“Hands on the Lands for Food Sovereignty”

A collective campaign including peasant organisations and social movements

Rural topic(s): Advocacy on food and rural policies

Date of writing: November 1, 2017

Organization(s): TNI (Transnational Institute)

Summary:

TNI’s mission is to strengthen international social movements with rigorous research, reliable information, sound analysis and constructive proposals that advance progressive, democratic policy change and common solutions to global problems.

Hands on the Land for Food Sovereignty is a collective campaign which aims to raise awareness on issues related to the use and governance of land, water and other natural resources and its effects on the realisation of the right to food and food sovereignty.

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Description of activities

Background

TNI is an international research and advocacy institute based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. In the realm of natural resource politics, we work with peasant organisations, small-scale fisheries networks, and environmental and human rights defenders to work for agrarian and environmental justice both at international policy making spaces and at national and grassroots level.

Activities

Hands on the Land for Food Sovereignty is a collective campaign by 16 partners, including peasants and social movements, development and environmental NGOs, human rights organisations and research activists. Our aim is to raise awareness on issues related to the use and governance of land, water and other natural resources and its effects on the realization of the right to food and food sovereignty. Through evidence-based research and material, public events and meetings, trainings, education and advocacy work, the campaign engages EU citizens, media, journalists, NGO practitioners, social activists, educators, students, politicians, policy and decision makers to take action for food sovereignty.

Outlook

Challenges

TNI notes an ongoing worldwide capture of natural resources for extractive and speculative purposes, often with little concern for the environment and with limited to no involvement of communities that depend on those resources for their livelihoods. In some regions of the world, this democratic deficit has been met through the rise of an authoritarian populism which presents new challenges and contradictions.

Next steps

In Europe, TNI is working in the context of the Hands of the Land alliance to follow-up on new developments around land policy in the European Parliament following the adoption of a resolution in April 2017 on land concentration and access to land for farmers in the Parliament. Together with a number of Greek partners, TNI will also be publishing a report in 2018 looking at the impact of EU austerity measures on the Right to Food in Greece.

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In her interview, Sylvia Kay shortly presents “Hands on the Land”, a campaign focusing mainly on how we can treat our natural resources, not as commodities but as values for the rural communities that depend on them. She also shares what inspired her from the gathering i.e “rural sustainability that works in times of crisis” and “community spirit”.