28 May 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 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.