"The campaign 'Afrique Nourricière' (Africa can feed itself) is based on the fact that West Africa is not condemned to depend on global markets to feed its population." - Saliou Sarr

"We are planning on committing to a long-term focused and pragmatic campaign, aimed at increasing and improving the aid for agriculture and rural development to attain the hunger and poverty goal outlined in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals." - Laura Amore

In this interview, representatives from International NGO/CSO talk about two different campaigns launched during World Food Day 2003: Ms. Laura Amore from Volontari nel Mondo - FOCSIV explains the 'MORE AND BETTER' international campaign for agricultural and rural development aid to eradicate hunger and poverty as Mr. Saliou Sarr, from the Réseau des Organisations Paysannes et des Producteurs Agricoles de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (ROPPA) gives us an insight on the "Africa can Feed itself" campaign.


How did the idea of launching a NGO campaign against hunger emerge?

Laura Amore: The need to carry-out strong NGO/CSO actions that are independent from but related to government and international organization activities' to fight hunger was the main reason to propose an NGO campaign. In April 2003, a core group of NGOs experienced in advocacy work on food issues decided to launch a joint campaign in the context of the International Alliance Against Hunger. It included Volontari nel Mondo (Volunteers in the World) - Focsiv - Italy, Bread for the World Institute - USA, the Comité Français pour la Solidarité Internationale CFSI (French Committee for International Solidarity) - France, SOS Faim - Belgium. They identified a larger group of potentially interested NGOs/CSOs in Europe, North America, and the developing world to participate in a workshop on 10-11 May 2003 to shape an advocacy campaign. The International NGO/CSO Planning Committee (IPC) for the WFS: fyl was also invited to take part in this first round of consultations and demonstrated an interest in collaborating in this advocacy campaign. This two-day workshop discussed and further developed a proposal for a NGOs/CSOs advocacy campaign against hunger: "More and Better Aid for Agriculture to Eradicate Poverty and Hunger - A proposal for an international advocacy campaign". A meeting of the NGOs in Cancun also allowed for further elaborating of objectives and activities of the campaign.

Saliou Sarr: The fact that some 840 million human beings are undernourished despite the commitment to halve hunger by 2015 and knowing that some 196 million people are suffering from hunger in Sub-Saharan Africa alone, moved the ROPPA (Réseau des Organisations Paysannes et des Producteurs Agricoles de l'Afrique de l'Ouest / Network of Farmers' Organizations and Agricultural Producers in West Africa) to address this situation by launching a campaign to create awareness and mobilize will towards the support of peasant farming and West Africa's capacity of feeding itself. The main victims of hunger and food insecurity are rural populations, particularly small farmers and their families. The campaign "Afrique Nourricière" (Africa can feed itself) is based on the fact that West Africa is not condemned to depend on global markets to feed its population. Its millions of inhabitants have the right to enough daily, healthy food. This campaign initiated by ROPPA within the framework of the International Alliance against Hunger, should be considered as the translation of the will of West African farmers' organizations to improve productivity in order to feed rural and urban communities and create wealth for both families and nations.

What will the campaign's main strategy be?

Laura Amore: We are planning on committing to a long-term focused and pragmatic campaign, aimed at increasing and improving the aid for agriculture and rural development to attain the hunger and poverty goal outlined in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. This campaign would also encourage the creation of national and international political will of Northern as well as Southern countries to achieve policy changes and the development of common guidelines on sustainable development aid. The international campaign is based on independent national campaigns and approach of international institutions on issues of common concerns.

Saliou Sarr: The focus of our campaign is more at the regional level in West Africa. The main element of the strategy for the "Afrique Nourricière" (Africa can feed itself) campaign is an information and mobilisation program to create awareness and mobilize populations. The campaign will gain strength towards October 2003, especially during World Food Day celebrations on 16 October. This program will foresee the involvement of local media through rural radios in the region, national media including press, radio and television and international media coverage. At the international level, the campaign will be launched during the ceremonies of the World Food Day on the International Alliance Against Hunger at FAO Headquarters on 16 October. At the national level, each country of the ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) will stage events to celebrate this day through the organization of workshops and fairs. At the local level, a series of debates, fora, and food fairs will be held in a number of secondary villages to show the potential of local and national agriculture production.


What are the expected outcomes of the campaigns?

Laura Amore:The international campaign "More and Better" is established to support and be a contribution to the larger program carried out by much wider alliances of NGOs/CSOs which resulted in the Declaration of the Forum for Food Sovereignty, held during the World Food Summit: five years later in June 2002. The campaign expects to achieve:

a major increase in the development aid for agriculture and rural development in the developing countries;

better aid to agricultural and rural development;

a substantial drop in the number of starving and undernourished people and people living in poverty.

Saliou Sarr: The "Afrique Nourricière" campaign includes the mobilization of the population and authorities of member countries of the ECOWAS as well as their partners regarding the responsibility of each country to insure the right to food for every one. A mobilization of this sort can only be achieved through a determined will and a strong collaboration by all parts involved. The main outcomes can be outlined under three aspects:

Food auto sufficiency, product of sustainable family farming

Food sovereignty, as a result of a series of national policies

Food security guaranteed in the entire sub-regional area.

Who will be in charge of influencing governments to achieve the policy changes desired by the coalition in areas such as food security and rural development?

Laura Amore: As I mentioned before, national campaigns in participating countries and regions, will work under the 'brand' of the international campaign, on the development of policies and programs to address the overall goal and specific targets. The main reason is to allow lobbying in both southern and northern governments and coordinate the NGOs/CSOs efforts through the international element of the campaign to approach also international institutions.


What role will southern organizations play in this advocacy campaign?

Laura Amore: The campaigns in the developing countries will play the major role in discovering and defining what good aid and rural development is, and at the same time working to increase the level of support from their own governments for agriculture and rural development.

Saliou Sarr: Local organizations will play a very active role in the campaign guaranteeing the dissemination of the campaign's messages throughout the region. The information programme will make use of the available networks of organizations to gain coverage in certain sectors: agriculture organizations to reach rural areas, teachers to reach students and civil society organizations to reach women groups, sport and cultural associations as well as professionals among others. We want to be proactive in mobilizing all stakeholders to promote natural food sovereignty.

During the activities to be held for World Food Day in October, the main actors involved at the sub-regional and national level will be ECOWAS, UEMOA (Union Économique et Monétaire Ouest Africaine), CILSS (Comité Inter-Etats de Lutte contre la Sécheresse au Sahel) and FAO as well as other development agencies working in the region along with local authorities and research institutions. At the local level, various municipalities of the countries involved will also participate as well as farmers, women's, artists' and teachers' associations.