Networking

The UK Food Group seeks to encourage co-operation between NGOs working on food security through its regular meetings, working groups and seminars. As a network of expertise the UKFG is able to bring together a wide range of agencies and interests, to pool knowledge and to plan work on raising awareness of food security in the UK. At European level we work with some key EU networks such as the German Food Group, on research, publications and conferences.

Together with the Liaison Committee of Development Non-Governmental Organisations to the European Union, the UK Food Group organised a conference in Brussels in 2000, Fighting hunger and food insecurity: development policy challenges for NGOs and the EC. Over 80 participants from NGOs, Southern partners and EU civil servants attended, including the Director -General of DG Development.

As part of this networking and advocacy initiative, a Food Security Forum was also organised. Thirty participants, from the 15 NGDO platforms, EuronAid and Southern partners discussed the Liaison Committee's future policy paper on Food Security and identified ways of making their food security work more effective throughout the European Community.

In 2002 the UKFG organised the seminar WTO and agriculture: are UK NGOs ploughing the same furrow? Developing synergistic approaches for sustainable and equitable agriculture trade. Chaired by Caroline Lucas MEP, this informal meeting provided an opportunity to hear and discuss perspectives from UK NGOs representing development, environment, animal welfare, farming and consumer interests. The meeting aimed to increase understanding of each other's positions and identify areas of agreement in order to map out a clearer common strategy and goals.

Another seminar, From plough to plate: corporate accountability in the food and agriculture sector, was organised to identify a common agenda by NGOs in addressing the issues of the international food supply chain, transnational corporations and food security.

Voices from the South

The UKFG funds and organises attendance by Southern representatives at key international meetings, ensuring that Southern voices are clearly heard in the global debate on food security. Two Southern partners from Mexico and Ecuador attended the 8th Session of the FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, 1999. Five southern partners from the Philippines, Cameroon, Croatia, and Peru attended the WTO Ministerial Meeting in Seattle, 1999.

The UK Food Group decided to focus its efforts for the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, in funding attendance by a number of Southern delegates to the NGO Forum and People's Earth Summit (PES). Dereje Gebre Michael of the Institute for Sustainable Development, Ethiopia, gave a paper on 'Threats of Genetic Engineering and the Biosafety Protocol' in the NGO Forum. This was the first in a series of debates on GM and food aid that were very well attended and got much coverage from local and international media. His colleague Sue Edwards spoke in the Women's Tent at a session on Water, Food Security and Food Sovereignty, and prepared the draft declaration by the African Civil Society Group, 'In support of the Zambian and Zimbabwean governments position to reject food aid contaminated by genetic engineering'. The participants also networked with many international NGOS, and distributed publications and materials about ISD projects to government delegates and others.