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Join CELADA for dinner and a screening of “Dead Donkeys Fear No Hyenas” on March 13th. This is an eye-opening film that explores the worldwide commercial rush for farmland and its impacts on people’s lives in the context of Ethiopia—a country experiencing one of the most massive forced evictions in modern history. The film examines Ethiopia’s contradiction as a nation known for chronic food aid dependence while earning billions of dollars from the export of food and other agricultural products.

Proceeds will support the work of CELADA, an international coalition based in Ottawa seeking to end social injustice and promote equitable agricultural development for the African people.

Movie: Dead Donkeys Fear No Hyenas

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/deaddonkeysfearnohyenas/205362161 

Date: March 13th at 7PM

Location: Bronson Centre, Ottawa

Tickets can also be purchased on eventbrite or from Hareg Cafe, 587 Bank Street, Ottawa and by making a reservation via info@celada.ca:

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/dead-donkeys-fear-no-hyenas-film-screening-ethiopian-vegetarian-dinner-tickets-43774979141

Ethiopian vegetarian dinner will be catered by Hareg Cafe from 5PM – 6:45PM

http://www.haregcafeottawa.com/

Experts report that while women in Africa contribute 70 per cent of food production, they often lack rights to land. As a result, donors like Canada, have been encouraged to consider and address land-related issues in their development policy, programme and research initiatives given their critical role in women’s empowerment. UN agencies such as FAO and UN Women are also working with non-governmental organizations to raise awareness among women of their rights and to support efforts to entrench equality of access in national laws.

Join CELADA on March 27th from 9:30AM to 11:30AM on the UOttawa campus for a panel presentation, featuring Dr. Ward Anseeuw from the International Land Coalition (ILC) in Rome, that will offer greater insight on how gender-sensitive land policies have translated to real progress for women’s land rights in Africa. Panelists will also debate what is needed to increase women’s security of access to land and what role Canada as a donor plays in that regard.

For more information and to register for this event, please visit our eventbrite page: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/security-of-access-to-land-for-african-women-farmers-tickets-32556663858

***While Mike Taylor was originally chosen as the keynote speaker for this event, due to unforeseen circumstances, he can no longer travel to Ottawa. That said, he has asked his colleague at the ILC, Ward Anseeuw, to speak in his place. Ward is an expert in African land policy issues and we feel fortunate in having him as our keynote.

Earlier this year, the Minister of International Development announced a public review and consultations to renew Canada’s international assistance policy and funding framework. The new framework is intended to help refocus  Canada’s international assistance on helping the poorest and most vulnerable people, and supporting fragile states. It will also determine Canada’s approach internationally to supporting the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development.

An initial discussion paper that was developed by Global Affairs to stimulate consultations clearly noted access to water as an important cross-cutting theme, while access to land was conspicuously absent.

In an effort to raise the prominence and consideration of land rights within this review, CELADA submitted a proposal that highlighted the critical need to protect land rights, equitable access to land and tenure security for vulnerable populations.

To read our recommendations for Canada’s international assistance policy and funding framework:

http://celada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/CELADA-Brief-on-IAR-Final-1.pdf 

Dine Out for a Good Cause on November 19, 2016

We invite you to join us for a fundraising soirée, filled with African cuisine and music, a silent auction and presentations from Isaac Osuoka from Social Action in Nigeria, Felix Horne from Human Rights Watch, and Howard Mann from the International Institute for Sustainable Development. All funds raised will help provide the resources needed to expand our current activities and develop important new ones.

The dinner will take place on November 19, 2016 from 5PM to 11PM. Tickets are available for $25 either via eventbrite or at the following locations:

• Hareg Cafe, 587 Bank Street, Ottawa
• M&J Tropical Supermarket, 1383 Clyde Avenue, Nepean

If you have any questions about purchasing your ticket, please contact Eshete Hailu at (613) 400-1599.

For more information about the event: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/dine-out-for-a-good-cause-tickets-28543719032

If you would like to advertise the event through your networks, please feel free to download and use our event flyer, and/or use the eventbrite link.

Source: GRAIN

GRAIN recently released a comprehensive and compelling account of the horrendous treatment and human rights abuses of multiple communities in the DRC in a 100 year-old land rights struggle with foreign agribusiness investors. According to GRAIN’s report “Agro-colonialism in the Congo: European and US development finance bankrolls a new round of agro-colonialism in the DRC”, in 2009 a Canadian agribusiness company, Feronia Inc., bought up land previously controlled by Unilever in the DRC. Unilever had chosen to abandon its palm oil plantations on this land — which its predecessor, Lever brothers, had acquired under colonial rule — due to an ongoing war in eastern Congo. The legacy of social injustices that Unilever left behind (read section of report titled “Unilever’s Role” for a horrific and detailed account) has persisted and expanded under Feronia’s ownership, which now carries the support and financial backing of multiple powerful development finance institutions (DFI).

Many of the DFI’s involved in Feronia’s dealings have policies and standards meant to prevent their investment in companies/projects with human rights and social injustice issues. Their investment in Feronia Inc. therefore calls into question the effectiveness of private sector regulation, and draws attention the need for better governance of international land deals at the international, regional and national levels.

We strongly encourage everyone to read the report and to build awareness by sharing it within their networks:

https://www.grain.org/article/entries/5220-agro-colonialism-in-the-congo-european-and-us-development-finance-bankrolls-a-new-round-of-agro-colonialism-in-the-drc

Two of CELADA’s members recently sat down with Gord Walker from Ottawa’s CKCU FM to discuss CELADA’s mission and the importance of equitable agricultural investments in Africa. This discussion aired during CKCU’s weekly program, Luta Continua, and you can listen to a copy of it here:

Youtube link: https://youtu.be/Fjiu3yuVw_c

Featuring:
Obang Metho
Samuel Bonti-Ankomah
Gord Walker

CELADA is honoured to support an upcoming presentation on the University of Ottawa Campus. On Tuesday, April 21 at 4PM, please join us in learning more from Mamadou Goita (IRPAD) and Devlin Kuyek (GRAIN) who, with the help of Joshua Ramisch (UOttawa), will discuss the future of food from the perspective of African food and peasant movements. In an hour and a half they will explore and debate what is needed to take their vision and their solutions forward on a global scale.

This event will be put on by USC Canada, the University of Ottawa’s School of International Development and Global Studies (SIDGS), the Laboratory for the Interdisciplinary Study of Food (LISF-LEILA), GRAIN and CELADA.

For more information and to register, please follow the link below:

http://bit.ly/1yiW3Lg

Or email genevieve@usc-canada.org

Join us Tuesday, March 24th at 10AM on the UOttawa campus for a panel presentation on equitable alternatives and local solutions to land grabs in Ottawa. For more information and to register (free but required registration), please visit our eventbrite page: https://www.eventbrite.ca/myevent?eid=15895140794

Courtesy of opencanada.org

We would like to thank the Canadian International Council for publishing an opinion piece written by CELADA’s executive team on their International Affairs blog. In this piece CELADA seeks to challenge the Canadian government’s current stance on Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) — mainly their unwillingness to support international legislation that incorporates FPIC language — and to highlight how this has impacted the land rights of marginalized populations around the world, most significantly in Africa.

It is our hope that this piece inspires Canadians to reflect, to debate, and to question our government’s reprehensible policy on this human rights issue.

To read more: http://opencanada.org/features/global-land-rights-canadas-missed-opportunity/

To contact your MP about this issue: http://celada.ca/contact-your-mp/

CELADA was recently notified by the Managing Director of Inclusive Development International that the World Bank has presented to its Board a draft of its new social and environmental safeguards policies.

Inclusive Development International and other organizations have reviewed a leaked draft of these policies and are appalled by its implications. Based on the evidence available, CELADA is equally concerned.

We have added CELADA’s name to a statement that will be sent to The Board Committee on Development Effectiveness (CODE) Monday morning with the message that this draft is a non-starter for consultation and must be sent back for major revisions.

If you would like to learn more or voice your support as well, please contact David Pred at david@inclusivedevelopment.net