Advocacy

Mobilising the political will to tackle hunger is a prerequisite for securing global improvements in food security. The UKFG meets and briefs the key decision makers at local, national and international level, advocating sustainable and equitable food security policies to governments, NGOs, the food industry and the media.

In the UK, we meet with Ministers to discuss food security issues; we comment on government consultations on trade and agriculture and the enquiries of relevant select committees; and have submitted evidence to the House of Commons Agriculture Committee on CAP Reform. We attend the Trade Policy Consultative Forums organised by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) - round-table discussions on trade issues, involving business, consumers, NGOs and trade unions; and the International Trade NGO Days run by the Department for International Development (DFID) to gather NGO input on government thinking on trade and development issues.

In 2002, the UKFG organised a meeting between Dr Tewolde Egziabher, Ethiopia's negotiator at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), and DFID's Deputy Director of the Central and Southern Africa Division, to discuss the issues raised by the provision of GM food aid through the World Food Programme.

We also meet with the EU Commission, work with European MEPS and take part in negotiations at key international fora such as the World Trade Organisation and the World Food Summit. The UKFG was represented on the UK government's delegation to the World Food Summit - Five Years Later in 2002, and we met regularly with DFID's core management group on food security to discuss the government's food security paper in preparations for the meeting.

In 2002 we organised the seminar, Genetic futures in food and farming, to raise awareness among NGOs, academics, journalists and policy makers, of the key issues at stake, before the meeting of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.

The UK Food Group and the WTO

One reason why the talks at the Seattle Ministerial Meeting of the WTO collapsed was the failure of the dominant members of the WTO to take account of the concerns of Southern governments. Many of our partner organisations in the South wish to address the negative impacts of the Uruguay Round on Agriculture and the built-in bias of the WTO towards some of the dominant countries, before proceeding with further liberalisation.

The UKFG is working to raise awareness of the environmental and social problems caused by trade liberalisation under the Uruguay Round on Agriculture and Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights, and the problems caused by exports of subsidised agricultural goods by the EU and US. We are also working to highlight trade policy regimes that promote sustainable agriculture and meet the needs of poverty reduction and food security.

In the run up to the WTO Ministerial Meetings, the UK Food Group met regularly with civil servants and Ministers to discuss the Government's preparations and positions at these key meetings. The UK Food Group is a member of the Government's Trade Policy Consultative Forum and is regularly consulted by the UK government on WTO issues affecting food security. We have submitted written evidence to the House of Commons Agriculture and Development Committees on the WTO and its impact on UK and EU Policies, and commented on the Government's consultation paper, 'Agriculture and the WTO Negotiations.'