OWINFS Seminar for Farmers on Agriculture and WTO

In advance of the upcoming 7th Ministerial of the WTO in Geneva, Switzerland on November 30 – December 2nd, 2009, the Agriculture Working Group (Ag WG) of the Our World Is Not For Sale (OWINFS) network organized a capacity-building seminar for farmers on agriculture and the WTO. Farmers from twelve countries participated, including: Kenya, Tanzania, Senegal, India, Indonesia, Nepal, the Philippines, South Korea, Brazil, Paraguay, Guatemala, Grenada, and France, and Via Campesina staff, along with NGOs including the Third World Network, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Solidarite France, and the Arab NGO Network on Development.

Below follows: the background reasoning for the seminar; a summary of key information shared, including a timeline for the Doha process and the positions of various key countries in the negotiations; links to key documents distributed at the event; a summary of some of the key issues the farmers want to bring back to their communities; a strategic brainstorm and summary; the short-, medium-, and long-term, and ongoing strategies they identified as necessary to achieve their goals; a list of participants; and the agenda.