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	Foreign investment in Mali"s arable land jumps by 60% by Guardian News / Alertnet   Report says largescale foreign agri-investment offers few solutions to the poverty and hunger plaguing the country smallholder farmers and civil society activists from 30 countries gather in Selingue, Mali, to draft a strategy to strengthen local communities’ resistance to ‘land grabbing’.   Foreign investment in arable land in Mali increased by 60% between 2009 and 2010, says a report published on Thursday to coincide with the first international farmers conference to tackle the global rush for land.   The report, by the US-based Oakland Institute and the Malian national farmers organisation, estimates that more than 544,500 hectares of Malian land have been leased or were under negotiation for lease by the end of 2010.   The bulk of these land deals – covering an area the report says could sustain more than half a million small farmers – were negotiated by just 22 foreign agri-investors. Less than 5% of west Africa"s largest country is arable.   Mali has been at the centre of agri-investor interest and farmer resistance to the largescale deals that have sparked growing concern from international aid and development organisations.   "Corporations, fund managers and nations anxious to secure their own future food security have sought and secured large landholdings for offshore farms or speculation," says the report, noting that the food and fuel crises of 2008 appear to have jump-started the rush to acquire farmland across Africa.   The report updates a study produced by the Oakland Institute earlier this year, which showed Harvard and other major American universities were key emerging investors in the continent"s farmland.   The report notes that 40% of the recent large land deals negotiated in Mali have been flagged for the production of agrofuels, despite government assurances that such investments were to strengthen food security and transform the country into a major food supplier for the region.   An "ideological divide" has blocked progress on negotiating investments that benefit local communities, says the report. "While [industrialised agriculture] may involve smallholder support projects, the purpose is rarely to strengthen and promote traditional farming systems … Rather the aim is to modernise them, increase competitiveness, focus on value chains for commodities, and orient smallholders towards the global marketplace."   The report levels significant blame on the World Bank, which it says has "shaped the economic, fiscal and legal environment of Mali in a way that favours the acquisition of vast tracks of fertile lands by few private interests instead of bringing solutions to the widespread poverty and hunger plaguing the country".   Mali ranked 175 out of 187 countries in this year"s UN Human Development Index. The most recent figures suggest more than 50% of the population live on less than $1.25 a day and nearly a third of children under the age of five are malnourished.   The famine and food crisis in the Horn of Africa has pushed policymakers to focus on the potential of Africa"s small farmers to strengthen countries food security and ultimately drive economic development on the continent. Smallscale farmers are credited with producing as much as 80% of Africa"s food.   Much of Mali"s large deals concern state-owned land, where the informal rights of communities living on the land are not protected by law, and rarely recognised by public officials.   Ibrahima Coulibaly, head of the Malian national farmers organisation, said "land-grabbing is a denial of historical rights", and that in many cases farmers have for generations lived on land that only formally became state assets after independence in the 1960s.   Publication of the report comes as hundreds of smallholder farmers and civil society activists from 30 countries descend on Selingue, in southern Mali, to draft a strategy to strengthen local communities resistance to "land grabbing".   The conference is co-ordinated by the Malian national farmers organisation and the international peasants movement La Via Campesina, plans to focus on examples of farmers resistance to land grabs. While large land deals have received increasing attention from international organisations, conference organisers argue this has often been directed by large NGOs and rarely by small farmers themselves.   Research by Oxfam, published this year, suggests that nearly 230m hectares of land – an area the size of north-west Europe – have been bought or leased, largely in Africa, mostly by foreign companies, in thousands of secretive deals made since 2001. Earlier, the World Bank had published estimates putting that figure at just under 60m hectares.   (Reporter - Claire Provost/Guardian News. Lorenzo Cotula who leads the land rights team at the UK-based International Institute for Environment and Development surveys "Land grabs" in Africa for Alertnet, calling for a greater investment in farmers, not in farmland). Visit the related web page
	Bank Transfer Day - Sending a message about responsibility to Wall Street by Rebecca Leisher YES Magazine & agencies   Since the big corporate banks crashed the economy in 2008, they’ve been rewarded with bailouts, tax breaks, and bonuses, while American workers lose jobs and homes. Little wonder that many Americans—and now, institutions and local governments—have been closing their accounts at big corporate banks and transferring their money to community banks and credit unions. The idea is to send a strong message about responsibility to government and Wall Street, while supporting institutions that genuinely stimulate local economies.   Bank Transfer Day was publicized over five weeks, largely through social networks. In that period, credit unions received an estimated $4.5 billion in new deposits transferred from banks, according to the Credit Union National Association.   Encouraged by the popularity of the “Move Your Money” campaign, citizens are calling for institutions to be accountable and “Move Our Money.” A number of schools, churches, and local governments across the country are transferring large sums, or at least considering it, in what looks like the beginning of a broad movement to invest in local economies instead of Wall Street.   Last year the city of San Jose moved nearly $1 billion from Bank of America because of the bank’s high record of home foreclosures. City Council members linked foreclosures to lost tax revenues and cuts to jobs and services, and urged other U.S. cities to follow San Jose’s example. More recently, in November 2011, the Seattle City Council responded to the Occupy movement by unanimously passing a resolution to review its banking and investment practices “to ensure that public funds are invested in responsible financial institutions that support our community.” Officials in Portland, Ore., Los Angeles, and New York City are discussing proposals that address how and where city funds are invested. Massachusetts launched the Small Business Banking Partnership initiative last year to leverage small business loans and has already deposited $106 million in state reserve funds into community banks.   Student activists and the Responsible Endowments Coalition are urging colleges and universities—some of which have assets comparable to those of a town or city—to move at least a portion of their endowments from Wall Street. The Peralta Community Colleges District in California, with an annual budget of $140 million, has done just that. The district’s board of trustees voted unanimously in November to move its assets into community banks and credit unions.   Churches and faith organizations are moving their money too. Congregations in the California interfaith coalition LA Voice vowed to divest $2 million from Wells Fargo and Bank of America, ending a 200-year relationship with the big banks. The Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in East San Jose, Calif., pulled $3 million out of Bank of America and reinvested the funds into Micro Branch, a division of Self-Help Federal Credit Union designed to assist underserved communities.   Moving money is most effective where banking practices and investments are transparent. Oregon Banks Local represents small business, family farms, and community banks. It offers a website tool that ranks local banks and credit unions on criteria like headquarters location, jobs created, and extent of local investment to show which financial institutions truly serve local communities.   “People from all walks of life are angry at the banks,” says Ilana Berger, co-director of The New Bottom Line, a national campaign that promotes moving money from Wall Street. But the broad appeal of this grassroots movement toward financial reform is based on more than anger or strategy. “It’s a way to move our money to follow our values,” says Berger. “It’s an opportunity to really protest against the banks, but also a way to show what we want them to be.”   * The World Council of Credit Unions is the global trade association and development agency for credit unions. It promotes the sustainable development of credit unions and other financial cooperatives around the world to empower people to access high quality and affordable financial services.   The Council was founded on the belief that all people have the right to affordable, reliable and accessible financial services. Its technical assistance programs have provided millions of poor and low-income people access to financial services they need through credit unions, regardless of challenges posed by the operating environment, including microfinance and rural finance. Their approach emphasizes the mobilization of member savings as the primary source of financing.   Since 1971, the organization has implemented more than 275 technical assistance programs to build financial cooperatives in 71 countries throughout the world. Visit the related web page
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