The Oakland Institute is proud to co-sponsor and participate in the following upcoming events. We hope that you can join us:

Oxfam Briefing: Biotechnology and Agricultural Development--Transgenic Cotton, Rural Institutions and Resource-Poor Farmers
March 18, 2010
Lunch Briefing: 12:30 - 2:30pm
1100 15th Street, NW Suite 600
Washington DC 20005

Arundhati Roy on her new book Field Notes on Democracy: Listening to Grasshoppers
March 26 at 7PM
Mission High School Auditorium
3750 18th Street, San Francisco

Diet for a Hot Planet: a book talk and reception with Anna Lappe
Saturday, April 10, 2010 at 11 am
Port Commission Hearing Room, 2nd floor of the Ferry Building

On March 11, 2010, nearly 100 civil society organizations from 38 countries demanded that World Bank Group lending to private corporations be much more responsive to environmental and social concerns. A letter submitted to the director of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Lars Thunell, describes that IFC's lack of transparency and supervision, failure to recognize human rights, and inadequate climate change policies, undermine IFC's ability to achieve its poverty alleviation mission.

IFC, which committed over USD 12 billion in financing to the private sector in 2009, is reviewing the implementation and effectiveness of its Social and Environmental Sustainability Policy and Performance Standards. These Performance Standards, in turn, set the bar for 67 private banks (the Equator Principles Financial Institutions) involved in development project finance and many Export Credit Agencies. [2]

The civil society 8-page letter points to a number of cases in which IFC-investments have had devastating impacts on local populations and indicates that international human rights standards, including those reflected in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, must be incorporated into the Policy and Performance Standards.

Read the Press Release

Download the Civil Society Letter

The 2008 Food Price Crisis: Rethinking Food Security Policies, the latest in the G-24 Discussion Paper Series, is a timely report as member states of the United Nations come together 16-18 November, 2009 at the World Summit on Food Security in Rome, in an effort to find lasting solutions to world hunger. Intended to inform current policy discussions on how to address ever-growing food insecurity, the report contends that it is essential to examine the structural causes of growing food insecurity and to understand the dynamics that have propelled the food crisis.

The report authored by Anuradha Mittal, Executive Director of the Oakland Institute, explores the different factors that are affecting food security in developing nations, such as the systemic decline in investment in agricultural productivity; state’s reduced role in agricultural production and trade; indiscriminate opening of agricultural markets which has resulted in import surges and volatile food prices, and emphasis on cash crops.

The report also examines both national and international responses to the 2008 food price crisis and growing hunger, which according to latest estimates impacts over a billion people, and proposes several short-term and long-term measures to address it. However, the effective implementation of these policies, the report argues, depends on the firm application of the principle of food sovereignty, which would allow governments in developing countries to support and protect their agriculture, markets, and be in a position to fulfill their responsibility for the realization of the right to food of their citizens.

The G-24, the only formal developing-country grouping within the IMF and the World Bank, was established in 1971 to increase the analytical capacity and the negotiating strength of the developing countries in discussions and negotiations in the international financial institutions. The G-24 Discussion Paper Series are discussed among experts and policy makers at the meetings of the G-24 Technical Group, and provide inputs to the meetings of the G-24 Ministers and Deputies in their preparations for negotiations and discussions in various forums.

Download the Report

Learn More about the G24

The Great Land Grab: Rush for World's Farmland Threatens Food Security for the Poor, sounds the alarm on the threat that land grabbing poses to food security and livelihoods. Land grabs--the purchase of vast tracts of land from poor, developing countries by wealthier, food-insecure nations and private investors--have become a widespread phenomenon, with foreign interests seeking or securing between 37 million and 49 million acres of farmland between 2006 and the middle of 2009. While such land grabs have not gone unnoticed, much attention has focused on individual countries, such as China and Saudi Arabia, buying land in poor nations. The Great Land Grab lays bare the insidious role played by international financial institutions like the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank and Foreign Investment Advisory Service (FIAS), as well as rich nations, in promoting and facilitating this widespread land reappropriation--all in the name of promoting food security through foreign investment in agriculture.

An estimated 1.02 billion people-one sixth of humanity-suffer from chronic hunger, and, in one of the world's cruelest ironies, 70 percent of this starving population live and work on small-scale farms and in rural areas. To tackle the growing crisis of world hunger, policy makers and agriculture experts will again gather at the World Food Summit in November 2009; preparation for the summit is revolving around increased investment in agriculture. However, as The Great Land Grab points out, there is a dangerous disconnect between increasing agricultural investment through rich countries amassing land in poor countries and the goal of secure and adequate food supplies for poor and vulnerable populations.

The Great Land Grab critically examines the role of the private sector in agricultural development and exposes implications of private sector control over food resources. The report concludes that those who promote the benefits of private sector growth in agriculture fail to recognize that acquisition of crucial food-producing lands by foreign private entities poses a threat to rural economies and livelihoods, land reform agendas, and other efforts aimed at making access to food more equitable. The report concludes that the current debate surrounding the land grab phenomenon fails to adequately and rigorously examine the consequences of this trend and implores that we question the assumption that increased investment in agriculture is beneficial for all parties involved.

Read the Press Release

Download the Report

Take Action: Challenge Land Grab in Orissa, India

Additional Resources on Land Grab

The Oakland Institute has produced a series of Policy Briefs and Briefing Papers to reframe the global debate around the real root causes of global food crisis and, through its advocacy and outreach activities, has ensured that real solutions find their way into on-the-ground policy.

Click here to Read our Reports on the Food Price Crisis