Presented by Peter Hurst, IUF
Rome, 2-13 November, 2001

On behalf of the International CSO/NGO Planning Group which is preparing the CSO/NGO Forum of the WFS:fyl, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to report on our plans leading up to the rescheduled Summit.

1. For the past year in preparation for the Summit in November this year, CSOs organised their work through analysis and discussion on thematic issues through national and regional meetings in all five FAO regions, supplemented by electronic conferences. Regional reports and thematic papers were to have contributed to the planned CSO/NGO Forum on Food Sovereignty to have been held at this time. 600 women and men representatives from organisations of farmers, herders, fisherfolk, indigenous peoples, workers, women and CSOs which support them were to have come to Rome, 80% from the South, 20% from the North.

2. We very much regret that international circumstances exacerbated by unhelpful actions by the Host Government forced FAO to a rearrangement then postponement of the Summit at the last moment. This has been costly for us as well. However, we will put this behind us and now will turn the rescheduling of the Summit, preceded by the FAO Regional Conferences, into a new opportunity to further widen and deepen the participation of CSOs/NGOs in promoting food sovereignty.

Over the next 7 months we see new opportunities, for example, to:

• Promote ratification of the new Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture
• Advance the call for Food Sovereignty, that is the right of peoples to determine their own food and agricultural policies.
• Bring these and other food and agricultural issues to the five FAO Regional Conferences in early 2002
• Link the Summit process with our preparations for the World Summit on Sustainable Development
• Find new ways of debating with FAO on relevant issues and sectoral and crosscutting programmes (e.g. PAIAs).

3. In preparing for the Summit, the CSOs/NGOs will be promoting three themes:

   Food Sovereignty

   • Food before trade
   • An end to food dumping - the sale of food below the cost of production at origin or destination
   • The right to farmer-led food sovereignty which limits corporate monopolisation of the food system

     Right to Food and to Resource Justice

   • Right to adequate, affordable, culturally-appropriate, safe, nutritious food
   • Right to Productive Resources:
     - Natural Resources (Land, Water, Forest, Fishery, and Genetic Resources)
     - Social and Economic Resources(Credit, Technology, Training, Research, Information)
   • Recognition of the rights of all producers and workers to engage in safe, sustainable and productive practices.

     Sustaining Life on Earth:

   • A new agroecology paradigm that emphasises localised food systems, which provide food and livelihood security and environmental integrity.

4. Through this process we plan to develop specific recommendations for the Summit which will address both programmatic and institutional issues, and to link these with specific CSO/NGO campaigns for example: Code of Conduct on the Right to Food; Implementation of Genuine agrarian reform; No New WTO Agriculture Round; an End to Food Dumping; and International GMO moratorium and a ban on Terminator technologies; No Patents on Life

5. But we wish to make you aware of one important condition. We are able to harness the energies of Civil Society to support this important process that will contribute to local and global food security but only if you Members of FAO and FAO staff actively find acceptable ways of involving us and demonstrate a willingness to change or modify existing policies, plans, programmes and activities where this is necessary.

In conclusion we look forward to a constructive preparatory process and widened and deepened CSO/NGO participation that will contribute to a successful WFS:fyl next June at which we will be prepared to present the outcomes of our Forum for Food Sovereignty and will host a series of workshops for the benefit of all participants at the WFS:fyl.

In the words of the Havana Declaration on Food Sovereignty prepared at the Latin American/Caribbean regional CSO meeting in preparation for the WFS:fyl "Food sovereignty is the means to eradicate hunger and malnutrition and to guarantee lasting and sustainable food security for all of the peoples." The hope for a new millennium free of hunger will continue to be frustrated, to the shame of all humanity, if the Summit in June does not take urgent steps to recognise peoples' food sovereignty.

Thank you