EU Parliament slams aid scheme that uses big agribusiness to “feed Africa”
The EU has put USD $1.1bn into the New Alliance. Earlier in 2015, an independent audit of the UK’s aid partnerships with corporate partners singled out the New Alliance as being particularly ineffective. The report suggested that the £600 million that the UK had poured into the scheme served as "as little more than a means of promotion for the companies involved and a chance to increase their influence in policy debates”.
Aisha Dowell, a food campaigner with Global Justice Now said:
“This is the most high profile and damning report so far of the New Alliance, and proves that this is a scheme that has been cooked up to benefit big agribusiness companies rather than to help small-scale farmers or vulnerable communities. There needs to be an urgent inquiry as to why DFID is continuing to support such a fundamentally flawed initiative.
“There’s plenty of good reasons why the UK should be committed to contributing a fixed amount of GDP in aid money, but we need to be critically examining how that money is spent. The current fixation on corporate partnerships is based on an ideological vision of development that that is dangerously dated.
“Small scale farmers across the globe produce 70% of the world’s food, often using techniques that are much more sustainable and climate-friendly than big agribusiness. There are plenty of ways that aid money could be used to improve the lives and livelihoods of these people. But the New Alliance is doing exactly the opposite by facilitating big agribusiness’ takeover of food systems in different African countries.”
http://gmwatch.org/news/latest-news/17003-eu-parliament-slams-aid-scheme-that-uses-big-agribusiness-to-feed-africa
