24 Amendments of Maurice PONGA related to 2015/2277(INI)
Amendment 6 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition in Africa (NAFSN) aims to engage private partners to invest in Africimprove food security and nutrition by helping 50 million people in Sub-Saharan agAfriculturea out of poverty by 2020; whereas the participating countries have negotiated Country Cooperation Frameworks (CCFs) setting out commitments to facilitate private investment in the agriculture sector in Africa;
Amendment 9 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas large public-private partnerships (PPPs) risk creating dominant positions for large agricultural companies in African agriculture which crowd out local businesses, and NAFSN in particular, have enabled over 200 international and African companies to sign letters of intent for investment in African agriculture worth USD 10 billion;
Amendment 10 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
Ba. whereas private investment under NAFSN has reached over 8.2 million smallholders and created more than 21 000 jobs, more than half of which are for women;
Amendment 16 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas family farmers and smallholders have been largely excluded frommust be at the heart of NASFN;
Amendment 18 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas so-called ‘growth poles’ aim to attract international investors by making land available to large private companies, and whereas this must not be done at the expense of family farmers;
Amendment 23 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F
Recital F
F. whereas different forms of land tenure exist (customary, public and private), but NAFSN almost exclusively refers to land titling to address tenure rights;
Amendment 26 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G
Recital G
G. whereas land titling doeis not the only guarantee protection fromagainst land expropriation and resettlement, while the evidence suggests that titling schemes often increase inequalities;
Amendment 35 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. ObservEmphasises that agricultural investment policies tend toshould not only encourage large- scale land acquisitions and, nor focus solely on export-oriented agriculture that is usually unrelated to local economies; accordingly, questions the ability of mega-PPPs to contribute to poverty reduction and food security, but should be linked and support the development of the local economy; stresses the need to support smallholders and their families under NAFSN;
Amendment 40 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Notes with concern that NAFSN promotes intenPoints out that NAFSN has made a commitment to promoting inclusive, agriculture that heavily relies on chemi-based growth that supports small-scale fertilisers and hybrid seeds, with consequences affecting local communities such as soil erosion, ecological and health risks and biodiversity lossarming and helps reduce poverty, hunger and under-nutrition;
Amendment 47 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Calls onDraws attention to the commitment made by the parties to NAFSN to incorporate the FAO’s ‘Voluntary Guidelines to support the progressive realization of the right to adequate food in the context of national food security’, and calls on the parties to NAFSN to commit to implementing international standards that define responsible investment in agriculture, and to abide by the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the OECD’s Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises;
Amendment 54 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Calls for all letters of intent within the CCFs to be published in full, in accordance with the applicable law; stresses the need for strong institutional and legal frameworks to ensure a fair sharing of risks and benefits; calls for the revisemphasises that active participation ofn the CCFs to involve civil society organisations, farmers and end-users in order to sufficiently monitorpart of civil society within NAFSN is crucial in order to step up transparency and ensure its objectives are met; points out that dialogue and regconsultate PPPsion with all civil society groups must be encouraged;
Amendment 56 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Stresses that private companies involved in multilateral development initiatives should be accountable for their actions; calls on the parties to NAFSN, to this end, to set up a strict accountability mechanism, includingubmit annual reports on the action taken under NAFSN and to make those reports public and appeal mechanism forccessible to local people and communities;
Amendment 60 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Calls foron the CCFs to be revised so as to effectively tackle the risks of contract farming and out-grower schemes for small-scale producers by ensuringparties to NAFSN to promote, in cooperation forums, the adoption of fair contract provisions, including pricing arrangements, and appropriate dispute settlement mechanisms;
Amendment 62 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
Amendment 70 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Calls on African countries to recognise all legitimate rights to land, including customary tmake every effort to adopt the laws required in order to ensure legal certainty over land rights;
Amendment 74 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Calls for NAFSN to be subject to an ex ante impact study regarding land rights and to be conditional on the free, prior and informed consent of the local people affectedSuggests, in this connection, that NAFSN should conduct an ex ante impact study in order to ascertain what effect the investment projected to take place under the Alliance will have on land rights;
Amendment 83 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. UrgesCalls on African governments to invest in local food systems in order to boost rural economies and guto improve arrantee local people’s rights of access to and control overgements for democratic scrutiny of access to resources;
Amendment 87 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Recalls that farmers’ rights to produce, exchange and sell seeds freely underpins 90 % of agricultural livelihoods in Africa, and that seed diversity is vital in building resilience of farming to climate change; deplorstresses theat corporate requests to strengthen plant breeders’ rights in line with the 1991 Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) Convention, which prohibits the majority of must not result in such informal arrangements being prohibited;
Amendment 97 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
Amendment 102 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24
Paragraph 24
24. Stresses the need to ensure the transparency of all funding granted to private sector companies and that such funding must be made public in accordance with the applicable law;
Amendment 108 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26
Paragraph 26
26. Believes that the funding provided by G8 member states to NAFSN must not contravenes the objective of supporting domestic local companies which cannot compete with multinationals that already benefit from a dominant market position and are often granted business, tariff and tax privileges;
Amendment 109 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27
Paragraph 27
27. Recalls that the purpose of development aid should serve the goal of poverty reduction, not the interests of EU trade policy; believes that ODA should focus on direct support to small-scale farming, rather than on co- investments with large companies based in donor countriesis to reduce, and ultimately to eradicate, poverty; believes that ODA should focus on direct support to small-scale farming;
Amendment 110 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28
Paragraph 28
28. Stresses the need to revitalise public investment in African agriculture, while providing support for private investment, and to prioritise investment in agro- ecology, so as to sustainably increase food security and food sovereignty and reduce poverty and hunger while conserving biodiversity and respecting indigenous knowledge and innovation;
Amendment 115 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29
Paragraph 29
29. Calls on the EU to withdraw its support to NAFSN as long as the deficiencies outlined above are not duly addressedenhance the transparency and improve the governance of NAFSN and to seek to ensure that action taken under the Alliance is consistent with development policy goals;