This edition of the Window on the World looks at some of the key organizations working on food security and agriculture. It highlights networks and social movements concerned with food sovereignty, technology and gender.
Networks working on food sovereignty
La Via Campesina International Peasant Movement
This international movement of peasants, small- and medium-sized producers, landless, rural women, indigenous people, rural youth and agricultural workers defends the values and the basic interests of its members. Members are from 56 countries from Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. The principal objective of La Via Campesina is to develop solidarity and unity among small farmer organizations in order to promote gender parity and social justice in fair economic relations; the preservation of land, water, seeds and other natural resources; food sovereignty; sustainable agricultural production based on small- and medium-sized producers.
Action for Solidarity, Equality, Environment, and Diversity Europe (A SEED Europe)
A SEED is a European network linking youth groups and individuals all over Europe. A SEED was established by young people in 1991 in response to the UNCED Earth Summit proceedings in Rio and aimed to forge alliances among young people committed to social and environmental justice. It targets the structural causes of the environment and development crisis, and campaigns on the international financial institutions and 'free' trade agreements.
The Asian NGO Coalition for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ANGOC)
ANGOC is a regional NGO association of 21 national and regional NGO networks from 11 Asian countries actively engaged in food security, agrarian reform, sustainable agriculture and rural development activities. Its member-networks have an effective reach of some 3,000 NGOs throughout the region.
Pesticide Action Network International
http://www.pan-international.org
Pesticide Action Network (PAN) is a network of over 600 participating non-governmental organizations, institutions and individuals in over 90 countries working to replace the use of hazardous pesticides with ecologically sound and socially just alternatives. PAN was founded in 1982 and has five independent, collaborating regional centres that implement its projects and campaigns.
CTA Knowledge for Development
CTA's Knowledge for Development programme supports the policy dialogue on S&T for agricultural and rural development in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. It enables the ACP scientific community – primarily agricultural research and development scientists and technologists, policymakers, farmers and other stakeholders – to share and review the results of national and regional efforts and collaborate in harnessing S&T for the development of agriculture in their countries.
Slow Food
Slow Food is a non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported organization that was founded in 1989 to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people's dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world. Today, it has over 85,000 members in 132 countries.
Agriculture and technology
African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS)
ACTS is a Nairobi-based international intergovernmental science, technology and environmental policy think-tank that generates and disseminates new knowledge through policy analysis, capacity building and outreach.
AGRIDEA International
http://www.agridea-international.ch/
AGRIDEA is a capacity-building organization for rural and agricultural development in Switzerland and around the world. Information is provided on AGRIDEA's activities in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe.
Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA)
ASARECA aims to increase the efficiency of agricultural research in eastern and Central Africa by developing, introducing and disseminating performance-driven, demand-driven and market-oriented agricultural technologies.
Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical
CIAT is a not-for-profit organization that conducts socially and environmentally progressive research aimed at reducing hunger and poverty and preserving natural resources in developing countries. CIAT is one of the 15 centres that make up the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research.
Centro Internacional de la Papa (CIP)
The International Potato Center (CIP) seeks to reduce poverty and achieve food security through research on potato, sweet potato, other root and tuber crops, and natural resources management in mountain areas.
Global Crop Diversity Trust
The Trust aims at ensuring the conservation and availability of crop diversity for food security worldwide.
EcoWorld
EcoWorld is an Internet publishing company featuring an information resource on nature and clean technology. Providers of earth-friendly products and services who seek an eco-conscious audience of consumers and green business people can find useful information on this blog.
Agriculture and land
International Land Coalition
ILC is a global alliance of civil society and intergovernmental organizations working together to promote secure and equitable access to and control over land for poor women and men through advocacy, dialogue and capacity building. It is a membership-based organization. Its aim is to secure an equitable access to and control over land that reduces poverty and contributes to identity, dignity and inclusion.
Land Research Action Network
LRAN brings together activist researchers working on land and resource access issues, to network them with one another and with grassroots movements struggling for land and other productive resources. This network is a response to a gap in research/analysis support for grassroots movements around the world who are engaged in struggles over access to land and other resources, even as various forms of so-called 'land reform' are back on the policy agenda.
Agriculture and gender
FAO and gender
http://www.fao.org/gender/en/agri-e.htm
FAO recognizes that the empowerment of women is key to raising levels of nutrition, improving the production and distribution of food and agricultural products and enhancing the living conditions of rural populations.
Systemwide Program on Participatory Research and Gender Analysis (PRGA)
The CGIAR systemwide programme on PRGA develops and promotes methods and organizational approaches for gender-sensitive participatory research on plant breeding and on management of crops and natural resources.
African Women Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD)
http://www.genderdiversity.cgiar.org/home.asp
The innovative fellowship programme was designed to support professional growth in both scientific expertise and people management, thus facilitating the development of female science leaders and strengthening their institutions. The purpose of the Gender and Diversity Program is to help the CGIAR centres leverage their rich staff diversity to increase research and management excellence. It promotes such activities as diversity-positive recruitment, international teamwork, cross-cultural communications and advancement for women.
WOCAN: Women Organizing for Change in Agriculture & NRM
WOCAN was established in 2004. The objective of this global network is to address three major gaps that emerge from the knowledge and experiences of sustainable and rural development processes. These are policies regarding gender within the agriculture and natural resource management sectors; roles of professional women in implementing policy objectives for rural women's empowerment and gender equality within these sectors; and organizational barriers that obstruct women from realizing positions of leadership and influence to take on such roles.
Compiled by Sonja Cappello
