Food and hunger

Yesterday afternoon, James, Kiama Kaara from Kenya Debt Relief Network and I drove to Thika, a medium-sized town 40km north east of Nairobi along a bustling road lined with traders, construction workers and shops for a meeting with Zachary Makanya from the PELUM Association.

PELUM, which stands for Participatory Ecological Land Use Management, are a network of civil society organisations and NGOs working with small-scale farmers from East, Central and Southern Africa. Their vision is an inspiring and humbling one and what Zachary told us was very clear. Kenyans are still not seeing an improvement in their quality of life despite decades of aid money being poured into the country by mostly good-intentioned by often ill-informed and patronising donors and NGOs. The effects of aid dependency and the legacy of colonialism mean that the urgent process of ‘decolonising the mind’ must now start in earnest if African nations, Kenya included, are to resist the fierce and bullish march of globalisation and industrialisation, which is already wiping out traditional knowledge, languages, indigenous communities and the natural environment.

...

The Kibera slum in Nairobi is home to around 1.5 million people. That's half the population of Nairobi, squeezed into just 2.5 square kilometres. On the way there, our driver, Charles described the extent of the violence that erupted in Kibera during the 2007 elections. Cars were set alight, men, women and children were beaten as they were forced out of from their homes and pumped with tear gas by the Kenyan police. As we approached the entrance to the slum, Charles locked down the doors and wound up the windows. The public perception of Kibera within Kenya is that it’s a dangerous, lawless place.

Our perception was a very different one. We met with a group of eight women and Sheikh Ahmed Abdulrahim, a community human rights activist for a meeting under a tree just on the edge of the slum. They spread out their scarves on the ground for us to sit on and started to tell us about their campaign and their own personal experiences.

Kibera Women for Peace and Fairness connect the violence in 2007 with the extreme poverty they live in. The unrest was partly to do with a huge hike in food prices, which meant many people could only afford to eat one meal a day. This, and the horrific conditions and deprivation people have to suffer in Kibera led to the overflowing of...

While I’ve been in Kenya I’ve been reading a new book by Milford Bateman; Why doesn’t microfinance work? The destructive rise of local neoliberalism. Microfinance has been feted as an effective solution to poverty for the very poor for a number of decades now, and in 2006 Mohammed Yunus, the founder of the first microfinance institution, the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

But Milford Bateman’s contention is that microfinance is not only very bad at ‘lifting people out of poverty’, but that it has only survived and prospered in the mainstream development community because it fits very well with needs of maintaining a neoliberal economic system.

Africa is, of course, now flooded with microcredit lenders, and Kenya is no exception. Bateman’s book is excellent at demolishing the ‘myths’ about the efficacy of microfinance, including the contention that it empowers women. But with particular reference to Africa he argues that what Africa needs is not “a vast reservoir of self-employed traders” but “a robust light industrial foundation … and manufacturing-based enterprises capable of productivity growth.” In fact, he argues, “the proliferation of microfinance...

* New report: Gambling by banks like Goldman Sachs increased food prices

* UK must 'back, not block' new banking reform in Europe, say campaigners

* Over 800 people have pledged to call the FSA to demand action to stop banks gambling on food

Today banks have come under fire for risky and secretive gambling on coffee, cocoa and wheat which is playing havoc with prices.

Lovers of chocolate spread on toast with a cup of coffee in the morning face paying more for their breakfast as prices have rocketed on the international markets.

The same banks, secretive hedge funds and dangerous speculation that caused the sub-prime mortgage crisis and global financial meltdown are also causing food prices to rise massively, argues new research from anti-poverty campaigning group, the World Development Movement.

Cocoa prices have reached their highest levels for 33 years, increasing by 150 per cent over 18 months which could force some chocolate makers to raise prices and in some cases use less cocoa.

Although poor harvests acted as the initial trigger for price rises in cocoa, the finger is being pointed at hedge funds and big...

The US Senate is expected to approve a landmark bill on Wall Street reform later today, covering bank bonuses, financial transparency of complex derivatives, regulation of hedge funds and food markets. This legislation will send shockwaves across the global financial sector, but WDM fears that proposals for a similar EU crack down of the banks may not be backed the UK government.

US legislators have been under enormous public pressure to regulate secretive and complex derivative trading, which is blamed for triggering the global economic crisis.

France and other European nations are strongly supportive of similar proposals at the EU level, but we are concerned that the UK government could seek to block such reforms and are launching a new campaign next week to push the government to take the lead in pushing for financial reform in Europe. We point to the City of London’s track record of lobbying against EU efforts to force the so-called ‘shadow banking’ system out into the open, and are launching a campaign to get the government to crack down on excessive speculation by the banks.

Deborah Doane, director of the World Development Movement said:

“While the US is passing legislation in this area, the EU is well behind the curve. Because...

Rosie Rogers, used to be campaigns and policy intern

Bright-eyed and ready to save the world in one internship, I was ready to take on any challenge! As part of our new commodities campaign. I was asked to find out how to complain about Goldman Sachs (GMS). A simple task I thought…

FSA: "You have no rights"

First stop, the Financial Services Authority (FSA). I called the general enquiries number and was met with a friendly 'customer services' handler who was happy to answer my questions, but kept asking who I worked for and where I was calling from - my poker voice served me well!. I was told that the FSA don’t deal with formal complaints and that since I’m not a GMS customer, I 'have no rights'.

I was advised to make a formal complaint with GMS, then they had 8 weeks to respond and if the response was not satisfactory, I should take my case to the Financial Ombudsman Service who was ‘better equipped to deal with complaints’. I then stated to my previously friendly FSA buddy – who was now slightly fed up – that it’s ridiculous that only customers have rights, to which he reeled out some standard FSA statement about what the FSA can and can’t do. I was sent a standard leaflet on how to make...

Welcome to the July issue of Think Global.  This month's newsletter contains the all the latest on some campaign successes in trade and climate debt!  Plus there is full information on how you can take action in our new food speculation campaign. 

Baffled by 'derivatives'? Do you know your 'over the counter' from your 'hedge'? Food speculation is an issue that can get quite technical but here's our jargon busting glossary which will help steer you around the murky waters of financial markets.

Clearing exchange

A clearing exchange acts as the intermediary between the buyer and seller of a derivatives contract. So instead of the buyer and seller interacting directly, the clearning exchange becomes the buyer to each seller, and the seller to each buyer, of a contract. The clearing entity makes the payments to each side of the deal,
covering the buyer and seller from the risk of the other side defaulting. This in turn provides financial stability by insuring both parties against default.

In contrast, derivative contracts which are sold directly between two parties (see over-thecounter derivatives below) can be defaulted on as either side may not deliver either the goods or the money. It was non-payment of derivatives
contracts (not traded through clearing exchanges) which contributed to the 2007/08 financial crisis.

In return for being protected from default, buyers and sellers pay a fee to clearing
exchanges. This protects traders from default by the other party and creates a...

Banks are earning huge profits from betting on food prices in unregulated financial markets. This creates instability and pushes up global food prices, making poor families around the world go hungry and forcing millions into deeper poverty.

Raj Patel is the author of 'Stuffed and Starved: the hidden battle for the world food system', an excellent analysis of how corporations dominate the world food system to the detriment of ordinary people the world over, and also what we can do about it. The interview below was filmed at the Sydney Writers' Festival, and although 24 minutes long, is a great overview of some of the issues involved in creating democratic and sustainable food systems.

The battle for the world food system: an interview with Raj Patel from Jill Hickson on Vimeo.

Reports by Tom Lines, commissioned by the World Development Movement, on the impact of speculation on food and proposals of how to regulate it.

Arriving in a new country is often a total sensory overload: sights, sounds, smells. And then, as you quickly get used to it, things that had once, not long before, seemed so different and fascinating fast become so normal you barely even notice them. With this in mind, having just arrived in Bolivia this evening, I thought I’d try to capture some of my feelings and thoughts.

Bolivia is a country that has long fascinated me, and I’m excited to be here. There’s a sense in the air of something exciting coming together, people from so many diverse backgrounds and experiences meeting to discuss where next for the global climate justice movement in a way that brings the people who should be at the heart of the discussions back into the picture. If this happens as intended, it will be quite the opposite of my experience at the flawed UN climate talks in Copenhagen when, by the end of the two week negotiations, the majority of civil society delegations were literally locked out of the proceedings, and even most southern government country delegations weren’t able to enter the room where the Copenhagen Accord was being negotiations.

...

Ahead of the 2010 UK general election, WDM policy officer Tim Jones gives a snapshot of where the parties stand on issues that affect the world’s poorest people.

WDM and over 100 other organisations have challenged the major political parties to back a development manifesto, Vote Global. So how do the main parties stack up on key global poverty issues?

Trade justice

For the past thirty years imposition of free trade across much of the developing world has hindered economic growth and increased poverty and inequality. In contrast, countries that have been able to resist free trade have managed to cut poverty and increase employment. Since 1997, the Labour government has supported the EU, WTO, IMF and World Bank pushing free trade on developing countries.

The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats also support free trade and the current unfair round of world trade negotiations. The Green Party is distinct in calling for “fair trade not free trade” and for committing to push for reform of aggressive EU trade policies. Plaid Cymru also recognise the injustices of current international trade.

More and better aid

Labour, the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, SNP and Plaid Cymru all support spending 0.7 per cent of UK income on aid...

Bankers resisting plans to cut bonuses and reform the sector at the World Economic Forum have inspired anti-poverty campaigners to renew demands for a financial transaction tax to reduce global inequality.

The World Development Movement, one of the organisations backing the tax, says the additional revenue could finance a ‘green new deal’ in rich nations while providing money for poorer countries to develop low carbon economies and cope with the impact of climate change. The tax would also increase financial stability and dampen the risks of sudden food and oil price rises by deterring reckless speculation on debt, equity and commodity markets.

Julian Oram, head of policy at the World Development Movement said:
"The financial sector has grown way too big for its boots, to the extent that the whole global economy is vulnerable to the fortunes of bankers gambling on the markets.

“It's absurd for bankers to be up in arms about regulation given the damage they’ve caused, but it's encouraging us to campaign harder. This is an industry that generates $50 trillion worth of transactions a year. Taxing just a tiny fraction of this would slow down the financial roulette wheel and generate billions of dollars in public revenue that could be of huge benefit to...

We left Paris for Lille on Sunday morning, having been hosted by the Confederation Paysanne overnight. No sooner had we set off on the bus than Olivier, who has been one of the main organisers of the caravan, announced that we had an emergency on our hands...

One of the climate caravan participants, José Goyes, is part of a movement in Colombia called the Resguardo de Honduras Cauca. He lives in a fertile area in the south of the country, which is rich in vegetation, but also in mineral resources such as gold. This area has recently become the sight of a bitter struggle by the indigenous people whose livelihoods depend on this land, and the multinational corporations who are intent on exploiting it, apparently at any cost.

As I write, Canadian multinationals, and in particular a corporation called Cosigo Resources (Vancouver), are embarking on a programme of mass displacement of indigenous populations in south east Colombia. The Colombian government is supporting these multinationals; in the name of the Colombian government paramilitaries are persecuting and killing local indigenous people who oppose the forceful seizure of their land.

Many of the indigenous leaders, including José Goyes, have been threatened because they oppose the exploration of Cosigo...

Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali are collectively known as the ‘cotton 4’ because they are cotton producing countries in West Africa and have been trying to the get the US to reduce their cotton subsidies for almost a decade.

The US subsidises its cotton production which leads to over-supply and subsequently a low market price for cotton. Today I heard Ambassador Samuel Amehou from Benin speak at an Africa Trade Network event about the desperation that farmers are feeling and the injustice of the situation “Farmers are losing hope for their cotton. Something needs to be done urgently otherwise our cotton sector will die and many farmers will end up in a bad situation.”

Tomorrow the WTO ministerial closes and no doubt, there will be some statement that re-affirms the Doha round to be about development. There may even be a renewed commitment to conclude the round by the end of 2010. But this cotton issue clearly illustrates the WTO negotiations are not about development, they are not about poverty alleviation and not about giving farmers in the cotton 4 a fair chance to make a sustainable living. And this is just one example of how a WTO deal would hurt the poorest people in the...

Today I have been attending briefings in preparation for the ministerial conference which starts at 3pm tomorrow afternoon. I walked to the WTO building to pick up my badge which will allow me access to the ministerial as well as the NGO centre.

During a NGO briefing, we were told that we could access the open spaces at the ministerial conference (book shop, coffee bar, loos) but that the main sessions would be closed and only 42 people from NGOs (there are around 500 NGO representatives in total here) could attend the opening plenary. Most of the NGOs in the room were not happy with the lack of access but shrugged their shoulders and rolled their eyes acknowledging this is how the WTO works – unaccountable and untransparent. A Norwegian campaigner commented that when he attended the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation summit, NGOs were allowed access to the meetings and were even allowed to take the floor in some debates. The director of public affairs could only confess that the WTO were not that ‘advanced’ yet.

So my badge can get me coffee (which I don’t drink) and books (on free trade)…

...

The UK government comes under fire today in a new report which reveals that the current climate finance proposals, likely to dominate the weekend’s G20 talks, are likely to increase third world debt, and will be 'grossly inadequate' to tackle the scale of the problem.

The report by anti-poverty groups the World Development Movement and Jubilee Debt Campaign calculates that the UK alone owes a 'climate debt' to developing countries of over £17 billion each year for its contribution to climate change – an amount that is significantly more than that pledged so far.

They issued a stark warning that the issue of climate debt will be a 'Copenhagen deal-breaker' for developing countries, and the hope of getting a fair deal hangs in the balance.

The report, 'The Climate Debt Crisis', heavily criticises the UK's current policy of channelling its 'climate aid' through the World Bank, and of promoting the World Bank as the main hub of climate finance. It condemns the World Bank for distributing climate finance as loans, not aid, and for allowing finance to be used for new coal power stations, not low carbon energy investment. The campaigners are...

Campaigners from RSPB, the World Development Movement, Christian Aid, Oxfam, WWF and Greenpeace will hold a 'coal kills' vigil today outside the Department for Energy and Climate Change on Whitehall.

At 16.30, the organisations' CEOs and campaigners will hold up images of glaciers, polar bears, birds, food and water supplies of the millions of people in the developing world who will lose their lives and livelihoods and a stark message of 'coal kills'. These will represent what the campaigners believe that Climate Minister, Ed Miliband will save if he makes the right decision - to rule out new coal.

The charities are coming together to remind Ed Miliband that he must go further on his policy proposals on coal and provide a cast-iron guarantee that no new dirty coal-fired power stations will be built in the UK unless all of the carbon emissions are captured from the start.

The CEOs will invite Ed Miliband to meet with the groups to hand him personally a statement detailing the thousands of powerful pledges and statements that each organisation has collected from supporters. These include letters from young RSPB members asking Miliband to do more, photos from Christian Aid supporters asking him to reconsider, and promises of thousands of Greenpeace and World...

The World Development Movement is part of the Climate Justice Now! network, which is a southern-led coalition of around 150 organisations and movements campaigning for a globally just and effective solution to the climate crisis.

Climate Justice Now! principles

Communities in the global south as well as low-income communities in the industrialised north have borne the toxic burden of this fossil fuel extraction, transportation and production. Now these communities are facing the worst impacts of climate change - from food shortages to the inundation of whole island nations.

Inside the global climate negotiations, rich industrialised countries have put unjustifiable pressure on southern governments to commit to emissions reductions. At the same time, they have refused to live up to their own legal and moral obligations to radically cut emissions and support developing countries' efforts to reduce emissions and adapt to climate impacts.

Climate Justice Now! will work to expose the false solutions to the climate crisis promoted by these...

Green New Deal

In response to the overlapping economic, climate change and energy crises, the World Development Movement is calling for a Green New Deal for the world’s poor. A Green New Deal means investment in low-carbon projects, renewable energy and green jobs. It also aims to bring about greater economic equality by restructuring the financial system to support a green transition.

This approach links radical reform of the global financial system with a massive green investment programme to enable poor countries to pursue low-carbon, socially equitable development pathways. It is about redirecting credit away from the speculative casino economy and towards the real productive economy, particularly public infrastructure in the developing world. It involves a package of measures to channel both public and private financial flows into poor countries to develop green energy, transport and construction sectors, and to build a ‘carbon army’ of new jobs in the green economy that could lift millions out of poverty.

The Green New Deal is about a massive environmental transformation of the economy to tackle the triple crunch of the financial crisis, climate change and insecure energy supplies. Specifically, it is about:

• More and...

The World Development Movement is delighted to announce the appointment of Deborah Doane as its new director, who started 1 June at the UK’s leading grassroots, anti-poverty campaigning organisation. The World Development Movement looks forward to an exciting new era led by Deborah's dynamism and a wealth of experience from over 15 years working on social and environmental issues.

Deborah Doane, said:

"The root causes of the current global economic and the climate crises are the issues that the World Development Movement works on. And by working at the cutting edge, we now have the greatest opportunity to tackle the root causes of global poverty and injustice – and realise a better future for the lives of poor people around the world.

“The World Development Movement has been one of the most effective organisations, working at the forefront of anti-poverty campaigning for nearly forty years, in partnership with campaigners from around the world. I’m delighted to be able to take the organisation forward and build on the excellent work of my predecessor, Benedict Southworth, who is moving on after nearly 5 years as director to become the primary carer of his children, undertake a Masters degree and consultancy work."

Deborah was...