| I have just received a preparatory document on the next Peoples of Mali Forum to be held in Fana, from the 6 to the 9 July 2005. Our friends of Jubilé 2000/CAD-Mali asked us to respond to their proposals. I do so without delay in the form of an open letter. Open Letter to my friends of Jubilé 2000/CAD-Mali (Jubilee 2000/Coalition of African Alternatives to Debt and for Development) Dear Friends, You have asked me to respond to your document. I will do so in line with a workshop that has just finished (it was held from the 9-10 March in Ouagadougou.) The workshop was entitled: "Regional Dialogue. West African Agriculture put to the test by the easing of trade restrictions: Situation, Challenges, Opportunities". In itself, this workshop was a challenge. It was organised by the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD), West African Network of Farmers and Agricultural Producers (ROPPA) and the National Union of Burkina Faso Cotton Producers (UNPCB), with the support of Coopération Suisse. The forty or so participants came from Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, Togo and Geneva in Switzerland. The network brought together farmers’ leaders, experts from the ministries of Commerce and Agriculture and International Organisations such as CEDEAO and UEMOA, and Negotiators at Geneva (WTO) and Brussels, including three ambassadors. Basically it was a matter of creating an opportunity for dialogue between farmers’ leaders and some representatives of African countries at the WTO. It was a challenge, a wager. The wager paid off. Dialogue really took place. Farmers have repeatedly said that they have the right to a decent income from their work. Moreover, it is possible from today onwards. However there is one condition: in their negotiations taking place at the WTO or with the European Union, they do not try to please ‘the other side’ before negotiating.
It was also said, "We need to start from our needs": … The rules of the WTO should be applied taking the following rights into account:
* Food Sovereignty
* Access to the means of production: water, land, seed, financing.
* Effective protection from imports by implementation of regulatory mechanisms and management of supply and demand… (M. Mamadou Cissoko.) Experts have said that it would be possible to acquire recognition of Food Sovereignty at the WTO. It would perhaps not be couched in these terms, but it would be at least on a list of products (under special headings). Mechanisms acceptable to all should enable member countries of the CEDEAO to exercise their right of Food Sovereignty at least for the products on this list. Negotiators expressed their keen interest in such a dialogue and that they needed to be better informed and to receive clear messages from civil society (especially from farmers’ organisations) as well as from their governments. They added that when governments and civil society spoke with one voice as at Cancun on the subject of cotton, they felt they were on much firmer ground. Now, in the preparatory document to the Peoples’ Forum taking place in July at Fana, I note that Food Sovereignty and WTO negotiations are in the right place. You also wrote: "We have planned many initiatives, amongst others a grand march during the Forum which will be the outcome of three months of mobilising people by petitioning all the farmers in every cotton region of Mali. Now cotton is also the stumbling block at the WTO. At the very least I think it would be essential to be in touch with the African negotiators in office in Geneva, and even to invite one of the ambassadors of the countries of the sub-region to participate in the Forum (or to the closure of the Forum, or even plan an official presentation of the Forum conclusions to the African group at the WTO.) Time is short. We absolutely must keep moving forward. The Peoples’ Forum should enable us to move from dialogue to coalition. Ouagadougou, 12 March 2005
Maurice Oudet | 
View from the South