Feminist Participatory Action Research (FPAR) 2023-2025

Feminist Food Sovereignty:
Women reclaiming control and fighting back against the corporatisation of food

CALL FOR APPLICATION

Deadline: Monday, 19 July 2023

 

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.  

 

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.  

 

The power of local feminist movements

APWLD believes that in order to challenge the current development model and to reclaim women’s human rights, strong and autonomous feminists and grassroots women movements are needed. It must extend to strengthening women’s capacity to exercise real power and control over their own lives and the terms by which they engage with social, political, and economic structures. They must be supported to build their capacity to document the impacts of lack of access to land and resources, hunger and malnutrition, ecological crisis, decent work, and basic social services; have meaningful engagement in the decision-making processes governing these issues; form strong local feminist movements that work with other social movements to demand accountability from states and corporations; and push governments in tackling the systemic barriers to women’s economic, development, and right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment for all. 

 

JOIN OUR FEMINIST PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH! 

APWLD will provide each of the FPAR partners with a small sub-grant to employ a young woman researcher to carry out the research, which includes a monthly salary during this FPAR journey. 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.

APWLD will also support the young women researchers and mentors to participate in capacity building workshops, provide advocacy and networking opportunities. FPAR partners will be able to gain knowledge in International Human Rights standards and rights-based approaches in their area of research. Through a combination of face-to-face and online modules, they will share the frameworks within their communities, learn practical research skills, and develop a community-based research plan.

For more information on the Food Sovereignty FPAR, check out the Concept Note.

 

Selection Criteria of the Research Partners: 

APWLD will select six to eight women’s organisations to lead the FPAR on women and food sovereignty. We 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.

How to Apply?

Interested organisations shall submit:

  • Completed application form
  • Recommendation / reference letter from at least two other women’s or grassroots organisations

Download and fill out the application form here.  Submit the completed application form via email to:

 

Eloisa Delos Reyes

Programme Officer, BOOM, APWLD 

eloisa@apwld.org 

and

Tasmiah Juthi

Programme Associate, BOOM APWLD

tasmiah@apwld.org  

 

Please indicate in the subject line: “Call for Proposal for FPAR Food_Sovereignity 2023”

DEADLINE OF APPLICATIONS IS ON  Wednesday  19 July 2023