| Amidst increasing civil disturbances and impending starvation, the failure in the market for basic goods is being met with resolve and expertise by Development and Peace partners. Groups around the world are currently mobilized to promote and implement long-lasting solutions to the problem.
"The current crisis has compounded a situation that was already weighted against the poor," says Michael Casey, Executive Director of Development and Peace. Mr. Casey referred to international trade rules which have allowed the rich countries of the North to subsidise their farmers, flooding the countries of the Global South with cheap food imports which choke the livelihoods of farmers in poor countries. "We urge the international community to review such an unjust system and support local groups like our partners in permanently redressing the economic and social imbalance."
As such, the Partnership for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development Services (PARRDS), a Development and Peace partner in the Philippines, has played a prominent role in organising the People’s Food Summit, which took place in Manila on April 2 and called for major policy reform at the national and international levels. Archbishop Antonio Javellana Ledesma of the Philippines stated that "agrarian reform becomes more urgent as the food crisis is related to that of skewed land ownership in the countryside, making the farmers still landless and without the capacity to feed their own family."
Brazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) has echoed this statement, adding that "Brazil needs a new agricultural model if we are going to ensure food sovereignty and produce food for the 80 million Brazilians who do not have sufficient access to food." The MST is currently coordinating the occupation of land by 150 000 landless peasant families, in the objective of obtaining permanent settlements from the government.
In Sierra Leone, the Network Movement for Justice and Development (NMJD) has asked the national government to increase spending on agriculture. This network will increase its support to local farmers by distributing seeds and tools and providing technical training.
For over forty years, Development and Peace has supported hundreds of partners in the South, working to achieve food sovereignty through land redistribution, rural development and other economic empowerment projects. It has also lobbied the Canadian government to pressure the World Trade Organisation and other members of the international community to adopt more pro-poor policies.
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