Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 7 • Number 5 • 16th March 2007

Mali Meeting Advocates Food Sovereignty

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A number of civil society organisations recently convened in countryside outside Sélingué, Mali, for a World Forum on Food Sovereignty. Dubbed Nyéléni 2007, the event brought together more than 500 representatives of peasant and family farmers, fisher-folk, indigenous peoples, rural workers, migrants, pastoralists, women, youth, environmentalists, and consumers from more than 80 countries in late February. The meeting adopted a declaration, which calls for food sovereignty to be recognised as a basic human right.

The Forum defines food sovereignty as “the right of peoples to define their own food and agriculture policies, to protect and regulate domestic agricultural production and trade so as to attain their objectives of sustainable development, to determine in what measure they want to be autonomous, and to limit the dumping of products on their markets.”

The Declaration of Nyéléni calls for a world where, amongst other things, food sovereignty is a basic human right, natural environments are conserved and rehabilitated, traditional knowledge is respected and maintained, and agrarian and fisheries reforms are made with concern for the environment and traditional labourers. The Declaration also makes strong statements against imperialism, neo-liberalism, and international financial institutions, dumping, domination of the food market by large corporations, genetically modified organisms and other technologies that undermine future production capacities.

The resumption of the Doha round in January means that the world’s agricultural policies are up for debate (See Bridges Trade BioRes, 2 February 2007, http://www.ictsd.org/biores/07-02-02/story1.htm). Campaigners supporting the concept of food sovereignty, such as the Via Campesina, have, however, stressed that ‘no deal is better than a bad deal’ for small scale farmers.

A full summary of conclusions and proposed collective actions of the Forum will be elaborated in a synthesis document, yet to be released, and shared with the UN bodies, including the FAO, and other policy makers.

Additional resources:

The Nyéléni Declaration is available at http://www.nyeleni2007.org

ICTSD reporting; “Dispatch: Leaders of the ‘food sovereignty’ movement meet in Mali,” GUERRILLA NEWS NETWORK, 25 February 2007.