A group of civil society organizations (CSOs) have expressed deep disappointment in receiving just four days before the event, an invitation for the Informal meeting on the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) with non-state actors (NSAs) organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) for 11th July 2014, in Geneva.
In an open letter to WHO, they said the move reflected the lack of commitment of WHO to involve public-interest civil society in any meaningful way in the preparation of ICN2. Most of the public interest civil society will not be able to come to Geneva for the meeting, given the short notice that has been provided, it added.
The letter continues: The lack of funding support makes it impossible for people’s movements, trade union and grassroots CSOs who need to be involved in the ICN2 process to participate. We would also like to place on record the fact that the option of the webinar is also exclusionary without providing translation support and taking into account the different time zones. WHO has thus created a situation which will exclude social movements from participating and ensure that the only civil society voice in the room, will be that of international NGOs.
The invitation suggests that “NSAs are allowed to internally establish, clarify and consolidate their positions on ICN2-related matters, including the development of the Framework for Action and to communicate to Member States their expectations and views on these documents, and to discuss the potential activities to be undertaken before the ICN2.”
We are distressed by this formulation which is completely unacceptable for civil society and social movements. It is not a prerogative of any UN agency to allow (or not) civil society to develop its own strategies or positions. We have already tried repeatedly to officially engage in the process and have been asking for space and means to communicate our views to the JWG in a meaningful manner.
Furthermore, the format of the meeting disregards the concerns we have expressed at the June 20th meeting in Rome, namely the participation of powerful economic actors in the ICN2 process. The fact that the private sector will meet separately from the CSOs does not rectify the central problem: bringing powerful economic actors into policy-making discussions on the same footing with public interest actors.
We reiterate the concerns that we had raised earlier about the role that some private sector companies have played in damaging people’s health, nutrition, livelihoods and in many cases, endangering their lives. To equate them with public interest CSOs and allow them to participate in policy discussions is completely unacceptable to us. To us, this would be further example of the deepening conflicts of interest that has gripped WHO in recent years.
We are also concerned that the agenda was drawn up without any consultation with CSOs. It is therefore not surprising to us that the agenda does not reflect the concerns that we have repeatedly expressed both in terms of process and content. We are still waiting for answers to our questions from our statement addressed to the JWG on June 26th.
We are also disappointed with the fact that WHO has portrayed the meeting during the World Health Assembly as if it were the WHOs’ own initiative. In reality, the meeting was organized by a set of civil society organizations who wanted to meet the co-chairs of the JWG, and not at the initiative of WHO.
In conclusion, the actions of the WHO reaffirm our apprehensions that this meeting as well as the other informal meetings might be used to legitimize the non-participatory process of the ICN 2 as well as the NSA format which seems to be designed solely to facilitate the increased involvement of the private corporate sector in the governance of nutrition. We fundamentally disagree with both this process and format.
We are therefore forced to contemplate direct action by protesting both inside and outside the venue of the meeting. We are left with no other alternative to make our voices heard about our continued intention of engaging meaningfully with the inter-governmental process.
As of July 10, 2014, the following CSOs had signed the letter:
1. International Baby Action Network – IBFAN (Global)
2. FIAN International (Global)
3. Peoples’ Health Movement PHM (Global)
4. Habitat International Coalition (HIC) (Global)
5. Marche mondiale des femmes – MMF (Global)
6. Right to Food Campaign (India)
7. WEMOS (Netherlands)
8. ICCO Cooperation (Netherlands/Global)
9. Centro Internazionale Crocevia (Italy/Global)
10. COSADER(Collectif des OSC sur la Sécurité Alimentaire et le Développement Rural au Cameroun) (Cameroon)
11. Union général Tunisienne de travail – UGTT (Tunisia)
12. Terra Nuova (Italy)
13. Gene Campaign (India)
14. The Non State Actors Coalition of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) (Regional Africa)
15. FIAN Belgium (Belgium)
16. Institute for Socioeconomic Studies – INESC (Brazil)