end to exploitative neo-liberal trade policies and patricarchal subjugation, state women at the NGO Forum
"Exports and liberalization policies of the WTO, IMF, Asian Development Bank and World Bank are forcing people to leave their land," stated Asra Talat of Pakistan, during the Workshop on Women and Food Sovereignty at the NGO Forum. Sharing the plight of women in the rural communities of Pakistan she explained that, "increasing prices of agricutural inputs, like pesticides, are forcing small farmers further into debt and suicide. The emphasis on cash crops for exports has severly undermined the peoples rights and ability to feed themselves. There is no more food left for the rural communities, especially women." Bringing together women from all over the world, the workshop organized by the Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific, and the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development witnessed women from Africa, Pakistan, Thailand, Nepal the Philippines and other lands recount the tragedy of poverty, acute marginalization, hunger, exploitation and discrimination still facing women-a phenomenon tragically common across the globe. "The FAO has identified two main obstacles in the implementation of its Plan of Action, namely: lack of political will and lack of sufficient resources," cited Catarina Estavillo, of the Manila based National Federation of Peasant Women (AMIHAN). "But peasant women in the Philippines believe that the government is not addressing the roots of poverty and hunger. Instead, it is merely following the dictates of the IMF-WB and the WTO. The policies of liberalization and privitization have pushed the Filipino people and the peasantry, in general, and women in particular, deeper into the quagmire of poverty and hunger. These policies are totally unacceptable and must be resisted," she stressed. And the problems were not exclusive to countries of the South, large corporate farms are taking over the agricultural lanscape in the North as well. Karen, a young Bee farmer from Saskatchewan, related the despair facing small family farms in Canada, "as I left home, there was dust blowing everywhere because of the drought. Small and young farmers like me cannot buy land anymore, it is too expensive." Cecila Mokota of Africa, a teacher and farmer lovingly known as Mama Agriculture, called for women to be strong in the face of traditions and cultural norms that continue to subjugate and exploit women and deny them the rights to resources: "I have a daughter who works the land, but according to our traditions it is my son who can claim ownership of it. She does all the work, while he smiles, crossing his arms and legs, stating that it is his land!" The workshop ended with the signing of a Unity Banner of Women's Demands, and a Statement on Hunger and Food Sovereignty presented to the Plenary of the NGO Forum. This was accompanied by the Women's Tapestry on Food Sovereighty that was sewn together prior to the Workshop by women of Asia and other parts of the world at the NGO Forum.
For more information contact: Jennifer Mourin, Media Coordinator, Pesticide Action Network (PAN) Asia and the Pacific Hand Phone, June 9-13, 2002: 349 186 9332. E-mail: jmourin@hotmail Women's Statement on Hunger and Food Sovereignty to the NGO Forum, June 11th, 2002
We women, from various continents, representing countries of the South and the North, demand the right to be free from hunger for every woman, man and child. We ask for the right to govern our livelihoods, and to have access and maintain control over our lands, waters, seeds, and all resources which are basic to our and our communities needs. We constitute more than half of the world's 1 billion hungry. We are the producers of the world's food, the reproducers and nurturers of human life, yet we do not get enough nutritious and safe food. In our households, partiarchal values dictate that we are the last priority in the allocation of food. Our productive and reproductive roles are not acknowledged at all levels. We are denied access to basic social services including health services, adequate sanitation, and shelter. It is no wonder then that 600,000 women die each year in childbirth, 160 million of their children are undernourished, and 64 out of 1,000 live births die in infancy. The reality we face today is that our capacity to produce our own food is eroded, our most basic resource for survival - our lands, our waters, are taken over by multinational corprations. We are losing our livelihoods, our incomes are shrinking, health and education services are now beyond our reach. Less and less food is getting on to our tables. The industrial mode of agriculture that prioritizes cash cropping for export is directly linked to the increasing use of agrochemicals like pesticides. This has resulted in many diseases faced by not only women, but even our future generations. Women are the convenient targets of violence as crisis hits socieities due to the exploitative nature of the present capitalist mode of production. We believe that the massive hunger and starvation suffered by millions today can be largely attributed to the globalized economic policies and programs prescribed by the WTO, the IMF and the World Bank. We believe that in order to overcome the forces which are taking away our independence and dignity, we need to unite and strengthen the voices of women from all sectors, especially fisherfolk, peasants, and other vulnerable communities. We demand: - that women's voices are given priority to develop a sustainable agenda for ourselves and our communities. - that women must be involved in all decision making processes, giving us the right to control our livelihoods. - that the trade liberalization agenda of the international financial and trade institutions be removed from the agriculture sector. - that our governments need to build and implement policies and programs based on the needs of women and communities, and not on the agenda of the industrialized nations, transnational corporations, and the local elites. - that the control over our natural resources needs to be maintained in the hands of women and communities and not be given over to transnational corporations, states and other agencies.:
