cases from tanzania - Sustainet

3 Cases from Tanzania
Results
As a result of these efforts, some member and partner organizations have developed advocacy
strategies, including forming alliances with farmers’ organizations to identify issues,
lobby and campaign together.
Farmers’ delegates raised the visibility of smallholder farmers at the 2002 Johannesburg
World Summit on Sustainable Development. Farmers were recognized as a “major group”
during the summit; the media gave a large amount of coverage to smallholders’ issues, and
these figured prominently in the Agriculture Commission – one of the major forums for
discussion among NGOs at the Summit. The Tanzanian delegates from the Small Farmers’
Convergence formulated plans for action, and disseminated the farmers’ view of sustainable
development that emerged from it. Advocacy efforts have led to government ministries’
recognizing MVIWATA.
Important groups of stakeholders, especially smallholder farmers, were not involved in drafting
a biosafety bill. A campaign by PELUM-Tanzania and its members against genetically
modified organisms succeeded in preventing the government from submitting this draft to
Parliament in 2005.
For one of the Nane Nane events (the government-sponsored National Farmers’ Day, on 8
August each year) farmer groups chose “Support sustainable agriculture – not genetically
modified organisms” as the main theme. Two other advocacy messages for the event were
chosen: “Participatory policy formulation: a key to poverty reduction”, and “Preserve, improve
and use local seeds and practices”. Nane Nane is a window of opportunity for farmers
to campaign and advocate for their agenda.
Marketing and trade
If villages have access to capital markets, information and technology, globalization gives
them opportunities to gain by exploiting their comparative advantages. These opportunities
can lead to the more efficient allocation of resources, so enabling growth, development and
poverty reduction. But globalization can produce both winners and losers.
Activities
Together with farmer organizations, PELUM-Tanzania collects and analyses information
on the free market in Tanzania. It has studied factors affecting smallholder farmers’ market
conditions in Tanzania and proposed actions to improve them. It has started a programme
to tackle imperfections in the market for smallholder farmers’ produce.
It helped organize a workshop on the World Trade Organization and trade for NGOs and
members of parliament in collaboration with ActionAid Tanzania. It also organized exchange
visits for farmers and member organizations to learn about community cereal banks, and
savings and credit organizations.
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