Abstract
Hakima Abbas proposes a transformation in the international discourse towards people-led development. Focusing on rural development, she offers a paradigm shift towards a decolonized economic model based on the knowledge and values of people rather than profit.
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Notes
See General Assembly Resolution 2626 (XXV): International Development Strategy for the Second United Nations Development Decade (A/8124 and Add.1).
‘Diplomatic realities are “negotiated truths” between states in the global system of asymmetrically positioned power relationships’ from the essay ‘Time for a New Bretton Woods Conference’ (2008) by Yash Tandon (2009).
‘Decolonising social imagination from the scientism of neo-classical mathematical economics and neo-liberal economic dogma is essential for transformation towards food sovereignty. Simply put, current knowledge and policies for growth in food and farming are leading to the economic genocide of unprecedented numbers of farmers and rural livelihoods throughout the world (Perez-Vitoria, 2005)’ (Pimbert, 2006).
‘Food sovereignty is the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems. It puts those who produce, distribute and consume food at the heart of food systems and policies rather than the demands of markets and corporations. It defends the interests and inclusion of the next generation. It offers a strategy to resist and dismantle the current corporate trade and food regime, and directions for food, farming, pastoral and fisheries systems determined by local producers. Food sovereignty prioritises local and national economies and markets and empowers peasant and family farmer-driven agriculture, artisanal fishing, pastoralist-led grazing, and food production, distribution and consumption based on environmental, social and economic sustainability. Food sovereignty promotes transparent trade that guarantees just income to all peoples and the rights of consumers to control their food and nutrition. It ensures that the rights to use and manage our lands, territories, waters, seeds, livestock and biodiversity are in the hands of those of us who produce food. Food sovereignty implies new social relations free of oppression and inequality between men and women, peoples, racial groups, social classes and generations’ (Declaration of Nyéléni (2007) available at http://www.nyeleni.org/spip.php?article290).
As an example see the We Are the Solution campaign of rural women in West Africa for agro-ecological solutions to food sovereignty: http://www.fahamu.org/WAS.
La Via Campesina and Global Agrarian Reform, ‘Agrarian Reform and the Defense of Land and Territory in the 21st century: The Challenge and Future’ Workshop Declaration, Jakarta, July 2012, available at http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1315:agrarian-reform-in-the-21st-century-building-a-new-vision-redefining-strategies-and-celebrating-victories&catid=23:agrarian-reform&Itemid=36.
‘Africa is now the last frontier in terms of arable land’, said James Nyoro, the Rockefeller Foundation's managing director for Africa. ‘With the population growing to 9 billion, the rest of the world will have to depend upon Africa to feed it’. Can an African ‘green revolution’ help feed the world?, By Katy Migiro, Kenya, May 2012, Reuters available at http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/02/us-hunger-africa-greenrevolution-idUSBRE8410GY20120502.
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Argues for a paradigm shift towards an economic model based on the knowledge and values of people rather than profit
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Abbas, H. People-led Transformation: African futures. Development 55, 519–525 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1057/dev.2012.78
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/dev.2012.78