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In Solidarity with African Civil Society, UK CSOs call on G8 to abandon New Alliance

Several people and organisations in Africa, Europe and the UK have been raising concerns about the implications of the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition promoted by G8 leaders. Addressing these concerns, a coalition of UK Civil Society Organizations have written a statement in solidarity with African civil society to call on the G8…

Several people and organisations in Africa, Europe and the UK have been raising concerns about the implications of the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition promoted by G8 leaders.

Addressing these concerns, a coalition of UK Civil Society Organizations have written a statement in solidarity with African civil society to call on the G8 to abandon the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition in light of the dangers it poses to smallholder farmers and efforts to combat hunger in Africa.

You can download a PDF of the statement here: StmtOnNewAlliance_May2013_forSignOn

They are requesting individuals to sign on.

The deadline for signing is midday Thursday 30 May 2013. I apologise for such a short deadline. Please confirm your intention to sign to Gromero (a) waronwant.org

More about the New Alliance

The New Alliance on Food Security and Nutrition is a private sector investment initiative launched by the G8 in May 2012. Its objective is to open up African agriculture to multinational agribusiness companies by means of national ‘cooperation frameworks’ between African governments, donors and private sector investors, with no reference to the needs or wishes of African farmers. Companies such as Monsanto, Syngenta, Cargill, Diageo, Unilever, Yara and DuPont have signed ‘letters of intent’ to engage in the New Alliance, and six African governments (Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mozambique and Tanzania) have signed up to national cooperation frameworks agreeing to far-reaching policy reforms in favour of private investment. Four others (Benin, Malawi, Nigeria and Senegal) are expected to sign up to the New Alliance later this year.

The New Alliance has been modelled on the ‘new vision’ of private investment in agriculture developed by management consultants McKinsey in conjunction with the ABCD group of leading grain traders (ADM, Bunge, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus) and other multinational agribusiness companies. Government officials have acknowledged that most of the content in the national cooperation frameworks has been taken from other corporate initiatives such as AGRA (the Alliance for a New Green Revolution in Africa) and the Grow Africa investment platform of the World Economic Forum. DFID has announced that the UK government will be contributing £395 million to the New Alliance over the coming three years.

There have been many strong critiques of the New Alliance from civil society in Africa and Europe, in view of the unprecedented powers it offers multinational agribusiness companies and the significant threat it poses to small-scale farmers in Africa.

 

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Responses to “In Solidarity with African Civil Society, UK CSOs call on G8 to abandon New Alliance”

  1. argylesock

    Reblogged this on Science on the Land and commented:
    argylesock says… Here’s some breaking news about agribusiness in Africa. We’re being asked to sign a statement against the ‘New Alliance’ within the next two days! I haven’t had chance to read the info yet, but here it is for anybody who reads my blog to form an opinion. You might choose to reblog too.

    Reply
    1. foodgovernance

      Thanks for the reblog and for the support.

      Reply
      1. argylesock

        You’re welcome. I haven’t yet had time to follow you links so I’m still a bit wary of whether this could be a hoax. Have you verified it?

  2. foodgovernance

    Yes, I am most certain this is not a hoax. What part concerns you? There have been statements released claiming that CSOs in Africa have signed on and these organizations have come out and said they are not in fact signatories. However, the UN CSO statement is verifiably aligned with the UK Food Sovereignty Movement and the African CSO statement has also been verified.

    If you are concerned about the analysis of the G8’s New Alliance, you can judge for yourself but review the Country Cooperation Frameworks, available here:
    http://www.feedthefuture.gov/article/unga2012

    Reply
    1. argylesock

      Thank you, I’ll take a look at that. My concern was a general one about hoaxes on the internet.

      Do you know how the New Alliance is to fit with the UN High Level Panel’s post-2015 Development Agenda? http://havehest.wordpress.com/2013/05/31/protecting-environment-necessary-to-end-poverty-according-to-uns-high-level-panel/#comment-7591

      Reply
  3. Science on the Land

    […] fellow blogger at Food Governance told us about African civil society rejecting the New Alliance. Now the campaign group War on Want tells us about African groups rejecting the New Alliance as […]

    Reply

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