Submitted by Mike on Mon, 11/01/2010 - 09:46
Farmers, pastoralists and fisher-folk from Mali, Benin, Senegal and Burkina Faso will have their say on the future of food and agriculture research during two forthcoming citizens' juries, which have been welcomed by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food.
The juries, organized in Mali by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and local partners, are an effort to democratize decision-making and ensure that research serves the needs of food producing communities who tend to be marginalised from such processes.
The jurors will focus on what kind of research is needed to achieve food sovereignty and the right to food in West Africa. They take place on 11-16 January and 1-6 February in the village of Nyeléni (Sélengué).
In each jury, a group of 45 men and women will hear from expert witnesses including agriculture specialists from universities in France, Mali and Switzerland and representatives of the Syngenta Foundation, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, and Institut d'Economie Rurale du Mali (the Malian Institute for the Rural Economy).
"The juries will listen to the expert testimony before deliberating and making recommendations about how they think food and agriculture research should be designed, governed and implemented to meet their needs," says Dr Michel Pimbert of IIED who is leading the project.
"The recommendations will be presented in policy dialogues involving representatives of food producers, social movements, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, and donors who fund agricultural research," says Pimbert.
"Social movements will also use the recommendations to promote a citizen controlled and farmer-led agricultural research system for food sovereignty."
Ousmane Sy, the former minister of Territorial Administration and Local Communities in the Malian government and champion of decentralization, chairs the independent oversight panel.
A spokesperson for the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier Schutter, told IIED that Schutter "strongly and warmly supports" the citizens' juries.
Journalists are invited to press conferences in Bamako, Mali on 10 January and in Nyeléni (Sélengué), Mali on 16 January and on 6 February, when the juries of farmers will present their recommendations.
Contact
For more information about the juries and the press conference, contact:
Boukary Barry, Kene Conseils, Bamako
Tel: + (223) 20 29 32 57
E-mail: keneconseils@yahoo.fr
For interviews (English or French), contact:
Dr Michel Pimbert, International Institute for Environment and Development
michel.pimbert@iied.org
Tel: +44 (0)207 2117388
For other queries, contact:
Mike Shanahan
Press officer
International Institute for Environment and Development
3 Endsleigh Street
London WC1H 0DD
Tel: 44 (0) 207 388 2117
Fax: 44 (0) 207 388 2826
Email: mike.shanahan@iied.org
www.iied.org
Notes to editors
Food sovereignty is the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems. It puts those who produce, distribute and consume food at the heart of food systems and policies rather than the demands of markets and corporations.
The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) is an independent, non-profit research institute. Set up in 1971 and based in London, IIED provides expertise and leadership in researching and achieving sustainable development (see: www.iied.org).