OUR LAND OUR BUSINESS

OUR LAND OUR BUSINESS

OAKLAND, CA (April 10) – As the spring meetings of the World Bank get underway in Washington, DC, 180 organizations, including NGOs, unions, and farmer and consumer groups from over 80 countries, demand that the World Bank end its Doing Business rankings and its support of the rampant theft of land and resources from some of the world’s poorest people -- farmers, pastoralists, and indigenous communities, many of whom are essential food producers for the entire planet.

 “The World Bank is facilitating land grabs and sowing poverty by putting the interests of foreign investors before those of locals,” said Anuradha Mittal, Executive Director of the Oakland Institute. 

“Smallholder farmers are the first investors and employers in the agricultural sector in developing countries. Instead of supporting them, the World Bank encourages the looting of their resources for the benefit of foreign companies and local businessmen,” said Alnoor Ladha, Executive Director of /The Rules. 

The Bank’s “Doing Business” rankings, which score countries according to how Washington officials perceive the “ease of doing business” there, have caused many developing-country leaders to deregulate their economies in hopes of attracting foreign investment. But what the Bank considers beneficial for foreign business is very often the exact opposite for the local communities.

“The Doing Business ranking and the new Benchmarking the Business of Agriculture that the Bank is currently developing is pushing governments to give away their country to private interests. They should instead support family farms and secure their durable access to land, which is the key to the economic, social and environmental future of our countries,” said Ibrahim Coulibaly, President of the Coordination Nationale des Organisations Paysannes du Mali (CNOP) and Vice President of the network of Peasant organizations and Producers in West Africa (ROPPA).

In the agricultural sector, the rankings encourage governments to commoditize their land -- and to sell or lease it to foreign investors, regardless of environmental or social impact. Smallholder farmers, pastoralists, and the indigenous peoples are casualties of this approach, as governments and foreign corporations work hand-in-hand to dispossess them of their land -- and gain World Bank’s approval in the process.

The results have been devastating. Thanks to reforms and policies guided by the Bank, 20 percent of the arable land in Sierra Leone taken from rural populations has been leased to foreign sugar cane and palm oil producers. In Liberia, British, Malaysian, and Indonesian palm-oil giants have secured long-term leases for over 1.5 million acres of land formerly held by local communities. In the Philippines, world’s third most popular destination for foreign investment in land, 5.2 million hectares have been acquired by corporations since 2006.

"Doing Business ranking is a sword of Damocles over the heads of our leaders who wait for their next score in the ranking to gain legitimacy before the international financial institutions, those who prescribe development schemes for our countries, instead of the citizens. We want our autonomy to decide the future of our land, agricultural and food policies,“ said Amadou Kanoute, Director of CICODEV Africa.

The land-grab problem is about to get worse. Under pressure from the G8 and with funding from the Gates Foundation, the Bank is doubling down on its fetish for rankings by introducing a new program called “Benchmarking the Business of Agriculture” (BBA). The BBA’s explicit goal is to promote “the emergence of a stronger commercial agriculture sector.” 

“The BBA will limit governments' capacity to pursue their own food policy objectives, further enable the corporate takeover of land and other resources and reduce labor protection for agricultural workers who already suffer from serious decent work deficits, ” said Ron Oswald, general secretary of the global food and agricultural workers union, IUF.

“We’re standing up with farmers, herders, and indigenous peoples of the developing world who are being steamrolled by the World Bank’s pro-corporate agenda,” added Anuradha Mittal. “Initiatives like the World Bank’s ‘Doing Business’ rankings encourage governments to steal from the poor in order to give to the rich. That must end.”

MEDIA CONTACT: 

Kristen Thomaselli
(202) 471-4228 ext. 101
kristen@keybridge.biz

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For more information or to schedule an interview spokespeople of the campaign please contact Kristen Thomaselli at (202) 471-4228 ext. 101 or kristen@keybridge.biz.

To read the report, Willful Blindness: How the World Bank’s Doing Business (DB) Rankings Impoverish Smallholder Farmers, as well as country fact sheets about the World Bank’s bad business in the developing world, please visit: www.ourlandourbusiness.org

For more information on the campaign, please write to ourlandourbusiness@therules.org

Ethiopia: Two Side to Ethiopia - the Plea for Press Freedom

There are two Ethiopias. Or better said there two narratives about Ethiopia.

On one side, there is the Ethiopia as celebrated by the international aid community and the European Union : a country which is growing fast and seriously fighting poverty, a country which wisely uses the considerable international assistance that it receives to channel it towards sustainable development.

On the other side there is the Ethiopia as criticized by press freedom and human rights groups. A country ruled by an authoritarian regime, the second largest jailer of journalists in Africa, a country which misuses laws on anti-terrorism and civil society regulation to chill speech and prevent journalists from doing their legitimate watchdog work.

Press freedom groups do not deny the economic and social realities of Ethiopia, but they also warn about the negative effects and features of the current model that Ethiopia’s sycophants do not want to address.

“In Ethiopia,” writes Committee to Protect Journalists Africa advocacy coordinator, Mohamed Keita, “the leadership is often credited with fast economic growth, strides in health and education, and bold policies to modernize infrastructure and agriculture. Yet, this misses a wider context… Ordinary Ethiopians face a rising cost of living, joblessness, and a stranglehold on the economy by the ruling party… ”

In fact, adds Mohamed Keita, “the international perception of Ethiopia has been distorted by the government’s tight control of information, including the banning of independent journalists and the imprisonment of prominent journalists. ”

The troubling element in the first vision is that it seems to imply that the lack of a vibrant press and civil society to some extent explains the good economic fortunes of the country. If you want to grow, shut watchdog journalism under the accusation that it is irresponsible and inflammatory, and promote lapdog media, under the argument that it is contributing to development by writing positively about the government’s policies and hiding internal tensions and disagreements.

Opposing press freedom and development is a false choice. As Rob Mahoney, deputy CPJ director writes in an essay just published in Attacks on the Press 2014, “the broader role of journalists and media organizations, as a voice for the poor and powerless, a provider of information and ideas, a forum for politics and culture, and an engine of change is acknowledged by economists and political scientist as vital to economic development and democracy.”

This equation between freedom and sustainable development is increasingly present in the international debate. The Report of the High Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda published in May 2013 underlines that in order to reach the goal of good governance, a condition of development, two conditions have to be fulfilled : “ensure that people enjoy freedom of speech, association and peaceful protest, and access to independent media and information.” The theme will be addressed by UNESCO and international press freedom groups during the World Press Freedom Day on May 3, 2014.

Governments and especially democratic governments should bridge the gap between the two visions of Ethiopia. Citizens of a democratic state have the right to expect that their governments respect the values they proclaim in all and every international forum, like this week in Brussels, at the opening of the EU-Africa summit. “Realpolitik can integrate human rights,” as renowned international lawyer Eric David said. “It just requires that governments decide to do so.”

The EU in particular should be consistent with its own statements of principles : “An accountable government, built on free speech, democratic institutions, a vibrant civil society, and respect for human rights and the rule of law are crucial for peace and stability in Ethiopia », the European Commission states on its website. The EU and Ethiopia are engaged in dialogue in the framework of article 8 of the Cotonou Agreement on those important issues, aimed at building common understanding and commitment on these values.”

As a major economic partner the EU has leverage in Ethiopia, as Ana Gomes has just stated. It should use it to ask the Ethiopian government to abide by the international rules and values that they have promised to respect by signing and ratifying the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1993, by joining the Cotonou Agreement and by being a member of the Human Rights Council.

The EU should also relay the voices of these brave Ethiopians, like Reeyot Alemu, Eskinder Negan and others who adhere to universal norms of freedom and justice. They share the values that the EU is bound to defend within its own borders and in its foreign relations.

By Jean-Paul Marthoz

Jean-Paul Marthoz is the Europe representative for Committee to Protect Journalists.