Proposition 53K1215

Projet de loi exécutant et modifiant la loi du 19 janvier 2010, abrogeant la loi du 9 février 1999 portant création du Fonds belge de survie et créant un Fonds belge pour la Sécurité alimentaire.

General information ¶

Authors

CD&V Stefaan Vercamer
Ecolo Muriel Gerkens
Open Vld Herman De Croo
PS | SP Patrick Moriau

Submission date

Feb. 14, 2011

Official page

Visit

Status

Adopted

Requirement

Simple

Subjects

development aid food aid

Voting ¶

Voted to adopt

Groen CD&V Vooruit Ecolo LE PS | SP ∉ Open Vld N-VA LDD MR

Abstained from voting

VB

Contact form ¶

Do you have a question or request regarding this proposition? Select the most appropriate option for your request and I will get back to you shortly.

Discussion ¶

April 7, 2011 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)

Full source

In January last year, our Parliament created the Belgian Fund for Food Security.

In order for this Fund to take its size and its flight, royal decrees had to be made. Unfortunately, the latter were blocked due to the current business situation. The Minister of Development Cooperation confirmed this during the work of our committee. Faced with the absence of these royal decrees, it was therefore suggested that the law should take the initiative of this concretization; this is the subject of this bill.

Mr. Speaker, the reporter, whom I would like to thank, has noted that this is a strange legislation. In fact, a draft royal decree enforcing a law that could not be enforced by a government in ongoing affairs was converted into a bill. That is very strange. I would like to pause for a moment on this, for if the government remained in ongoing affairs for a very long time, and the Palace for those reasons refused to sign the draft royal decree, then I see that for the first time in my career, a royal decree that could not be issued, from the knot and from the bread, is converted into a bill. It has been done wisely, in the sense that Article 20 of this bill stipulates that one can return to the status quo ante, if any royal decree can be taken.

I would like to stop at this, because it is, in my conviction, quite exceptional that a royal decree that could not be issued here is regulated by a bill. Imagine — and I see Mr. Landuyt already sneezing — that a appointment that could not take place could nevertheless be brought forward with a bill. The spits are not of this world, I would dare to say, God be thankful.

In terms of content, what interests us is the advantage of the present proposal, which we have co-signed, that it finally takes the place of the Belgian Survival Fund, which has delivered a very long good work. To a certain extent, the proposal does something that could be described by its own vocabulary as the “discharge” – removing the Scots – of the various subdivisions of development cooperation, both multilateral, indirect and bilateral assistance.

Moreover – which I find ⁇ fascinating – it is a fund for the food supply. Strangely enough – this is perfectly illustrated in the illustration of the report – we must note that, where formerly the Minister in the food supply had to provide for the hunger that still plagues the world, support for agricultural development in many countries, in particular because of the OECD donors who used to turn around 20 % in development aid, now has fallen to 4 or 5 %. This must absolutely be stopped.

I must also congratulate you on the fact that Charles Michel and you have managed to raise that percentage in Belgian development cooperation to about the previous average of 15 %. There is also a parliamentary dimension in this bill that we would like to emphasize, as well as the expertise of many of our services.

It is a good bill that, in terms of the availability of the funds, could not wait for a royal decree that could not be taken. It is with great pleasure and great sympathy that our group will approve this bill.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Minister, dear colleagues, as President of the Belgian Food Safety Fund since 2008, it is with immense pride – this program is a pride of our Parliament – that I come to present to you these two bills ending the blocking of the Belgian Food Safety Fund that lasted for more than nine months due to current affairs.

This key Belgian initiative focuses on the first of the Millennium Goals, namely the fight against hunger in the world, and fully enters the debate on the subject that we had during the hearings in the Foreign Affairs Committee. By 2015, it is planned to halve the proportion of the world’s population suffering from hunger. We are still very far away. As I speak to you, every five seconds someone dies from malnutrition on our planet. This is why original initiatives such as the Belgian Fund for Food Safety are all the more important to implement.

As has already been mentioned in this Parliament, land seizure and food speculation are not the only causes of rising prices – I think in particular of climate change or natural disasters – but they are ⁇ factors of growth and acceleration. These evils generate price increases that we know of course at home, but also and above all dramatic situations in the less developed countries. Remember the hunger riots that took place in the spring of 2008 and today have echoed in the Arab countries. At that time already, my group had initiated a resolution, widely approved by that parliament, aimed at guaranteeing food sovereignty and supporting family farming.

It is for these reasons that our assembly wished to continue the program of the former Belgian Survival Fund by voting, on 3 December 2009, for its renewal under the name Belgian Fund for Food Security. It is now a matter of making applicable the creation of this Fund because its implementation has indeed been hindered by the fall of the government and the current business regime.

Mr. De Croo, you are right, we are making a first in legal matters.

But what we do for is because this brake to the application was heavy of consequences. It prevented investing valuable funds for key projects that could therefore no longer be deployed. That is why this bill transposes the royal decree that has been blocked. This proposal will allow us to act because, as Jean-Paul Sartre said, "only actions decide what one has wanted."

Over a decade, the Belgian Survival Fund has helped to finance more than 120 projects or phases of projects with a partnership approach between non-governmental organizations, four United Nations organizations and the Belgian Technical Cooperation.

This integrated approach with an action-focused focus on the most vulnerable groups has helped address the long-term struggle for food security in sub-Saharan Africa. Did you know, my colleagues, that with only 2% of the budget of Development Cooperation, the Belgian Fund for Food Security is able to make almost 40% of the development cooperation in agriculture?

Such a struggle, however, is far from over and still deserves a lot of energy and commitment before the right to food becomes a fact all over the world and the inequalities and modern forms of neo-colonialism on food and land cease.

This deregulation will definitely need to be limited and marked in the future. The Belgian Fund for Food Safety will undoubtedly add value to development cooperation by realising actions hardly achievable by conventional cooperation, while ensuring compliance with commitments in the areas of harmonization, alignment and management, focusing on the results of the Paris Declaration, the Accra Forum, but also by ensuring a balance between the national programmes of the government and the priorities of civil society.

by Mr. The Minister of Development Cooperation had thus assured me in the plenary session in this area that agriculture and food security remain the priorities of Development Cooperation. We therefore welcome with enthusiasm the support of all stakeholders to take concrete action at the Belgian level, but also in international forums.

Often, when asked by our democracies, support for the establishment of genuine political governance within developing countries is shown to be essential. It is, but a good economic governance is also!

The fragility of the structures and economies of these countries leads to dangerous situations, where large industrial groups impose economic and agricultural activities inadequate to the needs of local populations.

This situation leads to costly, massive imports from our rich countries to those countries that, however, could provide for their needs, and thus avoid severe food crises.

Recently in L’Echo, Olivier De Schutter, UN High Commissioner for Food Sovereignty, exposed the so-called agroecology techniques that offer more benefits to developing countries than imposing our model or inappropriate intensive recipes.

These new models, these innovations in the field of agriculture would be especially suitable for the targets we must target: small farmers who only have small plots without access to credit and therefore to mechanization.

However, let’s not make illusions: this change of prisma will not be easy. This transition requires increased attention and follow-up to attach more importance to the place of rural localities to the land, their land, but also to the types of crops to choose.

This transition requires an adaptation of our tools from development cooperation. Even today, as Mr. De Schutter, a significant portion of public development aid is used to subsidize the purchase of seeds or fertilizer rather than investing in public goods, such as farmers’ training, storage, infrastructure.

All this to tell you that this better use of our Development Cooperation funds had already been permitted by the Belgian Survival Fund. It will be up to the Belgian Fund for Food Security to further push this long-term integrated approach for the benefit of local populations.

To do this, the Fund provides for better targeting, including working with NGOs, local actors, field-knowers, all in an indispensable synergy. The Fund is integrated into the policies of partner countries while addressing the structural causes of food insecurity by improving social services, the defensive capabilities of population groups, the institutional capabilities of both government actors and decentralized territorial authorities or civil society, the appropriation, by the true recipients, of aid and the respect of the priorities of countries in synergy with governments, parliaments and civil society.

I am very proud to preside over this Belgian Survival Fund. Sometimes I wonder if we should not have a prince as an honorary president! Indeed, it seems that the princes are more interested in the crowd than in the real problems concerning the lives of the people. I regret it a little. But all members of the Survival Fund try to do what they can.

Mr. Speaker, my colleagues, making the transition to this Fund applicable and operational will not solve everything, unfortunately! But it is a continuation of the efforts already made by other countries and which only asked to enter into force.

It will truly give developing countries, partners of our development cooperation, the capacity to develop for the benefit of their local populations and their food security. Would I dare to say that the time has come more than ever for a transition to a world where hunger will no longer have the right to the chapter, a world simply just for all and for all!

We have long waited for the signing of the present bill. This is not because we would be against the bill, on the contrary. It is because, as Mr. De Croo has just noted, it is a peculiar course of affairs. This is a matter that should be resolved by the government. A regulation by the government must now be replaced by the present legislation.

Mr. Moriau, I therefore also give your party the message to come to an agreement as soon as possible.

We do not want to counter the creation and especially the entry into force of the new Belgian Fund for Food Security, but on the contrary. After all, food security and access to food will be one of the biggest challenges in the coming decades.

In various countries and regions, internal and external factors threaten to repeat a cyclical food shortage. Ensuring and further strengthening food security in the countries of the South remains a challenge for the international community.

We therefore support this legislative proposal. We are convinced that NGOs and other organizations that will have the necessary resources through the aforementioned Belgian Fund for Food Security can make a valuable contribution to the fight against hunger.

Colleagues, it won’t surprise you that our group on this subject demands a lot of attention for small local farmers and for regional cooperation in the field of agriculture, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. The UN Food Safety Rapporteur also highlights the crucial role of small, family farmers in the South.

So, despite the conclusion that it would have been better if a government had settled the issue, we will support the present bill with great sense.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Minister, dear colleagues, this is a special day because today we are going to adopt a bill that should not have existed. Indeed, a decree should have settled the implementation of this law that we voted over a year ago and which extended the two previous Belgian survival funds by transforming them into the Belgian Fund for Food Safety.

I am surprised that we had to go through a proposal because, even though the implementation of the law has consequences and budgetary implications, these implications were envisaged in the law. It was stipulated that it would be fed up to X million euros from half of the National Lottery and half of the Belgian Technical Cooperation. Everything was planned. It was enough to fix the terms of operation. All work had taken place with the administrations, the cabinet of the minister and NGOs to put this decree in writing.

We should not waste time complaining about this situation. I am therefore ⁇ pleased that there is an agreement within this parliament to opt for a bill. I will not mention all the objectives that we must ⁇ in the face of this necessity of the right to food which every individual should be able to enjoy. However, I would like to remind today that this Belgian survival fund, which became the Belgian Food Safety Fund, helped organize cooperation projects in food security and evaluate the work carried out. This evaluation lasted for two years with the help of external actors. It is a real audit through which the various actors have been questioned about their objectives. Are they sufficiently precise? The most targeted populations, which we want to reach, are they? We want to work with local actors. Is this goal well achieved? Is there really a partnership practice? Is the “protection, promotion and respect for the rights of women and children” dimension well integrated through these different projects?

Thus, all this evaluation work has helped to rewrite a new law valid for ten years allowing the support of food security projects. This work has also helped to draft the terms of this proposal that better clarify and emphasize how to target the population, how to create partnerships, how to involve local authorities, local associations and individuals.

We can be proud of this work as parliamentarians because we have participated in it but NGOs, multilateral organizations, the administration and the cabinet of the minister must also be proud because it was a collective work that resulted in something that, I am sure, will bear fruit.

Furthermore, our monitoring group will be able, after this vote, to resume work. This is essential to enable the examination of new projects that will need to be put in place in the specific countries and areas that have been selected. This work can finally begin. The funds will be released and we will be able to ⁇ the goals we have set for NGOs working there but obviously also for the populations that today suffer from a lack of food, a lack of access to land, seeds, a lack of storage capacity to overcome hunger.

Ecologically green! We can only support this proposal that we have co-signed. We look forward to resuming the work through our Parliamentary Monitoring Group.