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.