{"id":15372,"date":"2012-06-05T08:36:06","date_gmt":"2012-06-05T13:36:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=15372"},"modified":"2012-06-05T08:36:06","modified_gmt":"2012-06-05T13:36:06","slug":"signs-of-hope-in-mozambique","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2012\/06\/05\/signs-of-hope-in-mozambique\/","title":{"rendered":"Signs of hope in Mozambique"},"content":{"rendered":"

An article in the Guardian<\/em> has some good news about the struggle against malnutrition, but it’s wrapped in misleading language<\/a>:<\/p>\n

All the women belong to the Wapsala Association, a 33-strong agricultural collective created to boost local smallholders, ensure a steady, year-round, supply of high-nutrition foodstuffs in an area prone to chronic shortages, and help end the curse of malnutrition that affects about 44% of all Mozambican children under five.<\/p>\n

The Wapsala project is seen by some Mozambican nutrition experts as a paradigm to be emulated in similarly disadvantaged areas of the country and other parts of southern Africa.<\/p>\n

The collective’s approach, rooted in public and international funding, contrasts sharply with the prioritisation of private-sector investment, as proposed at the recent G8 summit.<\/p>\n

Instead of perpetuating the western focus on food security, the farmers of Wapsala provide a working alternative — what Graciela Romero, the international programmes director of War on Want, calls food sovereignty: a move to promote agrarian reform that favours small producers and the landless, and emphasises local markets and self-sufficiency.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As Tim Worstall<\/a> points out, the way this initiative is being described is rather at odds with its actual goals:<\/p>\n

OK, so we\u2019ve got all the buzz words. Cooperatives, self sufficiency, food sovereignty, local markets and it\u2019s very much anti private-sector investment.<\/p>\n

And what is it that they actually want to do?<\/p>\n