Contribution towards World Food Day week of action

General

People's Alliance on Land Rights (PARL) will organise a week-long campaign of public awareness-raising in the lead-up to World Food Day on 16 October 2012. The campaign will seek to highlight the major role small scale food producers play in ensuring food security in Sri Lanka and the need to protect their rights and access to the land, coastal areas and forests and other natural resources such as water. Increasingly, large scale land acquisitions for tourism development, special economic zones and security facilities are having a detrimental effect on the rights of small scale food producers – farmers, fishers and allied food workers. Seminars, media briefings, leaflet and poster distributions, street drama, religious and cultural activities, petitions and marches are planned in most parts of Sri Lanka, culminating in a mass rally in Colombo on 15th October, and a National Seminar on 16th. CAFOD’s grant will allow affected communities to participate in national events and share their experiences with Sri Lankan civil society, representatives of political parties, diplomatic and UN missions, and contribute towards the printing of key studies and leaflets in English, Sinhalese and Tamil.