Deadline: 19-Jul-23
The Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD) invites grassroots women’s organisations and movements in Asia and the Pacific to take part in this exciting Feminist Participatory Action Research programme that aims to develop tools and resources that support rural, indigenous, migrant, urban poor and differently abled women (RIMUP) to monitor, engage and influence development policies that impact them.
Objectives
- To strengthen women-led food sovereignty movement in Asia and the Pacific by supporting capacity development in asserting their rights and reclaiming control over resources and movement building to resist the corporatisation of food and agriculture.
- Specific objectives
- Develop the capacity of grassroots women and feminists to document the conditions and lived experiences of rural and indigenous women, including women with disability, in reclaiming food sovereignty and investigate, analyse and challenge the existing laws, policies and agreements that impact on women’s rights to food;
- Foster knowledge and resources on the impacts of globalisation, fundamentalisms, militarisation, and patriarchy on grassroots and indigenous women, including women with disability in asserting their right to food and utilising these resources for learning exchanges and support to movements;
- Establish strategic advocacy plans and opportunities to advance women’s rights to food and local economic development at the national, regional and international levels; and
- Strengthen institutional development of partner organisations through leadership development and movement building.
Focus of the Food Sovereignty FPAR
- Recognising the immense value of food in Asia and the Pacific, and the crucial role that women play in food production, the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD) will launch the Feminist Participatory Action Research (FPAR) on Food Sovereignty this 2023. The two-year FPAR will highlight women’s knowledge, capacity and voice in ensuring food security, health and nutrition and local economic development through sustainable food production.
- For the Food Sovereignty FPAR 2023-2025, six to eight organisations in Asia and the Pacific will be selected to work together with the community to conduct FPAR and document evidence from October 2023 to March 2025. Their FPAR will focus on:
- Exposing and unmasking the powers behind the corporatisation and control of the various components of food and agriculture such as
- Crops and livestock – how neoliberal policies are enabling giant corporations to privatise and commodify seeds and other production inputs, and enacting unfair trading standards, seizing control of food production from peasants, pastoralists, herders, food and dairy producers, indigenous peoples and other small-scale producers from subsistence agriculture and local development towards capitalist food production systems;
- Fisheries and aquaculture – how trade liberalisation is taking away the sovereignty of fisherfolks over coastal and marine resources, enabling a skewed playing ground between large-scale fishing companies and small-scale subsistence fishers;
- Health and nutrition – how liberalisation and privatisation has saturated the domestic market with imported and mostly heavily processed food products and restricted the access to basic necessities such as safe and potable drinking water and destroying traditional and indigenous food systems with the introduction of genetically modified crops and food biofortification.
- Demonstrating feminist solutions, alternatives, and strategies in asserting their role in agriculture and reclaiming food sovereignty. All over Asia and the Pacific, women’s groups and their communities are pushing back against the corporatisation of food and agriculture through land occupation, agroecology and peasant-led sustainable farming, fishing and livestock growing systems, as well as challenging local policies to advance development justice.
Funding Information
- The partners will propose a budget of up to USD 14,000 which should also support advocacy, capacity building and research of the selected partners. The sub-grant however, does not include any other costs related to institutional sustainability or maintenance.
Outputs
- First Regional Feminist Participatory Action Research Training: Why do they do FPAR?
- FPAR partners understand the objectives, framework, approach, and time frame of Feminist Participatory Action Research 2023-2025.
- FPAR partners gain skills and capacity on the key concepts and framework on feminist participatory approach, human rights-based approach, and international human rights framework – particularly in relation to feminist food sovereignty.
- FPAR partner organisations have more detailed research plans for research in their respective communities.
- FPAR partners gain skills and capacity on the tools of Theory of Change, Power Mapping and Critical Pathway to be used together with the community to plan the research and the impact objectives.
- Second Regional Training on FPAR Framework and Methodology: How do they do FPAR?
- FPAR partners gain their capacity on feminism and feminist framework – as a core concept to practise and analyse the research in their respective community.
- FPAR partners gain skills and capacity on the framework and methodology on feminist participatory action research – including research designs, methods and feminist analysis.
- Third Regional Training on Advocacy and Ways Forward: Sharpening the analyses and collective actions
- FPAR partners gain their capacity and skills on data analysis, particularly qualitative data analysis and able to share their experience on analysing the data, identifying the challenges and ways to address the challenges;
- FPAR partners are able to identify the gaps in their research and build on concrete recommendations for the improvement of their research;
- FPAR partners are able to refine their evidence-based advocacy plans and strategy, in particular to work with the community to advocate for their rights in the local and national level; and also have a concrete plan with APWLD for advocacy in the regional and international levels.
- Fourth Regional Meeting on FPAR: From Personal to Structural Change
- FPAR partners are able to self-reflect on the impact of the FPAR, from the personal to organisational and community levels.
- FPAR partners are able to share their progress of implementing their evidence-based advocacy plans and strategies in the local, regional and international levels.
Selection Criteria of the Research Partners
- APWLD will select six to eight women’s organisations to lead the FPAR on women and food sovereignty. They are seeking non-governmental, non-profit, women-led and/or grassroots-based organisations in Asia and the Pacific that demonstrate the following:
- Experience in working with grassroots women and their communities;
- Familiarity with the context of food sovereignty and the impact of neoliberal globalisation to women and communities and their food production systems;
- Provide a dedicated mentor and young woman researcher throughout the entire FPAR period;
- Capacity to conduct participatory research methodologies that contribute to strengthen democratic leadership of feminists and grassroots women in Asia and the Pacific;
- Able to communicate in English or to provide a dedicated translator/interpreter to support the research team throughout the FPAR journey;
- Highly desirable partner organisations:
- Organisations from Central Asia, East Asia and the Pacific sub-regions;
- Experience in working with diverse women’s groups such as rural, indigenous, women with disabilities, migrant, urban poor and other marginalised women groups in Asia and the Pacific;
- Experience in conducting participatory research methods;
- Direct experience in advocacy and campaign work related to food sovereignty and women’s human rights;
- Ability to produce and submit reports and various FPAR related documents in English; and
- Recommended through a letter of endorsement from APWLD members.
For more information, visit APWLD.
