For immediate release 18 October 2007
Ecumenical Study links trade liberalization and hunger
The Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (EAA) is releasing a study today on the eve of the Annual Meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which documents direct links in three countries between trade liberalization policies and violations of the Right to Food of smallscale rice farmers. Many of the trade liberalization policies were put in place as a result of conditions on assistance from the World Bank and IMF, and the two organizations continue to put strong pressure on governments not to step back from these policies.
The study, "Trade Policies and Hunger: The Impact of Trade Liberalisation on the Right to Food of Rice Farming Communities in Ghana, Honduras and Indonesia" was carried out by FIAN International (FoodFirst Information and Action Network) and commissioned by the EAA's Trade for People campaign.
"Access to adequate food and the means to acquire it are a basic human right which virtually all countries have agreed to defend," states Linda Hartke, EAA coordinator. "This study confirms what we have suspected, that trade liberalization has been used to create unfair conditions that directly violate this right which is fundamental for life." The study is one of the first to explore the impact of trade liberalization policies from a human rights perspective. The evidence strongly indicates that the reduction of import tariffs and other national market controls, reduction of support to agricultural producers in the country, and the high level of support received by agricultural producers in certain developed countries have led to significant import surges that have devastated the livelihoods of smallscale farmers already vulnerable to poverty.
"There is hunger in our family. Children eat, but not much," said a farmer in the community studied in Ghana. An agricultural labourer in Indonesia, who is only paid in harvest times, said that for up to a third of the year her family will "Eat three times as usual, but reduce the costs for the meal from 2,000 Rp to 1,000 Rp. Pick up something from the fields. Or we sell our household stuff, or borrow some money."
Rice was chosen for the study because it is central for food security all over the world. Rice is a staple food for half of the world's population. Two billion people depend on rice production as their main source of income. Ninety percent of these are smallholders, usually working on a plot of less than one hectare, and most of these smallholders are women.
As well as Structural Adjustment Programs of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, the communities studied have also been impacted by WTO rules and the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). The study also documents cases, particularly in Honduras, where food aid after natural disasters was used to dump huge quantities of subsidized rice into the country, which devastated local rice farming communities struggling to recover. In all three countries, the governments studied have tried to reimpose import controls and increase support for local agricultural producers, but have been "heavily obstructed" by external organizations and governments. The study also found that, contrary to one of supposed benefits of trade liberalization, consumer prices did not necessarily fall with the introduction of cheap imports. The main reason for this seems to be control of the market by a few rice importers who do not pass on the lower prices to consumers.
The Right to Adequate Food is recognized as a basic human right in the General Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Currently 156 states have ratified this Covenant, obliging them to respect, protect and fulfill the right to adequate food for their own citizens to the maximum of their resources. They also have a responsibility to support the right to food in other countries and at least to do no harm, whether dealing with the country directly or through intergovernmental organizations such as the World Bank and IMF. The Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance has presented the findings of this study to representatives of the governments of the three countries and would welcome an opportunity to present them to representatives of the World Bank and the IMF. The EAA will also submit the study to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Executive Summary available at:
http://www.e-alliance.ch/globaltrade/executivesummary.pdf Full study available at: http://www.e-alliance.ch/globaltrade/policiesandhunger.pdf
For more information contact Jean Blaylock, +41 22 791 6080 or (mobile) +41 79 656 4226, jblaylock@e-alliance.ch or Sara Speicher, +44 1524 727 651, sspeicher@e-alliance.ch Interviews with the authors of the study can be arranged.
The Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance is a broad international network of churches and Christian organizations cooperating in advocacy on global trade and HIV and AIDS. The Alliance is based in Geneva, Switzerland. For more information, see http://www.e-alliance.ch/