Day 2 17 Nov

Today I spent mostly at the civil society forum – talking with people and listening to the draft declaration being read to everyone. It had been made from the four working groups. Each one dealt with a specific issue:

1. Who decides about food and agriculture? Where are decisions taken?

2. Who controls food producing resources?

3. How is food produced?

4. Who has/needs access to food?

After the draft was read any of the delegates (but not observers although they had been able to speak in the groups) could raise points missed out by the drafters and a final version was agreed in the late morning – just before the forum’s press conference at the FAO Summit meeting. While those changes were made each of the caucus groups read their own declarations. All very open and democratic.

I then headed for FAO and their press conference. (It was a day of speech after speech in the plenary sessions and a couple of round tables at the Summit). Another walk – thank goodness the weather has been fine and sunny and warm in the day. The conference was packed (Photos) but the people from the ngos had found it hard to get into to the room to give the conference, so restrictive has been the security. It’s bad for the media too – as they need an escort to move out of the press area and to the press conference room. This segregation and determination to keep people apart is causing quite a bit of anger and frustration. It also makes a mockery of the UN Charter’s opening words – ‘We the People’s’. These were quoted later in the day back at the Forum’s site by David Nabarro, the UN Secretary General’s Special representative on Food Security and Nutrition, at a special post forum meeting to give forum participants the chance to quiz him and others from the World Bank, and other agencies about the relation between the Secretary General’s High Level Task Force and the Committee on Food Security, which is being reformed to include civil society participation and set to become the main place where food security issues are dealt with.

Tomorrow it’s back to FAO and the end of the Summit, and the start of the FAO conference........................... Day 3

Geoff Tansey

back